We need affordable housing now.

The nationwide housing crisis is only getting worse the more we allow policies that exacerbate income inequality to go unchecked.

In the San Fernando Valley, we can clearly see that this is a problem without defined borders. With the 2019 Homeless Count for Los Angeles County up 12%, with almost 60,000 of our neighbors currently experiencing homelessness, we need to finally treat this what it is: an emergency.

Our residents and local businesses are ill-equipped to handle this problem on their own, but as our leaders have turned a blind-eye to this crisis by hoping others will take care of it or that the problem will magically go away, they have pushed the responsibility onto us while forfeiting our right to solve the problem at its source. This is a humanitarian failure, but by actively taking on the housing crisis, we will be able to own the solution. 

As someone who has faced eviction in the past and even briefly experienced homelessness, Brian understands the fears and institutional roadblocks that some of the people of the San Fernando Valley are facing.

But homelessness is only part of the problem. The combination of falling wages and rising rents have put many residents of the San Fernando Valley at risk of being priced out of their own homes as wealthy developers have carved up our communities for a quick buck. This economic exile forces our residents to move away from the places in which they work and contribute, which has a ripple effect to a family or individual’s budget such as the cost of commuting.

Whether you are paying rent to a landlord or mortgage to a bank, housing is the center of everyone’s lives, and Brian will work towards expanding Federal funding for housing assistance, rent control policies, and strengthening the protections that keep people in their homes.

We need to put an end to the idea that there are two San Fernando Valleys – one that’s reserved for the wealthy and one that’s for the rest of us. This is only made worse when lower-income neighborhoods are forced to bare the responsibility of social change, such as affordable housing units and public services. Every neighborhood needs to collectively contribute to making sure this crisis doesn’t get any worse and we need real leadership to make that happen.