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Advocates urge council to protect homeless services, day laborer centers and safe-parking programs
Summary
Service providers, day-labor advocates and nonprofit leaders urged the council to preserve funding for homeless services, day laborer centers and safe parking during budget deliberations.
Nonprofit leaders, service providers and community members urged the Los Angeles City Council on May 21 to protect funding for homeless services, day laborer centers and safe-parking programs in the mayor’s proposed budget.
Jerry Richerson of St. Joseph Center and other speakers told council members that prior investments reduced homelessness and that cutting services now would reverse progress. "This is not the time to reduce services," Richerson said in public comment, urging the council to maintain programs that showed results.
Speakers also called for sustained funding for day-labor centers and the "jonaderos" centers that some nonprofit partners operate, saying the centers provide a safety net for workers who clean up after fires and support vulnerable workers who lack other protections. Representatives from IBEPSCA told the council they had served roughly 1,000 migrant workers through such programs and asked the council to continue funding.
Advocates urged designated allocations rather than leaving funds in reserves, and several requested $1 million for legal-defense or immigrant-support programs (see separate article on immigrant legal defense). Others asked the council to fund safe-parking programs for residents living in vehicles as part of a broader homelessness strategy.
Ending: Public-comment speakers asked council members to prioritize programs that directly move people into housing, support day laborers and preserve emergency and safety-net services for the city’s most vulnerable residents.
