Lola Smallwood-Cuevas is an educator, labor organizer, and community advocate running to represent California’s 28th Senate District. Raised by a single mother who worked as a home care worker, CNA and then registered nurse, Lola has lived experience of being from a working family who moved to California in search of better education, good union jobs, and a pathway to self-sufficiency.
Homelessness is the moral crisis of our time. There are over 54,000 individuals experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles County. With unprecedented levels of funding being committed to address this crisis at the State level, my priority will be to ensure L.A. County receives its fair share of resources. This means working closely with our partners at the County and City levels to guarantee these funds are going to those most in need. Everyone must do their part if we are to make a meaningful impact.
I served as a member of the groundbreaking Ad Hoc Committee on Black People Experiencing Homelessness for Los Angeles County, where we created a roadmap for addressing the overrepresentation of Black people in the population experiencing homelessness. Though Black people represent 9% of L.A. County’s general population, they make up 40% of its unhoused population. Our work concluded that the impact of institutional and structural racism in education, criminal justice, housing, employment, health care, and access to opportunities means that homelessness is a by-product of racism in Los Angeles – and America. There are deep systemic changes that need to be made including real housing discrimination enforcement efforts and addressing the housing-wage imbalance.
I support the efforts underway to examine the current framework being used to deliver mental health and substance use disorder services. We need to do a better job of getting these services to those most in need. We need to advance innovative solutions such as Project Roomkey which provide non-congregate shelter options for people experiencing homelessness. I believe building and maintaining very low-income and affordable housing must create quality jobs needed to better protect residents most at risk of homelessness.
Building public, low-income, and affordable housing should be part of the quality job creation boom California needs.
Key to addressing homelessness is a robust, evidence-based housing policy that focuses on disparities. I will move on a three-prong solution that addresses production, affordability, and services. I support the fundamental right to housing. No one should be living on the streets.