By Dolores Huerta
30 Oct 2024, 00:41 AM EDT
California is the fifth largest economy in the world, but here in Los Angeles County, more than 1.4 million people live in poverty, and the median home price is now $1 million.
Things clearly don’t add up, and when we have an imbalance like this, we witness a humanitarian crisis resulting in more than 75,000 people sleeping homeless in Los Angeles County, 70% of whom are African-American, Latino or immigrant .
The combination of sky-high housing costs plus poverty wages leads to a structural crisis that is affecting too many of our neighbors. If we don’t act now, experts predict we will see a 28% increase in our homeless population, and 50,000 people will lose essential services.
As someone who has spent my entire life overcoming impossible odds, I know that the spirit of hope combined with community action always wins, which is why I am proud to support Measure A.
Measure A is a citizen initiative that directly addresses the challenge of housing and homelessness. Measure A will build affordable housing for people of all income levels so our essential workers like janitors, farmers, and other frontline workers can afford to live where they work.
As co-founder of the Farmers Union and proud union activist, I fight daily to win contracts that ensure workers can have a roof over their heads and food on the table. That concept is as American as apple pie, and Measure A helps uphold that universal value.
Additionally, Measure A is a job generator that creates pathways out of poverty for Los Angeles’ neediest families. Building new affordable housing is critical to keeping people in their homes, but it also serves as an opportunity to train and place people in construction careers. Since 2017, 92% of people who graduated and were placed in construction jobs by the Los Angeles/Orange County Construction Guilds Apprenticeship Fund were workers of color hired from our communities, and the 19% were women. These transformative jobs create pathways out of poverty for our neighbors, keep people in their homes, and reduce the gender and racial wage gap.
Measure A also uplifts and protects the frontline essential workers who help our homeless neighbors. Workers who provide mental health treatment and addiction services and place people in housing often struggle to stay in their own homes. Measure A will help raise standards so that those who help our homeless neighbors are not at risk of becoming homeless themselves.
Finally, Measure A includes real accountability. It has required legal mandates to increase the number of people leaving homelessness permanently, increase the number of people moving from encampments to permanent housing, increase the number of affordable housing units, and decrease the number of people falling into in homelessness.
I am a believer in hope and organizing for change. Despite the challenges we face, we are on the right path as 42 people leave homelessness each day, and we have seen a decrease in Los Angeles County’s homeless population over the past two years. Let’s keep this progress and permanently end homelessness in Los Angeles County by passing Measure A. Let’s vote for more affordable housing, let’s vote for more mental health care, and let’s vote for more accountability. Let’s vote YES on Measure A! Yes you can with A!
Dolores Huerta is the co-founder of the Union of Peasants with César Chávez and current President of the Dolores Huerta Foundation