City Councilmember Ed Reyes
LA City Council Unanimously Adopts Housing Element Containing Strategies for Mixed-Income, Preservation and Funding the Housing Trust Fund
Giving a big boost to the Housing LA 3-point plan, the LA City Council unanimously adopted the Housing Element update on Wednesday, August 13. The vote was in response to a housing crisis that affects all kinds of people across Los Angeles from families living in unsafe or overcrowded apartments to people commuting long distances and paying high gas process, from local businesses who can't find workers to seniors and young families being pushed out of their neighborhoods. The Housing Element is a blueprint for beefing up the City's policies over the next six years so that real progress can be made on the housing crisis.
Myung-Soo Seok of the LA County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO
Housing LA members gathered on the steps of City Hall to celebrate the victory. Joined by LA County Labor Federation's , United Way's Alicia Lara, Yvonne Mariajimenez of Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles, and Councilmembers Reyes, Huizar and Rosendahl, supporters heard from a wide variety of people whose lives have been touched by the housing crisis. Senior citizen Thelma Meredith lost her home of 42 years, a rent-controlled apartment, when it was demolished last year. Juan Carlos Aguilar, a special education teacher living in Hollywood, shared his fears of being pushed out of his home, an apartment in Hollywood, as his landlord remodels each apartment as it becomes vacant. And Kendra Moore, a single mom whose subsidized apartment is within five miles of her job, spoke about how her family has thrived thanks to living in stable community and organizing to win the kind of affordable housing that we are fighting for.
Pointing out that nearly all the new apartments and condominiums built during the previous boom were only affordable to those with the highest incomes, Housing LA successfully pushed a pro-active agenda to address the failure of the market. Housing LA achieved an important victory by getting programs included to craft a Mixed-Income Housing requirement and to find permanent funding for the Housing Trust Fund. Housing LA's successful push for a preservation policy that includes limits on condominium conversions and demolitions continued right up to the vote.
City Councilmembers Jose Huizar and Bill Rosendahl
Special thanks were extended to the nine City Council members who signed the Housing LA pledge and voted in favor of the Housing Element. Thank you Council Members Ed Reyes, Wendy Greuel, Richard Alarcon, Jan Perry, Herb Wesson, Bill Rosendahl, Eric Garcetti, Jose Huizar and Janice Hahn! Special thanks the staffs of CD 1, 10 & 13, for all their hard work.
Congratulations to all the Housing LA members who worked on the Housing Element from reviewing potential sites for building new affordable housing to attending Wednesday's hearing and press conference: LA Voice, ACORN, POWER, SCANPH, Public Counsel, LA CAN, East LA Community Corporation, Coalition LA, Coalition for Economic Survival, LA Community Design Center, Venice Community Housing Corporation, Inquilinos Unidos, PATH, Mercy Housing CA, Little Tokyo Service Center, Clinica Romero, Western Center on Law & Poverty, LA Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness, and countless others.
