San Francisco — Equality California Executive Director Rick Zbur has issued the following statement regarding the race for California Senate District 11 and a newly-released campaign ad intended to educate voters regarding Supervisor Jane Kim’s record on homelessness:
“The television spot released today is intended to educate voters about the stark and important differences between the candidates in the race for California Senate District 11 regarding their records addressing homelessness in San Francisco.
An estimated four out of 10 homeless youth in major California cities – and approximately one in five of all homeless people in San Francisco – are LGBT. As a result, addressing homelessness is among the highest priorities of the LGBT community. In the California Legislature, Equality California has lobbied and continues to lobby for increased funding to provide safe and culturally competent transitional and permanent housing and for programs to prevent homelessness for members of the LGBT community.
The two candidates running for the District 11 Senate seat have drastically different records on the issue of homelessness in San Francisco. Scott Wiener has collaborated with the majority of San Francisco supervisors to craft real solutions to San Francisco’s homeless crisis, working on integrated and comprehensive proposals to give homeless San Franciscans a pathway from the streets into safe transitional and permanent housing and a reintegration into the community.
While Jane Kim claims she cares about people experiencing homelessness, she astoundingly not only opposed but worked hard to obstruct creation of a key proposal, supported by Supervisor Scott Wiener and eight of 11 supervisors, that would result in one of the most robust and comprehensive solutions to homelessness anywhere in the country. The proposal would provide $1 billion over 20 years to the city’s efforts to address homelessness, funding homeless prevention and assistance programs, and transitional and permanent housing. These programs are fundamental to giving homeless people real opportunities to transition from the streets into homes. Jane Kim’s alternative is a proposal to legalize tents – which would leave the city’s homeless population in inhumane and dangerous living conditions– and a call for a “declaration of emergency”– a publicity stunt that provides no funding, no homeless assistance programs, and no transitional or permanent housing.
The campaign advertisement can be viewed here.
###
Equality California is the nation’s largest statewide lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization dedicated to creating a fair and just society. Our mission is to achieve and maintain full and lasting equality, acceptance, and social justice for all people in our diverse LGBT communities, inside and outside of California. Our mission includes advancing the health and well-being of LGBT Californians through direct healthcare service advocacy and education. Through electoral, advocacy, education and mobilization programs, we strive to create a broad and diverse alliance of LGBT people, educators, government officials, communities of color and faith, labor, business, and social justice communities to achieve our goals. www.eqca.org
