Environmental Justice is Housing Justice – Help Keep People in Their Homes
As a key element of one’s built environment, safe and secure housing is undeniably essential to environmental justice. While many of us were well aware of the housing insecurity low-income and black and brown communities faced before the pandemic, the global crisis has only underscored and exacerbated this issue. Yet, with the outspread health threat posed by COVID-19, coupled with rampant unemployment and financial and job insecurity, it is even more critical to ensure that people remain safe and in their homes. PSR-LA, through our intersectional coalition work, is supporting several housing justice campaigns to help ensure just that.
Public Land for Public Good
The United Neighbors in Defense Against Displacement, an anti-displacement coalition of which PSR-LA is a part, launched the Public Land for Affordable Housing in South LA Campaign. Please join us in our call to City Council and elected leaders of LA to prioritize public land for public good. We are demanding that city leaders stand by their commitment to use the former Bethune Library site, a vacant 34,000-square foot city-owned lot on Vermont Avenue, for the development of affordable housing. South LA needs more affordable housing, not hotels!
Read our open letter here, sign our petition here, and help spread the word on this crucial opportunity for community-centered development with our Public Land Campaign Toolkit.
Lastly, be sure to join us TOMORROW, Wednesday, August 5, for a community meeting during which we will discuss the history of the Bethune site and the years of community involvement and visioning that has gone into it.
Take Action! Help Stop the Looming Wave of COVID Evictions – Support AB 1436!
As a part of Housing Now! Coalition efforts, we are fighting to make sure that the millions of Californians who are unable to pay rent during this horrific crisis are not penalized for it. Currently, over a million renters in California have fallen behind on their rent because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Those are Californians who normally would be out on the street given California’s lighting-fast eviction proceedings. Thankfully, that has not happened.
One of the few bright spots in our current tragedy is that most of these families are still in their homes, thanks to some temporary protections. But those protections will recede, leaving families vulnerable to being swept away in a tidal wave of COVID evictions.
Assembly Bill 1436 (Chiu) prohibits landlords from evicting a tenant – ever – due to unpaid rent during the state of emergency and some months after. It also protects homeowners and landlords from facing foreclosure by providing mortgage forbearance. Check out this AB 1436 Fact Sheet to learn more. In order to ensure that this critical piece of legislation is passed, we need you and your colleagues, friends, and family to contact your legislators and urge them to support AB 1436. Here are some specific actions you can take:
Participate in Tenant Tuesday Social Media Day of Action (using the social media toolkit) and continue to promote on social media throughout the week. Here are some graphics specific to your legislator
Call, email, and tweet your legislators
Participate in Call-in Fridays by calling Capitol leadership and your legislators this Friday
Share your story, or encourage your friends, families, colleagues, and patients to share their stories of struggling with rent or mortgage through this Story Collection Form.
