Is There a Worker-Shortage? A Closer Look at the July Jobs Report
Does the United States have a general labor shortage? Clearly there are problems in specific locations and occupations. There are shortages at 911 call-centers across the country. The U.S. Postal Service is short of staff. In Los Angeles County where I live, the government legal infrastructure is a mess; there is a shortage of public defenders, interpreters, court reporters, and prosecutors. Despite high pay for some of these jobs, the private sector offers even higher pay. Rural school districts in the far north of my state have what the Los Angeles Times calls an “alarming teacher shortage.” Other states, too, have teacher shortages; it’s a difficult job and it is getting more difficult as the book-banners harass teachers and school officials. And across the country there is a shortage of school bus drivers.
Let’s look at this last “shortage” for a minute. A company called Zum that recruits and manages drivers for the LA Unified School District offers $26 an hour—above average for the region–and at least five hours a day of work. This might seem like a reasonable proposition for someone who needs only part-time work, but not if you are supporting others or if you are alone and don’t want to live in a shack. For a school year of 40 weeks and 5 hours a day you’d earn $26,000. If your rent is $1,300 a month, you’d have about $14,000 for your other bills and paycheck deductions over those nine months. Maybe you should try a different line of work.
Areas with high job vacancies may have specific explanations, including worker burnout, lack of appropriate skills, and lousy compensation, but these do not show that there is a widespread shortage of labor across the economy. The latter idea is being pushed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber’s writers ask why more workers aren’t getting into the labor force and accepting jobs. According to employer reports, the number of job openings in June stood at 9.6 million. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the number of people who were not working but were looking for work—the unemployed—numbered 5.8 million in July. Why so few? The CC answer is less immigration, more early retirements, and pandemic-era government benefits that convinced workers that “they no longer need to work.”
The Official Count of the Unemployed Is Just Half the Story
But there are many potential workers standing just outside the official labor force ready to work. The National Jobs For All Network’s (NJFAN) Full Count adds to the official tally people who want a job but are not currently searching. If we add just those 5.2 million people, the pool of unemployed job-wanters reaches 11 million, and the unemployment rate jumps from 3.5% to 8.7%.
There is usually a large group of people outside the official labor force who want a job and soon take one. In fact, rarely discussed government data show that more people every month move from “not in the labor force” to being “employed” than move from the category of “unemployed” to “employed.” Too technical? The key point is that there are millions of workers ready to take jobs although they are not counted as looking for work and unemployed.
Why don’t more of them actively search for a job? Probably some aren’t ready to work right away; some haven’t figured out child-care arrangements. Some can’t find jobs with decent pay and benefits. Some may have gotten tired of being jerked around in a job-search process that has become more frustrating, more dishonest, and more dangerous. Some don’t have the right credentials for various jobs. In the areas of retail jobs and accommodations and food services, where specialized skills are not key, there is a rough balance between job openings and hires. In government work, there is a huge gap between job openings of 1,130,000 and new hires at 387,000.
The Job-Search Gauntlet
In a terrific piece of research for Time Magazine, Alana Semuels presents much support for her title: “You’re Not Imagining It—Job Hunting is Getting Worse.” For example, some firms include more company reviewers on their side, and that means more opinions, often from people who are unfamiliar with the process. That makes the hiring process longer.
It is also riskier. Scammers pose as recruiters to steal applicants’ personal information, including bank account numbers. A person who claims to have been applying for ten jobs a day for many months sums it up this way: “You can’t ever be confident it’s a real job reaching out to you.”
And if you are dealing with a real employer, you cannot be sure that you will be treated honestly and with courtesy. In one survey, two-thirds of the applicants were ghosted after a job interview—cut off without explanation–and the ghosting rate for minority candidates was higher. Also, some companies lie about job vacancies. They post ghost jobs that they will never fill or not soon. Why? To get a pool of candidates they might some day use; to show that their company is expanding; and to keep current employees motivated.
