Investing in People and Places

It has been my lifelong passion to fight for healthier neighborhoods and improved opportunities for all people who face socio-economic disadvantages. As a former social worker and a community organizer, I understand the everyday needs of low income and working people in our City. I have worked with youth to get their GEDs, connected hundreds of youth to jobs, helped janitors and their families achieve livable wages and health benefits. As Chair of the Budget Committee on the Board of Supervisors, I fought for long lasting solutions to strengthen our workforce, create affordable housing, upgrade our community infrastructure, and empower our communities.

I believe that the City has a key role to play in investing in the futures of our youth and working families to create stable and thriving communities.

The federal government’s commitment to affordable housing, job training, and community development is on a downward trajectory, but our community development program is critical to leveling the field for low income and immigrant communities. We need strong political leadership to create policies that support our communities and reinvest in our local neighborhoods.

As Mayor, I will:

Support & Strengthen our Neighborhoods

• Promote job opportunities that help our neighborhoods and communities. Our communities seek training and job opportunities and placement centers in careers that are making a difference, with good green and blue collar jobs and positions in the public sector.

• Invest in community based, neighborhood planning processes. Community members are experts and should be included in the planning for how to develop our neighborhoods and our commercial corridors. We need affordable commercial spaces for local entrepreneurs, senior centers, childcare facilities, youth programs, and affordable health clinics. We need spaces for children to play and for people to socialize and share our cultures and traditions, such as plazas, expanded green and open spaces, and family-friendly clubhouses and venues.

• Promote access to fresh and healthy foods. Our commercial corridor should provide more healthy and organic foods, farmers’ markets, and restaurants serving nutritious foods.

Support our Families

• Promote affordable housing opportunities for low income families. Low income families face a severe lack of housing. We need affordable housing for low income families — regardless of papers — throughout our neighborhoods where we live, work, study, and play.

• Create college and career track employment opportunities for all youth. A generation of low income youth is coming of age during one of our most severe economic crises. We play a critical role in ensuring that they have real opportunities for a decent livelihood and a bright future.

• Expand services and programs for families in crisis. Eviction prevention, domestic violence services, immigration and family reunification services, health services, affordable daycare, economical public transportation, job training programs, are crucial programs for stabilizing vulnerable families.

Support our Immigrant Community

• Develop targeted employment strategies for immigrant workers. The city’s economic and workforce development programs are not reaching our immigrant communities. We must support targeted strategies to grow decent job opportunities in both the public and private sector, for those that are here living in the community, regardless of documentation.

• Promote micro enterprise and small businesses. I will expand programs, reduce barriers, and provide seed capital to support immigrant micro enterprises, cooperatives, including childcare providers, domestic workers, and street vendors.

• Make sure workers know their rights. Many immigrant workers suffer from abusive working conditions. The City should help workers learn about their rights and sanction abusive employers.

• Assistance to immigrants. Immigrants face many obstacles, and our city should provide them with assistance to regularize their status, gain proficiency in English, access education and training opportunities to gain good jobs, and receive materials, outreach, and translation in their native language.