Abundant Housing LA Endorses Lola Smallwood-Cuevas For Senate District 28

Abundant Housing LA is excited to endorse Lola Smallwood-Cuevas for Senate District 28. As a state Senator, Lola will focus on creating well-paying jobs, addressing homelessness, funding healthcare, improving community safety, and protecting the environment. We are especially impressed by her clear understanding of homelessness and the comprehensive policies she will champion.

Lola believes that homelessness is the moral crisis of our time. There are over 54,000 individuals experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles County. With unprecedented levels of funding being committed to address this crisis at the State level, Lola’s priority will be to ensure L.A. County receives its fair share of resources. This means working closely with partners at the County and City levels to guarantee these funds are going to those most in need.

Lola served as a member of the groundbreaking Ad Hoc Committee on Black People Experiencing Homelessness for Los Angeles County, where she created a roadmap for addressing the overrepresentation of Black people in the population experiencing homelessness. Though Black people represent 9% of L.A. County’s general population, they make up 40% of its unhoused population. Her work concluded that the impact of institutional and structural racism in education, criminal justice, housing, employment, health care, and access to opportunities means that homelessness is a by-product of racism in Los Angeles – and America. There are deep systemic changes that need to be made including real housing discrimination enforcement efforts and addressing the housing-wage imbalance.

Lola believes that key to addressing homelessness is a robust, evidence-based housing policy that focuses on disparities. Lola supports the efforts underway to examine the current framework being used to deliver mental health and substance use disorder services. She will also work to advance innovative solutions such as Project Roomkey which provide non-congregate shelter options for people experiencing homelessness. Lola maintains that building and maintaining very low-income and affordable housing, creating quality jobs, and better protecting residents most at risk of homelessness are all essential solutions to homelessness. She will move on a three-prong solution that addresses production, affordability, and services. Building public, low-income, and affordable housing should be part of the quality job creation boom California needs.

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Our endorsement committee recommended this endorsement after reviewing candidates’ responses to a policy questionnaire and conducting interviews with the candidates. Please consider becoming a member today so we can continue vetting candidates and help elect truly pro-housing leaders all across LA County.

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