After interviewing Los Angeles City Council District 9 candidates, Abundant Housing LA is excited to endorse Dulce Vasquez! Dulce’s candidacy is by far the most exciting and groundbreaking. We believe in her leadership, passion, and vision.
Dulce Vasquez has the depth of lived and work experience to be an effective leader for all the communities in CD 9. Born in Mexico, Dulce was an undocumented immigrant and spent her childhood cleaning houses with her mother while her father worked at a dairy farm and later as a construction worker. Upon becoming a citizen at age 14, Dulce felt a deep sense of civic duty and volunteered for every presidential election since Howard Dean’s 2004 run. She graduated with a full scholarship from Northwestern University in Chicago, an experience that opened her eyes to the massive wealth disparities and economic inequality that plagues this nation. She went on to pursue a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the Luskin School of Public Affairs at UCLA to focus on solving these issues.
During her work with Los Angeles’ largest civic forum, Zócalo Public Square, Dulce brought together community members to discuss the most pressing issues facing Los Angeles, from healthcare to homelessness to gentrification and street vending. She left Zócalo after nine years to pursue a career in higher education, which she believes is the most vital factor in lifting Latinos and communities of color out of poverty. Since then Dulce has been working to expand access to and opportunity for higher education to tens of thousands of Angelenos who traditionally have been shut out of the UC and CSU system. In her current capacity as Director of Partnerships for Arizona State University, Dulce works closely with K-12 schools and community colleges — many of them in CD 9, including LA Trade Tech College.
In 2019, Mayor Eric Garcetti appointed Dulce to the Board of Commissioners for El Pueblo Historic Monument/Olvera Street, where she served through the first eight months of the pandemic and was the most vocal advocate for vendors.
Dulce has a clear vision of strategies to create the structural change necessary to break through the barriers that block access to housing for all. She envisions a Ninth District with clean streets, more parks, educational opportunities, good jobs, secured housing, and opportunities to create generational wealth. We share with Dulce the priority of housing production that centers on equity without displacement. As an elected official, Dulce will work to implement inclusionary zoning in the best locations in Los Angeles. She will also advocate to set in place rules that developers can count on, to streamline the process of approving new housing, and remove councilmembers’ discretion from the equation. This will make sure exclusive neighborhoods build their fair share of homes. The cost savings stemming from a condensed timeline and reduced risk will also decrease the housing burden on families.
Protecting renting families is Dulce’s top priority. Dulce will champion solutions to increase the supply of affordable housing, whether through subsidizing housing units or building social housing. She also supports the right to return and the right to counsel for all tenants.
You can help elect Dulce Vasquez by donating to our C4 organization, which will work to educate more voters than ever about Dulce’s pro-housing platform.
This endorsement was recommended by our endorsement committee after conducting housing policy interviews with candidates. Please consider becoming a member today so we can continue vetting candidates and help elect truly pro-housing leaders all across LA County.
Paid for by Abundant Housing LA PAC, 515 S Flower Street, 18th Floor, Los Angeles. Not authorized by or coordinated with a City candidate or a committee controlled by a candidate. Major funding provided by Nicholas Burns in the amount of $10,000. Additional information is available at ethics.lacity.org.
