Today, opponents of homeless housing on the Westside, backed by anonymous “dark money” donors, turned in signatures to recall me from office.
If you care about solving our homelessness crisis in LA, it’s time to "Break Glass in Case of Emergency."
Here’s why. (thread)
This recall, and my reelection (they would take place just several weeks apart), isn’t really about me.
It’s about how we, as a city, should respond to homelessness.
And the outcome will shape decision making on this issue for some time to come.
This recall is really a choice about how we respond to homelessness:
It’s a choice between housing and services, which work, or criminalization, which fails.
It’s a choice between helping people off the street, or wasting money pushing them from neighborhood to neighborhood.
It’s about whether we create solutions to homelessness with housing and services, as I have done, or whether we block solutions to homelessness by suing, opposing, and protesting affordable and homeless housing, as my opponents have done.
It’s about whether we recognize our problems are systemic -- not enough housing, not enough renter protections, not enough treatment beds -- or whether we scapegoat officials or groups offering real solutions, as my opponents do.
It’s about whether we see our unhoused neighbors as mothers with children, veterans, foster youth, and people fleeing domestic violence, as I do, or whether we vilify people for being unhoused, labeling them service-resistant criminals, as my opponents have done.
It’s about whether we do the tough, often unpopular work of ending homelessness, as I have done, or whether we pander to people, offering false solutions that only succeed in pushing unhoused people from block to block to jail cell and back again, as my opponents have done.
The leaders of the recall are people who oppose homeless housing in their neighborhood, and people who are angry that I refuse to criminalize homelessness.
They’re exploiting legitimate frustration about our crisis, and misleading people about what causes it and what ends it.
If the recall succeeds, it will empower those who think homelessness can be solved with handcuffs, something our city has tried and failed at for decades.
We risk giving up on an evidence-based approach of housing and services, which began in earnest in just the past few years.
If the recall succeeds, officials across LA will be tempted to shy away from tough but necessary choices.
Those fighting for the housing and services we need will be discouraged, and the crisis will worsen.
Some may decide it’s not worth running at all.
If we prevail, we will double down on what works, as I did at Venice Beach, and expand our encampments-to-homes model across LA.
We’ll invest our scarce resources in evidence-based solutions, not waste them on criminalizing a condition that can only be solved with a home.
If we prevail, officials will see that housing and services don’t just work, but they also win at the polls.
A new generation of leaders will be buoyed by the conviction that Angelenos are bonded by love, and want to help each other. They just need to see how.
LA is at a tipping point. This recall is the canary in the coal mine.
If you care about the kind of city we become when it comes to addressing homelessness, now is the time to get involved.
The recall can legally raise and spend unlimited sums of money against me. The largest amount by far is coming from a “nonprofit” that won’t disclose its donors.
We can only imagine the special interests - from the Police Protective League to large polluters - behind it.
If you want to offer your endorsement, host a gathering or mobilize your friends, please do so here: bit.ly/endorsemikebon…
We can do this, together.
With strength, and love, and solidarity, we can make Los Angeles a city that leaves no one behind, a community that brings everyone indoors, a place where we all thrive -- together.
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Our Encampments to Homes program busted the myth that people prefer to be homeless.
Outreach can work - with time, trust & real housing resources.
(Thread)
LA’s approach to homelessness fails because it’s often based on false assumptions. One of the worst is that most unhoused people are “service resistant.”
Blaming people for being unhoused disguises the real problem: systemic barriers that keep people from saying yes.
This week Council approved a new “street engagement strategy” for homelessness.
It’s an improvement over the current system, for sure, but it was constructed as a reaction to other policies that assume people need to be coerced into leaving the streets.
In Venice this summer, we showed how transparency, trust, time, partnership, and outreach with *real* housing resources could address homelessness and reduce encampments. Today, in Mar Vista, the city did the exact opposite, disrupting housing efforts and causing harm. thread 1/8
There were about 15 unhoused people, mostly seniors, living in a remote corner of Mar Vista Park. Working with @hollymitchell@lahomeless and community partners, we were on track to find housing for people by an Oct deadline from @lacityparks. 2/8
This morning, rangers forced people out of the park and onto the sidewalks in nearby neighborhoods. We need to know why and how this happened and at whose direction. It was the opposite of the best practices we modeled with Venice Beach Encampments to Homes. 3/8
The LA Times looks at the Venice Beach Encampments to Homes program, which helped 211 people move indoors, and asks: ‘Can’t this happen all over the city’?
The E2H program, a collaboration of agencies and run by @StJosephCtr, was designed as new approach to help our unhoused neighbors quickly and compassionately. It helped bust a pervasive and negative stereotype about homelessness and how to solve it
As the @latimes puts it, our work with Venice Beach Encampments to Homes disproves “the trope that homeless people living on the street are “service resistant.” Even people who professed their love of the view of the ocean from their tents left for brick and mortar housing.”
Residents and visitors to beaches continue to report nausea, headaches and odors from Santa Monica Bay following an emergency discharge last month from Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant of 17 million gallons of raw sewage.
(thread) 1/10
@LACitySAN has agreed to pay for hotels and air conditioning for El Segundo residents impacted by the spill, and I am insisting on the same for LA’s own residents in Playa del Rey.
2/10
Recent beach water quality tests have indicated the water in the Santa Monica Bay is safe for human recreation. All beach advisories for the Westside and South Bay have been lifted because water samples have not exceeded state water quality standards.