Back to the Chamber of Commerce argument about a general labor shortage. As NJFAN’s Full Count shows, the number of unemployed job-wanters is twice the official count of unemployed workers. It totaled 11 million people in July. If more jobs were more attractive, and if the hiring process were more honest and user-friendly, more people might report that they were actively looking for work, more would find jobs, and employers would show fewer job vacancies.
But there aren’t enough jobs that offer a wage and solid benefits. That is one reason we need government good-job programs. And there is plenty of work to be done. We need a massive effort to respond to climate threats of cataclysmic proportions, not to mention the need for affordable housing and a dozen other things. We don’t need more unemployment. We don’t need a Federal Reserve-induced recession. The Consumer Price Index increased just one and a half percent over the last six months. Government actions, Federal Reserve policies, and natural economic processes worked to cut inflation rates. A recession is not necessary and would cause pain to millions of people, especially those in groups that are already hurting. Unemployment rates for disabled people have come down, but they are still very high at 6.9%. The unemployment rate for Black people is lower than it has often been, but it is still very high at 5.8% and is almost twice the white rate of 3.1%. Also, a recession would undercut real wage growth. That is a key aspect of Fed anti-inflation policy. Wages are not exactly surging, but a 2% increase in the real purchasing power of the average hourly wage over the last year is not something we have seen much of in the 21st century. And the Fed wants to call a halt.
The post Is There a Worker-Shortage? A Closer Look at the July Jobs Report appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).
Nevada Legislature gives in to corporate lobbyists and abandons the working class
As socialists, we are fundamentally aware of the ways money impacts legislation at all levels of government – that is clear in the voting records of Nevada’s legislators during the 2023 Session.
With cash flowing in from all sectors of private business, including landlord associations, working class needs were de-prioritized and often completely rejected. This is especially true for affordable housing. In 2022, Culinary 226 delivered a ballot initiative to North Las Vegas City Council to demand rent stabilization. This ballot initiative would have applied to North Las Vegas alone, and not Las Vegas or unincorporated Clark County. Still, it was a good bill that would have protected families from rapidly increasing rents. The ballot initiative was scrapped by North Las Vegas City Council, who tied it up in expensive litigation and declared that the signatures obtained by Culinary 226 were invalid. Of course, every North Las Vegas City Council member has received money from for-profit housing groups, including “progressive” Isaac Barron.
It was then carried by Senator Pat Spearman to the legislature, who introduced the bill to implement rent stabilization statewide. Culinary 226 rallied behind the bill, as did hundreds of community members. Las Vegas DSA sent over 200 letters in support, and community members spoke directly to the legislature about the pain Nevadans face due to drastic and unyielding rent increases. Three housing lobbyists were also in attendance: Ovation Properties, The National Apartment Association, and Nevada Realtors.
The bill passed the senate, then was left to die in the house, a common tactic used by the legislature. They didn’t vote no, in favor of the lobbyists who spent a combined $3 million on their personal campaigns, they simply didn’t vote at all!
It gets worse. If you follow these same three lobbyist groups throughout the legislature, you’ll quickly notice a recurring theme. Whenever they opposed a bill, they typically won. In one egregious instance, Ovation Properties submitted an amendment on a bill that would have ended exploitative application fees by capping the amount landlords could charge. Senator Fabian Donate, the sponsor, graciously allowed this corporate behemoth to amend his bill, changing it from a bill that helped tenants into a bill that allowed landlords to sue tenants for their own evictions. Officially, landlord groups have donated over $8700 to Donate’s campaign. Unofficially, that number is surely higher.
This is not just about housing. Other bills that supported workers over corporations were also shot down. A bill that would have provided water breaks for outdoor workers was rejected, much to the confusion of everyone involved. It originally included mandated breaks at temperatures over 95 degrees, but was quickly amended to say “as needed” over 105 degrees before it ultimately died in the assembly committee. No one directly opposed the bill, however, construction industries have donated heavily to Democratic lawmakers.
