An Affordable California

Housing Is a human right

What is the problem?

The homelessness crisis is one of the biggest challenges facing California. According to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, there are over 160,000 unhoused residents in California. In the Los Angeles area alone, there are over 58,000 unhoused residents. California represents over 22% of the unhoused population in the United States. People experiencing homelessness have a reduced life expectancy by 20 years. In the last year, nearly 1,500 of our unhoused neighbors were killed by government inaction.

What is Mia’s plan?

Homelessness is a political choice and we have the power to end it. Sweeps and the violent criminalization of the unhoused are cruel and only make the crisis worse. We cannot police our way out of this problem.

We will tackle the root causes of homelessness and lead with compassion. Despite popular assumptions, the principal reasons why a person may become homeless are all economic. A lack of affordable housing, unemployment, and poverty are the largest reasons why someone might lose their home. Mental illness and substance abuse are very present dangers facing the unhoused. The clearest and most direct way to address this crisis is to provide housing. 

In the Assembly, Mia will champion the proven national model of “permanent supportive housing” to end this crisis. Permanent supportive housing is a wrap-around facility that provides safe housing, mental and substance abuse counseling, and job support. Even limited investments in this model have decreased the number of chronically unhoused individuals by nearly 10%. Mia will introduce legislation to provide cities with the needed funding to end homelessness. This will be in addition to providing more outreach resources to unhoused communities and more transitory housing to complement a permanent supportive model. We are already going to spend $12 billion on the homelessness crisis over the next five years, let’s make sure we are investing that funding in long-term solutions and not short-term patches.

Let’s stop dividing our communities. We must come together to provide housing to everyone who needs it.

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Affordable Housing for All

What is the problem?

Housing is a human right and you deserve to live in affordable, high-quality housing. Los Angeles - and California over all - has some of the most expensive housing in the nation, with less than a third of residents able to own their own homes. Three out of every four LA residents are rent-burdened (spending more than 30% of their income on housing). Housing should be affordable and guaranteed.

What is Mia’s plan?

In the State Assembly, Mia will fight to make housing more affordable by increasing its supply. Mia will advocate for upzoning to allow for more urban density to create more affordable housing. Developers must stop exclusively building luxury housing, and Mia will work to ensure that 25% of all new developments are marked for affordable housing (max 30% of your income). She will also support efforts to repeal legislation preventing California cities from introducing rent control. Mia will introduce and champion legislation to create public social housing: publicly held, high-quality, affordable housing available to everyone. 

Additionally, corporate developers are artificially keeping the price of housing high by hoarding thousands of empty ready-to-live-in units. To end this practice and lower the price of housing, Mia will support a vacancy tax on corporate developers. Developers need to make all of their units available to renters or buyers. 

Tenants and renters are also lacking in protection. Mia wants to start by helping repeal the Ellis Act: legislation that allows landlords to evict tenants without notice. She will join efforts to codify a Tenant’s Bill of Rights into state law to ensure that every renter has publicly provided legal services, protects good-cause eviction rights, and guarantees safe housing.

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Expanded Public Services

What is the problem?

The whole point of a government is to provide public services. We should be asking ourselves: what can my government do for my community? Nations such as Scotland, Germany, and France have been providing high-quality services like fareless public transit, public WiFi, public energy utilities, and more. As the 5th largest economy in the world, California has the resources and responsibility to provide robust public services.

What is Mia’s plan?

In the Assembly, Mia will support legislation to bring our energy grid under public control. This will ensure affordable and reliable power for all Californians. The Netherlands has public water and electricity utilities and as a result pay some of the lowest power rates in Europe.

Mia will also introduce legislation to expand free and Public WiFi across our state. We should build thousands of free wifi stations in public spaces, parks, and libraries. Our rural communities should also be provided with public, free, and reliable internet broadband.  

Finally, Mia will introduce legislation to help cities provide fare-free public transit. We know that this is possible: the LA Metro did not charge fares for two years and public transit ridership increased with no significant financial cost. That should be the norm across California, not the exception.

In the Assembly, Mia will fight for a government that you can rely on.

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Good Paying Union Jobs

What is the problem?

In the wealthiest nation on earth, it is criminal that we have thousands of our neighbors either unemployed, being paid too little, or working several jobs just to make ends meet. California is one of the most expensive states in the country, and it’s only getting more expensive. To live “comfortably” in Los Angeles, you need to make roughly $74,000/year. Workers being paid minimum wage make less than half of that. You shouldn’t have to work 3 jobs to afford living in Los Angeles. It shouldn’t be impossible to live comfortably in California as a working-class person.

You are entitled to economic security and dignity: and the government can deliver by creating millions more good-paying union jobs.

What is Mia’s plan?

Mia will champion legislation to ensure that every Californian who wants a job, can have one. Through programs like the Green New Deal, we will create millions of good jobs working toward a 100% green California. In particular, Mia will introduce policies like a California Civilian Climate Corps that will employ hundreds of thousands of Californians in creating renewable energy, planning out the cities of the future, structuring new social welfare programs, and more.

Mia will also fight to increase the standard of living by championing legislation to establish a living wage and strengthen union rights. In the Assembly, Mia will advocate for a living wage of $20/hour because $15/hour is just not cutting it anymore. That said, the best way to ensure a safe working environment with benefits and good pay is to join a union. Mia will be a labor champion in the Assembly, advocating for legislation to make sure that every single workplace is represented by a union.

We have the power, the resources, and the imagination to launch a bright new future. It is our responsibility to deliver on it.

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