Photo: Araceli Martinez / Courtesy
For: Jorge Luis Macías / Special for Real America News Updated 17 May 2025, 1: 49 am EDT
Kevin de León, Los Angeles City Councilman, affirms that Angelenos “deserve a mayor who knows what they have been through.”
Born in downtown Los Angeles, the son of a single immigrant mother and housekeeper, De León, from 55 years became the first Latino leader in the California Senate in 130 years .
“I was the first in my family to graduate from high school and I know firsthand that the people who serve food and take care of children, homes and mow other people’s lawns, Los Angeles workers are treated like they’re invisible,” he says.
“As mayor, I will put the city to work for working and middle class people by addressing inequality, the homeless crisis, and ensuring all Angelenos have access to affordable housing, safe neighborhoods, and good schools. public schools”.
As representative of the district 14, in his first year as councilmember, De León says he has built enough units to house more than 85% of homeless people in the Northeast Los Angeles region.
“That includes finishing two projects of small villages of homes, one of which is the largest in the nation, and the transformation of two hotels into homes”.
As a city councilmember, De León voted to extend the eviction moratorium; spearheaded an effort to expand the Los Angeles Justice Fund, which would commit millions of dollars each year to ensure that all Angelenos, including the undocumented, have access to due process.
In addition, he helped drive the “hero pay” for grocery and retail workers who risked their own health to keep the city running during the pandemic.
“Workers who are described as “essential” cannot be treated as if they were disposable”, said the councilman.
Being homelessness one of the serious problems that Los Angeles requires to face today, De León’s “A Way Home” plan to address homelessness has already been unanimously adopted by the city council, which will create 25,09 new housing units homeless in 2025.
“This program will expand quickly the production of emergency housing and will include permanent supportive housing, which is what is needed to give our homeless neighbors a fair chance at the life they deserve,” says the Latino councilman.
“It also requires the city to use creative housing solutions like adaptive reuse, small shelters, and master leasing to house people quickly.”
I know estimates that immediately implementing De Leon’s motion would expedite the development of emergency housing units, reducing construction costs and accelerating unit production by requiring city departments to respond to developers within 15 days after receipt of the plans for review.
The ambitious plan includes identifying more land to build on by reviewing the process, to identify usable properties that could be transformed into temporary shelters and permanent supportive housing.
In the same way, the councilman points out that affordable housing should be required in every new development project throughout the city.
“During For too long, the city has allowed developers to evade creating affordable housing by paying fees,” he says. “As Mayor, I will require the inclusion of affordable housing in new projects; and encourage further development through the zoning of commercial corridors and the expansion of adaptive reuse”.
For his experience and role in the different challenges that Latinos have faced in recent decades, Councilman Kevin de León is considered by many Latinos as a champion of the community in California.