While labor unions also donated heavily to campaigns this cycle, their concerns were often ignored. Senator Rochelle Nguyen, the recipient of massive amounts of casino money, took it upon herself to champion a bill to roll back daily room cleanings at hotels, which was opposed by Culinary 226. Nguyen took a bizarre, niche stance in fighting against the union’s desired protections. While it may seem like a matter of small importance, what’s truly striking about the bill is that it was introduced at the behest of casino corporations. Nguyen argues that COVID era protections are no longer needed, but that’s not why this bill was introduced. The Nevada Resort Association pressured the Democrats to pass the bill, so they did.
Workers lost most of the fights in the Nevada legislature. Democratic lawmakers shot down most tenants rights bills, including bills that would have ended income discrimination and reigned in application fees. Workers rights were non-existent in the legislature, with zero bills passed to correct the power imbalance between employee & employer. Democrats were, however, successful in passing several liberal reforms. They managed to remove slavery from the constitution and further enshrine our already enshrined abortion rights, facing zero opposition from Republicans in doing so. The NGO world has chosen to fixate on these wins despite the overwhelming failure to support the working class.
Workers didn’t just lose, corporations and billionaires won. Most bills for worker or tenant protections simply “died” in committee without a vote, a shrewd move that voters are supposed to believe is due to time limitations. Meanwhile, a bill to provide over $500 million in public tax money to fund the construction of a baseball stadium for billionaire A’s owner, John Fisher, got its own special session. For a week, Democrats played coy. They made public announcements against the special session, stood up in session and delivered fiery speeches about the rich … then voted to pass the bill. Assemblyman Steve Yeager signaled which direction they would vote when he responded to criticism by saying “I didn’t get into politics to make friends”. I disagree, it seems that you can be Steve Yeager’s friend, but only if you have the right amount of money. Combined with the $400 million in tax breaks handed out to billionaire Elon Musk, Nevadans are now on the hook for $1 billion in free money to two billionaires.
With the help of the Nevada Legislature in this recent session, corporations are allowed to continue to mistreat workers, while tenants are without any meaningful protection, rents continue to rise, wages continue to stay the same, and no real help is offered to the homeless – except to hide them in a massive corporate sponsored jail facility. Nevadans deserve better.
Tropical Storm Warning for SoCal + State Leg. Returns from Recess
Thorn West: Issue No. 170
State Politics
- The California State Legislature is back from recess this week for the final five weeks of the 2023 legislative session. All new bills will need to be voted on before September 14 in order to pass along to Governor Gavin Newsom to be signed or vetoed.
Housing Rights
- Residents of the Aetna Street encampment in Van Nuys successfully blocked a sweep. LA Public Press has firsthand coverage.
- A change in federal regulations will eliminate a significant bottleneck that prevents unhoused people from moving into available permanent housing units while working on their applications, causing units to remain empty for months while the application process drags on. Mayor Karen Bass lobbied for the change.
- After being heard at the Budget and Finance and Housing Committees this week, the initial spending plan for funds collected by Measure ULA, developed by the ULA Citizens Oversight Council (COC), was advanced to full council with a full $150 million of front-funding.
Labor
- Among the bills under consideration by the California State Legislature will be legislation that would give striking workers the right to collect unemployment benefits, as is already the case in New York and New Jersey.
- A report from the Writers Guild of America calls for antitrust agencies to regulate streaming platforms.
Police Violence and Community Resistance
- In LA Taco, a report on how two-thirds of Los Angeles’ $1.3 billion in COVID-19 relief funds went to fund the police and fire departments, with none of it going toward housing.
- Next week, LA City Council committees will begin discussing the proposed tentative agreement between the city and the Los Angeles Police Protective League, which increases the starting pay for LAPD officers by nearly 13%.
Environmental Justice
- Los Angeles received its first-ever tropical storm warning, as Hurricane Hilary is predicted to pass through the area over the weekend. LA Public Press spoke with mutual aid groups that are concerned the city has not done enough to help the unhoused community prepare for the likelihood of torrential rain and flooding. Updates from the city and county noted here.
- This month the LA Times is running a special series focusing on the effects of climate change across the state and city, and what can be done on both the individual and governmental levels.
