HOUSING
Too many families in South Central are being pushed out of the neighborhoods they’ve called home for decades. They pay their rent on time. They know their neighbors. They raise their kids here. But landlords hike up the rent, issue no-fault evictions, and count on a broken system to back them up. No warning. No real reason. Just greed and a system that lets it happen. And that’s the reality for families in South Central. Stagnant wages, skyrocketing rents, and a dire shortage of affordable housing are squeezing thousands of families in District 9.
I’ve seen firsthand how deep housing injustice runs. As an organizer, I’ve helped tenants stand up to slumlords, win rent control, and fight to stay in their homes. But I’ve also seen how local fights aren’t enough without systemic change. We can’t nibble around the edges, we need bold solutions that meet the scale of this crisis.
Produce more housing, with a focus on deeply affordable homes
Housing is more than just where you sleep at night. It is about opportunity, stability, and dignity. In District 9, most families are renters, and the majority are spending over 30 percent of their income just to stay housed. That is not sustainable. My plan tackles the root causes of this crisis: a severe shortage of affordable housing.
In District 9, more than a third of families make under twenty-five thousand dollars a year. For them, the housing market is unaffordable. It is devastating and a moral failure. Hard-working families are working 3 jobs and still cannot keep up with rent.
Based on existing and projected housing needs, the City would need to build nearly 260,000 units of low and moderate income housing between 2021-2029, but so far the City has permitted just 12,244 units - that’s less than 5% of our goal!
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In recent years, voters have approved unprecedented new funding for affordable housing through Measure ULA and Measure A. Since 2023, Measure ULA has generated more than $1.1 BILLION to fund affordable housing production, preservation, and homelessness prevention. The City is also expected to receive over $100 million per year in funding from Measure A. Now we must make sure the money is used transparently, quickly, and efficiently to create more affordable housing citywide.
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The City could generate a permanent funding source for affordable housing by enacting a gross receipts tax of companies that overpay their executives and underpay their workers. A tax on companies that pay their CEOs or other executives more than 100 times their median worker could generate an estimated $500 million per year to address the housing crisis.
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We have to make it easier to build in the City of Los Angeles. I support expediting and incentivizing affordable housing, particularly housing that includes family-sized and deeply affordable units, by streamlining processes and increasing density.
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Los Angeles has 13 large public housing developments, two of which are located in District 9: Avalon Gardens and Pueblo Del Rio which, in total, provides 824 units.
We need to secure funding from ULA and state funding to not only make right by the public housing we already own, but also expand to create green social housing that is permanently affordable, carbon free, and in the hands of community members.
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Increase state and local funding for environmental remediation to turn empty, city-owned, contaminated lots into affordable housing.
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Study the creation of a citywide land bank that could acquire vacant, abandoned, or foreclosed properties, often for little or no cost, and repurpose them for public use like affordable housing much like they do in Albany, NY by revitalizing neighborhoods.
LA County is currently implementing a Land Bank Pilot to increase access to affordable housing units to unhoused and vulnerable residents. Los Angeles should follow the County’s lead and do the same in District 9.
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LA Trade Tech is one of the leading technical colleges educating building contractors, air conditioning technicians, welders, and other skilled tradespeople (and my alma mater!). I would partner with the College to expand programs, training, and investments that connect students to construction careers.
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The City rewards developers who provide a certain percent of affordable housing by allowing projects to access greater density and other land use incentives. These mixed-income projects are now the most common type of housing development in the City. Unfortunately, however, there is very little enforcement or monitoring of the affordable units. The City must proactively track vacancy and noncompliance and create a central application portal for prospective tenants.
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Over 70% of the City’s residential land doesn’t allow apartments. Allowing for more multifamily housing, especially in high-resource areas, is critical in addressing economic and racial segregation in the City.
Protect tenants by enforcing renters' rights and preventing displacement
From February 2023 to April 2025, over 210,000 eviction notices were filed in Los Angeles. In District 9, there were 7,349 eviction notices, and the 90007 zip code had one of the highest totals in the city, with 2,986 notices.
When a family is evicted, the consequences ripple far beyond housing. Parents can lose their jobs, children’s education is disrupted, and entire communities, especially communities of color, are pushed out by gentrification and rising rents. In many cases, landlords use evictions as a way to dramatically raise rents, making housing even more unaffordable for everyone.
Tenants who organize to stand up to abusive landlords face a massive power imbalance. As your Councilmember, I will fight to shift that balance. I will work to put power back where it belongs: in the hands of tenants, not corporate landlords.
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The current Housing Department is tasked with serving both tenants and housing development. As a result, the Department’s mission to protect renters has gone underfunded and overlooked. A dedicated Department of Tenants’ Rights would be able to coordinate all renter-related services and prioritize keeping tenants housed.
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LA has some of the strongest renter protections in the Country - but too often tenants don’t know their rights or how to exercise them. I will work with community-based organizations to ensure every lower-income tenant facing eviction has free legal representation, I will also work with the City Attorney to investigate and prosecute landlords that harass tenants.
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From peeling paint to leaking roofs, unsafe housing conditions are far too common in our neighborhoods. We need to make it easier for tenants to file complaints and create a better system for code inspections.
I will champion changes to the Systematic Code Enforcement Program (SCEP) and Rent Escrow Account Program (REAP) to require stronger enforcement, deeper tenant protections, and real mechanisms for landlord accountability.
