In latest advocacy ad in the Los Angeles Times (Sun., Mar. 21, 2021) AHF’s Housing Is A Human Right warns Mayor Garcetti and the Los Angeles City Council: ‘Don’t Blow It!’ on homelessness
LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Housing justice advocates from AHF and its housing advocacy arm, Housing Is A Human Right (HHR), are set to run another advocacy ad in the Los Angeles Times (Sunday, March 21st), this week, addressing Mayor Eric Garcetti and the City Council directly on L.A.’s homeless and housing affordability crises. The ad, banner headlined ‘No More Excuses!’ reminds city officials that they “…are receiving $1.35 billion in federal (COVID relief) aid,” and notes “You have an historic opportunity to end homelessness.” The ad ends with a bottom banner admonishing Garcetti and the Council: “Don’t Blow It!”
Earlier this month the Los Angeles Times reported: “Mayor Eric Garcetti and other city leaders received an unmistakably positive sign of a turnaround, with passage of a massive federal relief package that’s expected to send $1.35 billion directly to Los Angeles.” The paper reported that Garcetti was “ecstatic” and that he “… described the relief bill as one of the most progressive pieces of federal legislation since the Great Depression, providing money for rent relief, child care benefits and initiatives to combat homelessness.”
“The federal money coming to Los Angeles presents a tremendous opportunity for L.A. to finally and meaningfully end our homeless crisis,” said Michael Weinstein, president of AHF. “However, we need Mayor Garcetti and the Council to act deliberately—and swiftly—to end the crisis here once and for all.”
This is the third advocacy ad that AHF has run in the Los Angeles Times over the past month. Last week (March 14, 2021), an ad highlighted the homeless problem and offered solutions. “L.A. Is a City That Doesn’t Work,” was a full-page, four-color ad that took the form of an old, yellowed newspaper from a bygone era. It also posed the question: “How Did Homelessness Get This Bad?” AHF’s ad suggested swift, system-wide overhauls that could result in more effective and faster solutions to the problem.
The previous week (Sunday, March 7, 2021) AHF ran another full-page Los Angeles Times ad celebrating AHF’s Healthy Housing Foundation (HHF). HHF, which launched in late 2017, is the housing production arm of AHF. It provides decent housing units at an affordable cost to low-income people, including families with children, and those previously unsheltered or homeless. That ad, headlined “AHF’s Family of Housing,” was an upbeat, brightly colored collage of old photos and renderings of several of the older hotels and motels that AHF has purchased over the past three-and-a-half years to refurbish and repurpose as extremely-low-income housing. Since 2017, AHF has purchased nine old SRO hotels and motels in Southern California and created nearly 900 housing units in Greater Los Angeles.
Contacts
Ged Kenslea
Senior Director, Communications for AHF
+1.323.791.5526
gedk@aidshealth.org