The Santa Monica Democratic Club will host L.A. County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, Assemblymember Richard Bloom, and City Manager Rick Cole tonight for a forum on housing and homelessness.
From 6 to 9 p.m. at the Santa Monica Public Library, the local and state officials will discuss the growing crisis of housing affordability and the related crisis of homelessness.
“For years, our region has been gripped by a full-fledged housing crisis with a severe lack of affordable housing for middle- and working-class families,” according the Santa Monica Democratic Club’s Facebook page for the event.
“The median cost of a house in Los Angeles County is $500,000, twice the national average, and in Santa Monica it is even worse at $1.4 million. As more residents are unable to afford to continue to live in their home communities, we have seen a severe uptick in Ellis Act evictions. This, in turn, has lead to a large increase in the homeless population (a 23% increase in LA County since last year),” the page says.
Kuehl, who has been working at the county level for funding for housing and services for homeless people, will join Bloom from 6:30 to 8 p.m.
Bloom has been very active at the state level on legislation to address the housing shortage that is driving up rents and home prices throughout California.
Following Kuehl and Bloom will be Santa Monica City Manager Rick Cole and interim Police Chief Kenneth Semko, who will be talking about housing and homelessness at a local level.
People can submit questions via the Santa Monica Democratic Club’s Facebook page for the event.
