Democratic Congressmember Sydney Kamlager-Dove of the 37^th District, which includes portions of the Westside, hosted a telephone town hall in Los Angeles on Monday, December, 11 with L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and the President and CEO of Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) Douglas Guthrie, to discuss housing, affordability, and homelessness in the city of Los Angeles.

The event comes as L.A. County residents continue to struggle with high costs of housing. More than 6,800 people dialed in to attend Monday evening.

Kamlager-Dove spoke on her busy first year in Congress. “Since I’ve gotten into Congress, confronting the high cost of housing and finding solutions to this crisis have been really important to me,” she said. “Earlier this year, I joined the first-ever Congressional Renters Caucus, where I have been exploring solutions to the extreme challenges our renters face.”

During the town hall, Kamlager-Dove highlighted some of the legislation she has co-sponsored since taking office. “Throughout the year, I’ve co-sponsored legislation such as the Housing Crisis Response Act, the Ending Homelessness Act, the Fighting Homelessness Through Services and Housing Act, and the Healthy Foundation, or Homeless Veterans Act,” said Kamlager-Dove. “These bills all have the power to transform our housing crisis overnight by creating more pathways for homebuyers, expanding equity in the housing market, reducing poverty through changes to the Housing Choice Voucher Program, and so much more.”

One of those bills, the Fighting Homelessness Through Services and Housing Act, aims to fight homelessness in the United States by authorizing a grant program within the Health Resources and Services Administration for housing programs that offer comprehensive services and intensive case management for homeless individuals and families.

In 2022, the Biden Administration proposed “New Actions to Build Black Wealth and Narrow the Racial Wealth Gap” which aims to combat racial discrimination in housing, by launching a first of its kind inter agency effort to address an inequality in home appraisal and conducting rulemaking to combat housing discrimination.

With Mayor Karen Bass’s program Inside Safe, officials have been able to bring close to 22,000 people indoors due to the Housing and Urban Development Department.

“Somebody in a tent could not receive federal dollars for housing until they prove they were poor – until they prove their income? I don’t know how you’re supposed to prove your income if you have no income,” said Bass “Then you have to have a government-issued I.D., and I don’t know how you can have a government-issued I.D. if you don’t have an address.”

She further added that some of the barriers that previously existed made it difficult to keep homeless people off the street. “For people that are struggling day to day with access to affordable housing, it’s that much more urgent for us to make the best use of our resources for continued advocacy that the congresswoman provides and for us getting the work done,” said Bass.

According to a 2021 report by the California Housing Partnership, nearly 500,000 low-income households that rent are unable to access an affordable home, and according to the County of Los Angeles Homeless Initiative, there are only 133,909 affordable units throughout the county.

“When we opened our Section Eight waiting lists this time last year, in a period of 10 days, we had 225,000 households apply for assistance under Section Eight. And that was for nearly 500,000 people in the city of Los Angeles that needed assistance for housing affordability,” said Douglas Guthrie, CEO and President of the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA).

HACLA currently has 62,000 Section Eight vouchers, as well as 13,000 affordable housing units located throughout the city. “We have been focusing on increasing the number of units that are being provided towards the homeless population, and in particular, working on cutting down barriers to getting the resources to those in need, as quickly and as efficiently as possible,” added Guthrie.

Kamlager-Dove added that what happens at the federal level is only part of the fix.

She stated that officials cannot ensure people have safe accessible places to live until they also engage in local solutions to this pressing problem. The congressmember also co-sponsored H.R. 645 which is the Healthy Foundations for Homeless Veterans Act and would tell the VA to support homeless veterans in Los Angeles, with housing, transportation, and access to healthy food.

Photo provided by the Congressmember’s Office.