This is a “now” moment for our communities. We must educate ourselves, inspire each other through our stories of resilience, and advocate for one another by demanding policies that address immediate needs as well as long-term social, economic, education, and health disparities post the COVID-19 pandemic.
Our Representatives in Congress need to hear from us so we can get the rent and mortgage relief we need! Financial Services Chair Maxine Waters and the entire LA County Congressional Delegation has already taken important action to provide necessary relief, but we need to urge Congress to forgive all rent and mortgage payments, incentivize fair rental and lending practices by landlords and lenders, and transform distressed properties into permanently affordable housing for our communities, keeping them out of the hands of speculators.
From nurses to farmworkers — working people of California are doing our part to care for one another and to help us all get through this crisis. In these times of monumental crisis, people rely on our government to be there for us and prioritize our collective health and wellbeing. Californians are urging representatives and state leaders to not repeat the mistakes of the past by making the same decisions that left us vulnerable and unprepared for this crisis. Instead, leaders can have the courage to care and choose to invest in health, jobs and education now when we need these things the most.
COVID-19 has brought America face-to-face with its pervasive inequities. What we see in the news about a flattening of the curve may be true for wealthier whites, but that is not the case in low-income and Black and Latinx communities. In Los Angeles, race, class, and place are strongly linked. Generations of racial and economic segregation have resulted in the concentration of low-income and people of color in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities that have been exposed to toxic chemicals and other unhealthy land uses, failing infrastructure, and lack of access to services. Advancement Project California recently released How Race, Class, and Place Fuel a Pandemic, an interactive policy brief that shows how COVID-19 has shifted geographically and taken hold in predominantly Black and Latinx communities in Los Angeles.
COVID-19 has exposed entrenched racial inequities and amplified xenophobic narratives. The gaping divide in our education system, barriers to healthcare, housing, employment, and technology, as well as the lack of a social safety net and voter suppression exacerbated by the pandemic speak to a broken system. To support communities of color throughout Los Angeles, CoCo engaged our community through two digital events (see videos below) in conjunction with our partners of base-building, faith, labor and advocacy organizations. Together we have drafted a comprehensive list of demands that must be implemented as we move forward in the aftermath of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Despite decades of disinvestment, many of the most heavily-impacted communities have trusted home-grown community infrastructure and institutions that deploy resources to meet people’s immediate needs. The pandemic and its multi-pronged threat requires us to act with speed to equitably deliver resources to low-income communities of color based on their exposure risk, their prevalence of underlying conditions, and their lack of access to critical services and infrastructure. This is a matter of equity – but since no Angeleno will be safe from this virus until all of us are, it is also the only option to safeguard the lives of all.
To support our communities, we offer the following immediate recommendations. We are excited to work alongside our community partners, philanthropy and those that have been working on the front lines of this health crisis – particularly those in the County’s Departments of Public Health and Department of Health Services – to ensure the health and safety of everyone, regardless of race and income. These recommendations are focused on short-term needs to get through the worst of this crisis. Long-term, far more must be done to remedy underlying disparities, including a major investment of public health resources and services in high-need regions; those recommendations are in development and will be forthcoming.
Culturally appropriate public education campaigns.
