LA is experiencing one the worst housing crises in our history, and the combination of rising rents and falling incomes is wreaking havoc on low-income people. In January, more than 15,000 families getting CalWORKs and 53,000 individuals getting General Relief were homeless — that’s more homeless people in the county than the entire population of Inglewood, or Burbank, or Santa Monica. LA County has the highest poverty rate in California at 26%, according to the Public Policy Institute of California), and incomes and rents are so out of whack that we have a shortage of over a half million affordable rentals, just in LA County. And 3 out of 4 Metro riders have incomes of less than $25,000/year.

The Ridley-Thomas/Kuehl motion calls for a new Affordable Housing Programs Budget and directs the County Executive Office to find $300 million in new money to fund it over the first five years and $100 million each year after that. More than 120 organizations — including business, health, religious, environmental, services, community and housing organizations — sent in 1,700 letters and postcards in support of this motion.

Below is contact information for the five supervisors and their deputies. We encourage you to contact them to express your support for the motion. If you can also attend the hearing on the motion Tuesday, Oct. 27 at 9:30 a.m. at the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration, please RSVP at www.scanph.org/register.

Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas:   [email protected]

Cc to Karly Katona:  [email protected]

Supervisor Sheila Kuehl: [email protected]

Cc to Molly Rysman, [email protected]

Supervisor Hilda Solis

Cc to Angelita Ramirez, [email protected]

Cc to Maria Cabildo, [email protected]

Cc to KeAndra Dodds, [email protected]

Supervisor Don Knabe, [email protected]

Cc to Nick Ippolito, [email protected]

Supervisor Mike Antonovich, [email protected]

Cc to Lori Glasgow, [email protected]

Cc to Jarrod DeGonia, [email protected]