- Politico rounds up some of the climate-related bills that the state legislature will consider in the upcoming final few weeks of this year’s legislative session.
The post Tropical Storm Warning for SoCal + State Leg. Returns from Recess appeared first on The Thorn West.
2023 National DSA Convention - A Debrief
By: James J. Jackson
In early August of 2023, I had the privilege of attending the DSA National Convention as a delegate for our chapter. Although I originally planned to attend as our chapter’s alternate, circumstances arose where I was obliged to replace one of our elected delegates.
This was my 3rd convention as a delegate and my 4th convention overall since joining DSA in 2017. While I am sad that I had to replace one of our elected delegates, I am beyond grateful for the opportunity to participate. I say I am “beyond grateful” because no words can do justice to how proud I am of my fellow delegates. Nor can they properly describe how far our organization has come in the last six years.
For those who might not know, the DSA National Convention is the highest democratic body in our organization. Delegates use the space to set our priorities and rework the structure of our organization for the next two years. It is also the space where our national leadership, the National Political Committee, is elected.
At this convention, I saw where DSA stands, where we are going, and what it means for our chapter.
Like any other organization, SacDSA is not perfect. We still have much work to do to improve communication between our committees and campaigns. Also, we need to have a serious talk about the grossly unfair distribution of labor in this volunteer-run organization (and why that labor tends to fall on the shoulders of people who aren’t cis het white guys like me despite the fact our membership is mostly cis and white).
That being said, thanks to what I saw during this awe-inspiring weekend in Chicago, I am thrilled to report that DSA is lightyears ahead of where we were at the 2017, 2019, and 2021 conventions.
2017: Socialism Is Cool Again!
In 2017, DSA had just exploded to somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 members after Donald Trump’s 2016 victory. At the time, we were in a state of chaotic reorganization thanks to the expansion. We were a bunch of eager young leftists taking over an organization that was once notorious for having an average membership age of 60-65 and was scoffed at by many leftists for being “zionist” and Pro-Israel.
At this convention, there was a massive new radical energy entering the organization that shifted us harder to the left than ever before. But in that energy, there was little guidance because it was here we saw in real-time what being multi-tendency means in a democratic organization that exploded in membership so quickly. Still, it was a beautiful sight and an honor to be a part of that convention too. The 2017 Con reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from Hunter S. Thompson, “We had all the momentum… We were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave.”
Regarding that multi-tendency tendency, it was there that the factionalization of DSA began to rise. Much can be said here about the different caucuses, but as a biased member of a caucus myself (the Socialist Majority Caucus), I will instead focus on the direction DSA took, and do my best to set my sectarian hot takes aside.
From this convention going into 2018 and 2019, debates about our internal structuring and the direction of DSA became more intense and divisive. There were many reasons for this, some incidental and some with gross consequences for the organization. For example, there was the snafu where a single member began fundraising for Charlottesville DSA members and comrades who were victims of the Unite the Right Rally violence that ultimately killed Heather Hayer. Said member raised hundreds of thousands of dollars with no plan for distributing the money and had no contact with the NPC or any NC DSA chapter members prior to starting the fundraiser.
There was also the incident where one of our newly elected NPC members from 2017 was outed for repeated acts of sexual assault, and the drama that unfolded when another newly elected NPC member was called out for organizing a union of correctional officers.
The point is, we were excited, but we had no fucking idea what we were doing, and because of that, drama ensued.
2019: “Guys, Can We Keep The Chatter To A Minimum!?” By the 2019 con, it was all about the Bernie momentum. Bernie was not only poised to run in 2020 but it seemed like he was on track to win the Democratic nomination. This was why the major tier of the 2019 electoral plan oriented itself around our Democratic Socialists for Bernie campaign. The peak of this at that convention was the passing of a resolution that prohibited DSA national from endorsing any other Democrat if Bernie lost the nomination, which he did.
But the tone of 2019 was much different and much more divisive than in 2017. This convention was also much less democratic than in 2017. Delegates were bombarded with bad-faith attacks by sectarians who smeared our convention chairs and used procedural nonsense to bog down progress whenever they did not get their way.
