Less than a month before taking office as the councilmember for Los Angeles’ City District 14, Ysabel Jurado remains clear-eyed about her goals: Challenging the status quo by addressing the housing crisis and lack of city services.
Jurado, a political newcomer who successfully ran a relentless grassroots campaign against long-time politician Kevin de León, said, from day one, she will address the housing crisis by building more affordable housing and protecting people from eviction – while prioritizing the needs of working-class constituents.
“We are not content with business as usual here at City Hall and in politics as it stands,” the councilmember-elect said. “People don’t have enough money to pay their rent. They’re choosing between food and rent.”
‘Uplifting the renters’ agenda’
While City District 14 encompasses some of the more densely populated neighborhoods in Los Angeles, including downtown LA, Boyle Heights, Highland Park, Jurado maintains there is still room for affordable housing units that will serve constituents from all different income levels.
“We have union teachers and unionized hotel workers that aren’t able to live in the city because it’s so unaffordable,” she said. “And the working class are getting driven further and further away from their jobs, and that’s something that we can’t bear.”
The tenant rights attorney also implied she will propose and advocate for policies that aim to protect renters by enforcing current laws while “disrupting the eviction and homelessness pipeline.”
“(We need to) make sure that we have a right to counsel. As an attorney, I saw that tenants would go to court. Only 10% of them would have an attorney, whereas landlords had 90%,” Jurado said. “What that ended up meaning is that folks were self -evicting or falling into eviction before our eyes, especially our seniors.”
Keeping the lights on with more funding, less police
As the district was plagued by prevalent copper wire thefts and damaged street lights, current councilmember Kevin de León boasted the collaborative work of the LAPD’s Health Metal Task Force, which arrested dozens of people linked to copper thefts and recovered thousands of pounds of stolen copper wire.
But Jurado said she will take a different approach by providing more funding to the Bureau of Street Lighting, although she did not say whether she will stop working with the LAPD task force.
“We can’t criminalize our way into turning lights on,” Jurado said, claiming copper wire theft is a city-wide problem, not just pertaining to the district.”We have to look at how we can actually turn the lights on.”
Jurado said she will look to provide more funding to the Bureau of Street Lighting and look for ways to reduce maintenance.
Willing to work with everybody, including police
When it came to the controversy that was sparked after she was caught on an audio recording, using derogatory language about police, Jurado doubled-down on her claim that she was just a lyric to the song.
“Those remarks were part of a really nuanced conversation in which I mentioned that communities like Boyle Heights actually do want more policing, but at the end of the day, they also don’t want to be over police,” the councilmember-elect said.
Jurado believes that the number of deaths involving Black and Brown people in the district, including the unhoused people, is a reflection of how the community feels unsafe, and how over-policing could affect families.
“I’m here to serve my constituents, and I’m willing to work with everybody, including the police department and anybody else for the betterment of my constituents, even if we may not agree 100% of the time.
Women getting the job done
When she’s sworn into office in December, Jurado will make history as the first woman to represent the City Council District, and one of the first councilmembers who are the children of undocumented immigrants.
“Women get the job done. We always have,” she said. “At the City Council, I’m really looking forward to working with all the women and the men on Council but excited to see what pathways we can chart forward together.”
