Los Angeles Councilman Gil Cedillo and other city officials will travel Monday to Sacramento to lobby state lawmakers and Gov. Jerry Brown’s office for $1.3 billion in state funding to be spent on creating affordable housing for the homeless and low-income people.
The funds could also be used to allow more people to own homes and to assist with earthquake retrofitting costs.
Cedillo said the funds are needed because housing costs have “soared” by 20 percent in recent years while incomes have dropped 8 percent. The funds could be used to ensure that Los Angeles would be affordable for families and residents with a wider mix of incomes, he said.
The Los Angeles delegation is planning to push for flexibility in how the funds could be used, according to Cedillo.
“We want to make sure we have the broadest flexibility, that we have the ability to spend money as soon as we get it, as soon as we’re able to,” he told his colleagues on the City Council, which approved a resolution officially backing the $1.3 billion funding proposal.
Cedillo also said that with the Los Angeles area representing about 40 percent of the state’s population, it should get a proportional amount of the funding.
City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana, the city legislative officer and potentially two other council members will join Cedillo in Sacramento on Monday in meetings planned with Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon and the governor’s office.
— City News Service