I am not joking when I say we delegates lost a full day of debate and voting thanks to constant, idiotic procedural motions. Debates about the convention rules and needless credential challenges against delegates stole hours of work from us. There were similar challenges in 2017, but 2019 was atrocious, vicious, and disillusioning for many. Several members, including some SacDSA delegates, came home lethargic and despondent about our organization. On a personal note my comrades, this was heartbreaking for me. Despite any issues in 2017, I came back to our chapter inspired and energized to get involved with my organization. I was hoping 2019 would do the same thing for the comrades coming to convention with me.
Not only did the complete opposite happen, but the convention was so chaotic and so full of members attacking each other in bad faith that I ended up, in a moment of poor judgment, grabbing the mic and having a full-on anxiety attack on the convention floor. I also made the mistake of forgetting I was no longer in California and therefore forgot that regional dialects don’t always carry over. Long story short, after my anxiety attack a trans/nonbinary comrade took the mic and took furious exception to the fact I referred to the delegation as “guys’’ and not as “comrades.”
The moment has since become a right-wing meme still making rounds on Twitter and Tik Tok to this day. When it first went viral, I was promptly doxed by Fox News and several right-wingers. Fun fact, the now out-of-work Tucker Carlson said my name at least 8 times in one 10-minute segment, but probably because “James Jackson” is such a fun name to say. Who doesn’t love alliteration, right?
My point is that after such a hellish convention and that nightmarish experience with the far-right, I was a little apprehensive about ever going back to being a delegate.
Fortunately, weed is legal in Chicago now, so for the 2023 convention, my anxiety was properly under control. Attending this convention and seeing that I could keep my cool in the face of bad-faith sectarianism was just one of the things that made the 2023 convention so healing for me.
2021: F*ck You Covid
The 2021 convention was our first, and likely our only, all-virtual convention due to COVID. I can only say so much about this convention because 1. I was not a delegate and 2. The shift to an all-virtual meeting was a challenge for everyone involved, especially in the wake of where socialists stood in 2021.
Bernie lost, Biden was already president, the pandemic was taking everything from us, and the overall tone of that convention was a collective head scratch. It didn’t matter what your faction was in 2021 because we were all asking the same question, “Where is this organization going now!?”
But by 2023, we figured it out.
2023: A New Hope
There are some sobering realities to take away from the 2023 convention. DSA has seen a decline in membership which means a decline in dues, which means a decline in resources for both future and existing campaigns. However, despite such a decline, one saw comrades with more hope in their organization than ever before. I lost count of all the comrades I met who were attending a DSA con for the first time, and this was the one to have as their first. (Thank god they missed 2019!)
As a 4-time con veteran, I knew just how far we had come after only the first day of voting.
As already mentioned, both the 2017 and 2019 conventions were slowed down by tedious bad faith procedural motions that included things like challenging the credentials of delegations (NYC DSA in 2017 and East Bay in 2019), and in 2019 there was the infamous day-long rules debate. But comrades, when this convention’s opening day saw zero, and I mean zero, challenges to the rules and not a single credentials challenge, it was clear that this con had one and only one vibe. “Fuck the bullshit, let’s get to work!”
The 2023 convention chairs handled any bad faith that came their way beautifully. Shout out to two of them, Beth H. and Sandy B. who oversaw some of the most intense debates. It was also beneficial that this convention utilized something called Openslides, an online tool that allowed members to voice their procedural motions in a more constructive way than screaming into the microphones. It also eased the chairs’ ability to spot, and squash, bad-faith actors who were obviously abusing procedural motions.
But the real achievement belongs to the maturity of delegates who handled both their losses and victories with poise and dignity. Even after votes riddled with intense debate, comrades moved forward in a fashion that sent a clear message that we just wanted to vote and take our work back home to our chapters.
Some of the most intense votes included a vote where the BDS working group was to be absorbed under the banner of the International Committee, which passed, and a vote to expand the NPC in hopes that more members would create a fairer distribution of labor for our national leadership. That motion failed narrowly despite having a near supermajority.
