Holos Communities’ Call For Accountability At Los Angeles City Council

We need elected officials who are willing to put the interests of their constituents first. Holos Communities joins our peers in calling for the resignations of Council Members Kevin de Leon and Gil Cedillo, and we support reforms like the creation of an independent redistricting commission. Allowing racist attitudes and political gerrymandering to persist undermine the work of building a more just and equitable Los Angeles that we’ve all fought for.

Holos Communities believes in, and takes seriously, our responsibility to care for all Angelenos but particularly our unhoused neighbors and the importance of working to foster racial equity in our incredibly diverse city. It is not hard to see parallels between the racist practice of redlining and allowing political pressure to influence the redistricting process; both practices seek to subvert the idea that everyone deserves equitable access to housing and to have their voices represented in city government by people who value them as individuals and community members. 

Unfortunately however, it is clear that we have more work to do. More than 80% of cities like Los Angeles have become more segregated in recent decades. This is evidenced by how residential segregation determines access to schools, healthcare, jobs, parks, etc. That is why Holos Communities is focused on creating new housing models that do not segregate poverty, either racially or economically, and foster integration and economic mobility. This is not an easy feat given most public programs we work with today are rigid and indirectly incentivize segregation.

We also direly need to increase housing production. Los Angeles’ housing crisis can directly be attributed to an age-old economic problem — supply and demand. The demand increases when the supply is low and the market is a testament to this with high rents and high real estate prices. This is why we need to create new tools; something that we do at Holos Communities every day, if we are ever going to solve our housing and homelessness crises. 

This crisis is a call to action to increase equity and representation for all Angelenos, and we hope you will join us in creating spaces for all.