Assemblywoman Luz Rivas’ Statement on Funding for Solutions to Homelessness in the Legislature’s Proposed Budget Agreement

SACRAMENTO – Assemblywoman Luz Rivas (D-San Fernando Valley) has issued the following statement on the California State Legislature’s proposed budget agreement:

“I am excited that my colleagues in the Legislature have agreed to invest over $10 billion in funding specifically to address our homelessness crisis. Additionally, the Legislature is proposing $1 billion dollars in ongoing support for local governments to fund solutions to homelessness. I want to thank our Budget Chairs Phil Ting and Nancy Skinner for developing this historic budget agreement between our houses, as well as Budget Subcommittee Chair Wendy Carrillo for her extensive work on combatting homelessness. This is no time for a victory lap as we still have work to do to make sure these critical investments and accountability measures make their way into the final budget. I remain confident that we will make substantial strides towards combatting homelessness.

For those reasons, I am not advancing AB 71, the Bring California Home Initiative, at this time.

I have authored multiple bills to address homelessness during my time in the Assembly and I remain committed to revisiting AB 71’s tax conformity policy in the future. I greatly appreciate the bill’s joint authors, Assemblymembers David Chiu, Richard Bloom, and Buffy Wicks, as well as its coauthors, including Assemblymembers Ash Kalra, Wendy Carrillo, Lorena Gonzalez, and Alex Lee. Additionally, I want to thank Los Angeles City Mayor Eric Garcetti and the Bring California Home Coalition for their tireless work and incredible advocacy to reign in our homelessness crisis.

Our work does not, and will not, end here. Ultimately, we must conform our state tax code to federal law and hold multimillion-dollar international corporations accountable for shifting their profits overseas. With the ongoing revenue we would generate from AB 71 – allocated specifically for local programs to address homelessness – we could do even more to prevent our homelessness crisis from becoming a full-blown catastrophe.

We owe our unhoused communities – including families with children – the resources they need to get off the streets. There are enough homeless children in California to fill LA’s Dodger Stadium almost five times over – that’s simply unacceptable in a state that has the world’s fifth largest economy, and has the highest rates of homelessness in the nation. I will not be stopped in my goal to get roofs over the heads of our fellow Californians.”

Assemblywoman Luz Rivas proudly represents the 39th Assembly District, which includes the City of Los Angeles communities of Arleta, Lake View Terrace, Granada Hills, Mission Hills, North Hollywood, Pacoima, Sun Valley, Sunland-Tujunga, Sylmar, and the City of San Fernando.