Full disclosure, I was strongly in favor of both of these above-mentioned resolutions. Of all the resolutions in 2023, the NPC expansion was the issue I was most strongly in favor of (and still am). So it did hurt me when that failed. That said, I still went through the convention with the collective dignity and eagerness my comrades shared to build DSA.
Regarding the NPC election, going forward it will be interesting to see how our stance as a multi-tenancy organization will manifest in our work. Thanks to the use of a Single Transferable Vote counting system for the NPC election, our NPC is once again reflective of our big-tent posture. We have some pro-electoral NPC members, some anti-electoral, and a sprinkling of other ideological tendencies. It will be interesting to see where that takes us, especially because this NPC saw more of the anti-electoral block elected than ever before.
One think piece is not enough to sum up the concise and healing effect this convention had on me and so many others. Nor is it enough to go into detail about the debates around still important issues in DSA like BDS, Anti Zionism, Trans rights, our electoral strategy, and more. However, what can be stressed is the newfound pride I have in this organization, especially in this chapter.
It has been years since I have seen our chapter handle themselves the way they did at this convention, and I include myself in that little hint of complimentary criticism. I came into this organization in 2017 as loud and angry as the most annoying Twitter sectarian. I came home from the 2023 Chicago con with hope and understanding about my comrades. And I thank my fellow delegates for that. Sac DSA delegates showed pragmatism, patience, poise, research skills, dignity, and good faith in ways I haven’t seen in years. Our whole delegation deserves our thanks, especially our delegation chair, Sara C.
On yet another personal note, I cannot praise Sara enough because when I first joined DSA in 2017, the first major task I had for the organization was serving as delegation chair. It was incredibly stressful. I lost hours of sleep and was riddled with panic attacks about voting cards and Robert’s Rules. Once Sara was delivered to us in Chicago, I saw nothing from her except all of the perfect qualities of a delegate that I mentioned above. This convention was a smashing success, and it is thanks to comrades like Sara who made it such a success. Stepping up as a delegation chair for the first time is like learning to swim by getting thrown into the deep end head first. Some sink and some swim, but Sara soared.
I am not mincing words when I say that every single person who dares to call themselves a Sac DSA member should be very proud of their delegation.
The World To Win
There is only one thing about this convention that makes me sad, and that is the fact that not everyone from SacDSA could be there. If we had all been there, so many in this organization would have had their faith restored, not just in DSA but in the concept of organizing. My only hope now is that the rest of the delegates and I can bring this energy to every meeting, every event, every campaign, and every Mutual Aid Monday!
We do have to take things like our lower membership numbers and our ongoing internal debates seriously, but not to the point where we forget, as I did in 2019, that we are all comrades. Despite so many ups and downs, so many democratic socialists are still here, still fighting, and still ready to do the work.
And I think we’re more ready than ever before! We are fighting to re-elect our comrade Katie Valenzuela to the city council and we are ready to send two more friends of our chapter (Amreet Sandhu in District 6 and Dr. Flo Cofer for Mayor) to join her. Another thing I learned at the convention when talking to delegates from other chapters was that our decision to focus on these races and not overextend our capacity further marked our maturity. Our chapter got just as many compliments about our city council campaigns as we did on our decision to focus our limited resources on them. The decision to not only endorse but also to prioritize is a true mark of political maturity. It shows we are taking this work seriously, and that was the entire vibe of this convention. We have matured as an organization.
DSA is not what it was when it was founded in 1982. It is not what it was when socialism fell out of favor in the 1990s. It is not even the organization it was in 2017 or 2019. We are now a real socialist organization. An established and mature collective of eager organizers who take this work seriously. We’re in this to win, not just to flex how radical or progressive we are, and I’m here for it!
So long as we stay this course and keep our heads held high and maintain a sense of dignity through our internal debates, that “world to win” we keep talking about is ours!
I have never been happier and more eager to tell everyone I know, “Why yes, I am a member of Sacramento DSA. Allow me to introduce you to my comrades.”
