LA City Council held an emergency meeting on Friday to discuss pandemic relief measures. After almost 11 hours of debate, our coalition walked away with a couple big wins and a few dismaying losses.

TOMORROW, Tuesday, March 31, the LA County Board of Supervisors will meet to discuss pandemic relief efforts of their own. The County includes 10 million residents (not just LA City, but 87 other cities too). The five Supervisors each have a huge amount of power and they need to hear from you!

Please contact your County Supervisor TODAY and urge them to support the Healthy LA platform to protect workers, renters, and Angelenos who are undocumented or unhoused. We know that the pandemic's economic and public health impacts will be devastating for the most vulnerable people in our communities. We need a decisive public health and economic response that cares for elderly residents, workers, families, the undocumented, the unhoused, and the uninsured. 

Please CALL them using this script. If you're personally affected, feel free to include your story in the call. (You can determine and send an email to your Supervisor here.)

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Hello, my name is [your name] and I am your constituent from [your city].  I’m calling to ask [Supervisor’s name] to adopt the proposals advanced by the Healthy LA Coalition. It’s urgent to protect the people most vulnerable in this crisis — workers, renters, immigrants, and unhoused people. Our families and communities need immediate action to protect our health and our livelihoods. Our families and vulnerable community members need immediate action to protect our health and our livelihoods.  At tomorrow’s meeting, I urge Supervisor [Supervisor’s name] to support motions to:

1. Institute a Complete and Universal Eviction Moratorium. No one should be forced to contend with an eviction notice from their landlord because of this public health crisis.

2. Provide Rent Forgiveness. Working people won’t have the money to pay back rent from a time when they weren’t employed. They shouldn’t emerge from this crisis in debt. At the very least, tenants should have at least 24 months to repay back rent, with no late fees or interest charges. 

3. Provide 14 Days of Paid Sick Leave to all workers and prohibit retaliation against those who take it. Workers must feel safe to stay home through their illness for the public’s safety.

4. Prioritize Workplace Health and Safety, including mandated paid time for and access to hand-washing and sanitizing, provision of protective gear, and appropriate training for those still at work, especially grocery workers, food service workers, and delivery drivers.

5. Stop all transfers of undocumented Angelenos to ICE and the Adelanto immigration prison, which are cruel normally and a health nightmare during the pandemic. 

6. Create a Cash Assistance Fund for Undocumented Workers including street vendors and the estimated 20% of L.A.’s workforce that is undocumented in industries like domestic work, home health care, day labor, carwash, garment, restaurant, and more. It’s not fair that the people who make our city work won’t get any support from the federal government’s bailout.

7. Use motel rooms to safely shelter unhoused people. There’s nearly 100,000 rooms in LA County and with the crisis, most are vacant and the workers who staff them are unemployed. We can and should take care of people who are especially vulnerable to the pandemic and get the hospitality workforce paid again.

8. Create neighborhood supply stations for unhoused people with ready-to-eat food, water, soap, and first aid supplies. The COVID-19 pandemic has shut down many food pantries and programs that provide life-saving meals and hygiene supplies to low-income and vulnerable populations. With the demand for these essential supplies at an all-time high, people need to be able to access food and supplies easily in their own neighborhoods. 

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You can find your County Supervisor at http://healthyla.org/county/

District 1 - Supervisor Hilda Solis - (213) 974-4111 - firstdistrict@bos.lacounty.gov
District 2 - Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas - (213) 974-2222 - markridley-thomas@bos.lacounty.gov
District 3 - Supervisor Sheila Kuehl - (213) 974-3333  - sheila@bos.lacounty.gov
District 4 - Supervisor Janice Hahn - (213) 974-4444 - fourthdistrict@bos.lacounty.gov
District 5 - Supervisor Kathryn Barger - (213) 974-5555 - kathryn@bos.lacounty.gov

{{FirstName or 'Friend'}}, our own health depends on the health of the person next to us, and the person next to them. Ensuring every Angeleno’s access to the space, resources, and health services they need is how we take care of each other. Our local governments’ actions must reflect this essential truth and rise to the scale of this enormous challenge. This is not the time for half-steps or hesitation. Now is the moment to protect the most vulnerable. When we do that, we protect everyone.

In solidarity,

David Levitus
Executive Director
LA Forward

P.S. Want to get involved with our work? Join us for video meeting tonight at 8 PM by RSVPing here. You can also sign up to be involved here.