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The Trump Administration is pursuing unprecedented cuts in federal Housing Choice Vouchers (Section 8) and revoking vouchers from mixed-status families. To prevent a tsunami of evictions and homelessness, the City, County, and State should create an emergency rental assistance fund specifically for households cut from the Section 8 program.
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Large institutional landlords are using AI algorithms to set rents and prevent competition. This means higher rents, automated annual rent increases, and price gouging during times of disaster.
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Housing discrimination based on race, disability status, national origin, familial status, and source of income is illegal, yet it remains far too common. I will expand the City’s Fair Housing program to conduct more proactive testing to ensure Section 8 Voucher holders, immigrants, people of color, people with children, and people with disabilities have access to housing.
Preserve existing affordable and rent-stabilized housing
Council District 9 is home to generations of hard-working renters and long-time families who deserve to live healthy and thriving lives rather than surviving in an affordable housing crisis.
Council District 9 families deserve to live stable, secure lives with the opportunity to build wealth. My Housing Preservation Pillar aims to combat displacement by protecting what’s currently affordable and creating additional pathways for individual and community ownership that roots residents in place for the long haul.
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CD 9 has dozens of restricted affordable housing developments that are at-risk of converting to market rate, and the City has no proactive plan to keep them affordable.
If elected, I would…
Establish a Los Angeles Preservation Catalog modeled after Washington DC to track expiring covenants on deed-restricted housing.
Partner with local community land trusts and mission-aligned non-profit affordable housing developers or community development corporations, along with the LA Housing Department to intervene early on before affordability restrictions expire and create housing insecurity for existing tenants. This would ensure long-term affordability for existing tenants.
Leverage preservation resources such as public subsidies, acquisition grants or low-interest loans, and right of first refusal agreements to keep units out of the speculative market.
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We can’t keep fighting bad landlords forever, we need a better system. I support building community ownership by funding land trusts, limited equity co-ops, and other models of individual and collective ownership. I also support passing a local ordinance that allows tenants of existing buildings to purchase their properties and gives community organizations the right of first refusal to acquire for-sale housing.
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Short-term rentals reduce the supply of long-term housing that could otherwise be used to house families in Council District 9 and accelerate displacement by putting pressure on long-term tenants to move.
require Accountability in University-Community Housing
In the area surrounding USC, corporate landlords and student housing developers have displaced and evicted long-term residents, demolished affordable, RSO housing, used City or State housing incentives, and then built projects exclusively marketed and available to students. These student housing developments often use a rent-by-the-bed leasing model, offer amenities exclusively for students, and advertise themselves as “USC housing,” thereby preventing community residents from benefiting from the new housing. By leasing beds instead of units, the developers also circumvent the Rent Stabilization Ordinance (RSO).
The proliferation of these private student housing developers and operators is a direct result of the University of Southern California’s policies of expanding enrollment without expanding housing options for its students. Since 2011, USC has increased enrollment by 24%, adding nearly 10,000 students. Yet the University has only built half of the student housing it proposed in the Specific Plan adopted in 2013. The University’s failure to provide housing for its students negatively impacts community members by increasing displacement pressure and forcing students to find off-campus housing that is likely more expensive and not covered by their financial aid. =
My housing agenda will regulate privately run student housing models, incentivize USC to build more on-campus housing, and require USC to allow affordable housing developers and land trusts to have a first-right-of-refusal to any land sold by the University.
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Student housing maximizes profit by leasing beds instead of units. I will require greater regulation on this type of housing by:
Requiring a project that seeks to lease housing by the bed (rent-by-the-bed) to obtain a Conditional Use Permit
Prohibiting rent-by-the-bed student housing models off campus on RSO Properties
Prohibit any rent-by-the-bed student housing models off campus until USC updates its specific plan and agrees to house at least 50% of its undergraduate students in USC-owned properties
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USC currently has multiple properties for sale, including several vacant lots. This land should be offered to affordable housing developers first, through a right-of-first-refusal program.
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Despite having an endowment of $8.2 billion and annual tuition of nearly $100,000 per year, USC has also not provided any direct housing assistance to community residents. In 2013, community residents fought for a $20 million affordable housing fund, paid for by the University and administered by the City; however, the City has failed to spend even $1. I will demand that the City release the money WITH INTEREST to fund affordable housing near USC.
Create pathways to homeownership
I began my community organizing career during the foreclosure crisis and fought to hold banks accountable and keep families in their homes. The foreclosure crisis stripped our communities of intergenerational wealth and allowed corporations to buy up thousands of homes at bargain prices. Now with skyrocketing home prices and an influx of corporate investors, homeownership feels far out of reach for most families in CD 9. I will support pathways for homeownership by expanding downpayment assistance, investing in new models of ownership, and protecting intergenerational homeownership.
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The City currently provides downpayment assistance to low- and moderate-income homebuyers, primarily funded by Measure ULA. I will fight to increase funding for these programs and provide targeted outreach in CD 9 so more families can access homeownership.
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As Council Member, I would support new models for ownership, including Community Land Trusts and Limited Equity Co-ops.
I will also support building affordable townhome and condo options and using land-use tools like SB 9 to expand homeownership opportunities.
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Corporations and investors target long-time homeowners, particularly seniors, and pressure them into selling their homes, often for less than the homes are worth. I will expand homeownership counseling services and provide free assistance to help homeowners draft wills and trusts that prevent their homes from entering probate.
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