James J. Jackson is a member of the SacDSA steering committee and served as its co-chair in the 2019-2020 term. He has written for Sac News and Review, the Sac DSA blog, Democratic Left, and Socialist Forum. He also writes fiction, poetry, and journalism under the pen name Jimbo Jax.
Tucson DSA's The Sonoran Socialist
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Sacramento Takes A Step Towards Ending Homelessness
By: Teddy Georgeoff
On Aug 1, 2023, the Sacramento city council heard from an impressive 36 members of the public, and thereafter spent an additional 3 hours in passionate debate. This resulted in the narrow 5-4 passage of the Ordinance Authorizing the City Manager to Implement a Temporary Shelter Program. The ordinance gives full authority to the City Manager, Howard Chan, to select locations and establish safe grounds for our homeless population.
This is the third time Mayor Darrell Steinberg has suggested a plan like this, but this was the first time he had a majority of support on the city council for it. The ordinance is targeting a very specific problem. As we astutely heard from Council Member Katie Valenzuela, enforcement of city code upon our unhoused population is in a constant state of displacement with no destination. This style of enforcement has harmful effects on the unhoused with no progress towards a solution. In addition, this type of shuffle-along policy is in direct violation of Martin v. Boise, which states cities cannot enforce anti-camping ordinances if they do not have enough homeless shelter beds available. This makes our current practices not only ineffective, but illegal.
It has taken a few iterations of this ordinance to pass with previous versions being bogged down in deliberation due to the complexities of the negotiations and NIMBYism when choosing safe ground locations. With the passing of this ordinance, the City Manager will have full discretion and 60 days to select the city owned parcels of land among the 8 districts and move as many people into these safe shelter zones as is possible. These will be unmanaged zones to reduce cost, but the city will, by law, be forced to provide a “dignified” level of support to all who reside there. This “dignified” level is still up for discussion between the county, the City Manager, and City Attorney Susana Wood. This specific lack of clarity around the word “dignified” is a reason why Mayor Pro Tem Mai Vang, a supporter of safe ground, voted no on this ordinance as presented.
Although there were some dissenting opinions from the public, more praised the measure than protested it. “This is a dream I have had for 13 years,” a member of the public who helps with safe grounds said in public comment. “For the first time I agree with the mayor,” said a DSA member as he started his two minutes at the podium. After public comment, Caity Maple mentioned that she and Katie Valenzuela had been advocating for this since the first day they joined the council stating, “It’s kind of amazing that we are here.”
However, Council Member Karina Talamantes lashed out at the mayor and accused him of not visiting her district and for the lack of good neighbor policies in the ordinance. Her rationale that we don’t want to give the City Manager unilateral decision on this issue was thwarted by Vice Mayor Guerra’s reminder that it takes 5 votes to give him the power and 5 votes to remove that power should the council be dissatisfied with the city manager’s direction. Although the good neighbor policy was amended by Vice Mayor Guerra’s motion, Council Member Talamantes still voted no, seemingly out of frustration with the Mayor.
Safe ground is not a new concept and has been utilized successfully in places like San Diego, LA, and in many other states. Safe ground has some of the highest impact per dollar invested due to economies of scale and ease of creation. It becomes easier to ensure safety and provide services to the unhoused if the city gives them a sanctioned space to reside.
This ordinance does not come to us in perfection. There is a lack of clarity on the services that are required to be offered at each site. How can we be sure that these grounds are safe? There is debate on if Howard Chan, the City Manager, is the right person to drive this initiative, in addition there is a lack of metrics which define success. There is also a lack of specificity in the geodiversity of the plots to be selected outside of the mayor’s directive to the City Manager to “try your best”. Even with these faults, the council voted to pass in hopes that it will quickly show signs of progress for the city.
My Opinion:
After watching this debate unfold for over 6 hours, I have come to the following conclusions:
Human beings need a dignified place to reside. Given we have a fully utilized 1100 bed capacity to house our 10,000 unhoused people, this ordinance will be beneficial and could potentially lead to upwards of $5 million in funding to create a more permanent destination for our remaining 8900 unhoused citizens. We should continually advocate for the most vulnerable among us, and funding initiatives that favor solutions over bandaid enforcement is a key to success.
