Almost 72,000 Angelinos, 32% of which are Black and 43% Latinx, experience homelessness due to Los Angeles’ deep-rooted systemic inequities in housing, economic mobility, and “criminal justice” policies.

Housing insecurity continues to be one of Los Angeles’ and California’s primary causes for individuals falling into homelessness. As rent and housing prices continue to rise, more BIPOC, immigrant, and underserved communities experience gentrification and displacement, often resulting in homelessness for the communities being displaced.

Paired with this vicious cycle of fleecing and displacement is the increasing criminalization of those individuals experiencing homelessness. As overall crime and arrests rates decrease in LA, incarceration rates among unsheltered populations continue to increase. According to the California Policy Lab, individuals experiencing homelessness are on average 10 times more likely than other populations to have encounters with law enforcement. They are also 9 times more likely to be fined or spend a night in jail for low-level offenses like loitering, “disorderly conduct”, and sleeping in public spaces. 

One solution the LCLA will continue to support, develop, and advocate for is the “The Back Home Initiative”: a joint effort with our partners, the United Latinx Fund, to provide an innovative permanent housing solution for the communities most directly facing housing insecurities, as well as an opportunity for those same low-income communities  to generate intergenerational wealth through the development of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs).

Undocumented folks generate $190 billion in government revenue nationally and $63 billion in California. Despite their vital socio-economic contributions, they continue to face some of the fewest political protections and most inequitable policies among any population that calls this nation home.

As part of our mission, we strive to ensure that everyone in greater Los Angeles County has full and equitable access to social services, civic participation and economic mobility, regardless of their migratory status.

The Latino Coalition of LA is proud to support the LA Sanctuary Motion passed unanimously by the LA City Council on June 9th, 2023. We are proud to work alongside our community partners to help draft a policy that will prevent City resources, property and personnel from being used for immigration enforcement. This policy is a crucial step in ending our City’s entanglement with ICE. The LCLA will continue to champion proposals seeking to improve the living conditions and well-being of immigrant and mixed-status family households.

One of the most crucial components to ensuring a just democracy for all is the protection of voting accessibility  and voter rights. For decades, communities of color, especially Latinos, have disproportionately faced systemic obstacles in participating in the electoral system. 

Latinx/Hispanic compose 39% of all eligible voters in Los Angeles County. As an organization, the LCLA has a long history of conducting Get Out The Vote Campaigns that include registering folks to vote, organizing bilingual informational sessions on ballot initiatives, hosting candidate forums, and disseminating election information to the public. 

We are committed to advancing policies that increase voting accessibility, fight against government corruption, and support independent redistricting commissions. We believe these strategies, paired with our rigorous Candidate endorsement process, will benefit the Latino population as a whole and strengthen voting rights for all voters of color.

Latinx in the LA Metropolitan Area make up 45% of the total population and contribute over $284.5 billion annually to the area’s GDP.  LCLA strives to build an economy that welcomes all Angelenos to contribute to the market in all capacities. We support the rights of small business, gig workers, independent contractors, agricultural and labor workers, street vendors, and entrepreneurs. Ultimately, we strive to create an environment that strengthens the enforcement of workplace protections and generates employment opportunities. 

 The LCLA is proud to stand in solidarity with our community partners at the Garment Worker Center as we successfully advocated for amendments to the DTLA 2040 Community Plan which will preserve, protect and incentivize the garment industry in the Fashion District. LA is the nation’s garment production capital and the city’s largest manufacturing sector. Over 45,000 workers with 21+ years of experience cut, sew and finish garments locally, a workforce composed primarily of Latinx and Asian immigrants, generating billions of dollars annually. We recognize that there is no LA without the historic Fashion District, a unique and irreplaceable urban ecosystem vital to the City of Angels.

The LCLA will continue to support and advocate for organized labor movements, the right to collective bargaining, right to a living wage, and economic opportunities.

The digital divide is a division between those who have access to digital devices and broadband and those who do not. The COVID-19 pandemic has only highlighted the need to make digital devices, and broadband necessities considered public goods.

In the United States, 42 million people cannot access the internet, of whom 75% are People of Color. Nearly 40% of Latinx and 33% of Black communities remain unconnected. Major network providers participate in digital redlining by systematically excluding historically underserved & low-income neighborhoods from broadband access. When access is provided, connectivity is subpar or low-speed.Approximately only 52.4% of Californians can access high speed at 100 Mbps, the rate necessary for video conferencing and other basic uses. 

However, simply providing access is not enough to ensure digital equity. Digital equity requires the ability to access digital infrastructure as well as “the capacity to use, create, successfully navigate, and understand online content. The LCLA is proud to be a part of the CA Community Foundation’s Digital Equity Initiative; a multi-year project that seeds a digital equity movement in Los Angeles County with the power and capacity to successfully advocate for fast, reliable, and affordable broadband for all Angelenos.