When the rest of the council rightfully asked for City Manager Chan to be receptive to public input, Council Member Sean Loloee of district 2, voiced an undemocratic opinion. Stating, “I don’t think, when it comes to the sites, advocates or activists really help the situation.” As someone who is supposed to represent the people, I find it disgraceful he would try to silence them. Or perhaps he thinks the public dumb and incapable? The experience of the social workers who are on the ground, and the homelessness population itself need to be involved in giving comments for this process to maximize success.
I will echo the council members in saying that we should not lose focus on the long term goal of housing for all, but until we are able to achieve this politically and financially, this is good policy. The council did well, although barely, to realize perfection should not be the enemy of progress and passed this step towards addressing our city’s homeless crisis.
Democracy is Power
The post Democracy is Power appeared first on Democratic Socialists of America.
High Vacancy Rate in City Staffing Aggravating Housing Crisis + Causing Labor Burnout
Thorn West: Issue No. 169
DSA held its biannual national convention over the past weekend, with over 1,000 socialists gathering in Chicago to set the direction of the organization for the next two years. The Los Angeles chapter sent over 60 delegates, the second-largest delegation, and one of its members was elected to DSA’s 16-person National Political Committee.
City Politics
- This Tuesday the Los Angeles City Council’s Personnel, Audits, and Hiring Committee will meet for the first time in several months, as the absence of Councilmember Curren Price has led to several cancellations. This week the committee will discuss impediments to the Targeted Local Hire Program, which the city relies on to staff open civilian positions.
Labor
- Los Angeles city employees represented by SEIU Local 721 staged a 24-hour walkout on Tuesday in response to alleged unfair labor practices by the city. The union also used the opportunity to draw attention to the city’s thousands of staffing vacancies, which for numerous reasons the city has been slow to fill. “If you’re our members, there’s immediacy — if you’re working mandatory overtime every weekend, if you haven’t seen your family,” said union president David Green.
- The LA Times reports on numerous instances of violence being used against striking hotel workers by the security forces employed by hotels. Jacobin also has continued coverage of the hotel workers’ strike, with articles on a strike-breaking app and a strike-breaking conference of political science academics.
- Last Friday representatives of the WGA and AMPTP met to discuss the possibility of resuming negotiations. Though initial reports indicated that there had not been much progress to restart negotiations, it has since been announced that negotiations would resume today.
Police Violence and Community Resistance
- Meanwhile the city has moved with feverish speed to address a parallel staffing decline in the LAPD, offering double-digit percentage pay bumps for starting pay in the latest contract. (Having fewer police officers has not corresponded with an increase in crime.) Los Angeles Police Protective League officers will vote to ratify the tentative agreement next week, after which the LA City Council must vote to approve it, first in the Personnel Committee and then in full council.
Housing Rights
- In 2022, years of tenant organizing at Hillside Villa led to a historically successful result, as the LA City Council passed a motion to acquire their building through eminent domain to maintain affordable rents. In the year since, the city has made very little progress on following through. Last week, the building’s owner delivered dozens of pay-or-quit notices to tenants. Thread from tenant rally here.
- In July, reporting from ProPublica and Capital & Main uncovered several residential hotels — in which units are supposed to be kept as affordable housing — renting to tourists, violating the rules in plain sight. The Los Angeles Housing Department has responded by sending out notices to noncompliant owners. A motion from Councilmember Bob Blumenfield also aims to strengthen what has been lax enforcement of the ordinance, which LAHD claims is the result of departmental short-staffing.
- Relatedly, KCRW covers the city’s failure to enforce its tenant anti-harassment ordinance.
Environmental Justice
- The South Coast Air Quality Management District board approved new regulations to help the Southern California region hit federally mandated targets for reducing nitrogen oxide emissions. It is a first-of-its-kind rule that will require dozens of food manufacturers to soon begin replacing their gas-powered ovens with cleaner electric models.
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