Latest stunt exposes the stark reality of Garcetti’s housing failures

Earlier this month, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti raised eyebrows when he threatened to respond to house parties in the city by cutting water and power to residences found to be at fault. Cutting off essential services to people’s homes during an unprecedented economic shutdown and widespread pandemic is a questionable move, to say the least. 

And now, the police union representing law enforcement agents who are charged with carrying out Garcetti’s ridiculous order, are pushing back. The Los Angeles Police Protective League (LAPPL) said in a statement on Twitter, “Mayor Garcetti wants to reimagine policing. He should send his civilian staff to turn off people's electricity & cut off their water. Let officers deal with the rise in shootings and killings in LA. We need a leader and not a political contortionist.” 

Unfortunately, this absurd policy fits right in with Mayor Garcetti’s extensive history of pushing housing policies that fail renters and landlords alike, as well as his tendency to focus more on political posturing than addressing the real issues Angelenos face. 

Mayor Garcetti first took office in 2013 amid lofty campaign promises and a self-stated ambition of getting Los Angeles “on the way to ending homelessness.” In the seven years since, he has failed to live up to those aspirations. 

It was recently reported that Los Angeles saw a jaw-dropping 13 percent increase in its homeless population in just one year, even before the city had confirmed its first positive case of COVID-19. In fact, according to the same report, Los Angeles homelessness grew steadily in 2019, with an average of 227 people becoming homeless each day while just 207 secured housing. 

Now, things are poised to get worse as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to keep California’s businesses shuttered and Angelenos are struggling to find work.

In April, the Judicial Council of California was forced to step in and provide short-term relief for the rapidly rising number of unemployed Californians by issuing a moratorium on evictions. Recently, however, the Council announced it will consider ending the moratorium, recognizing that a more comprehensive legislative fix will be needed given that landlords are now struggling to pay their own bills as rent payments dry up.

Unfortunately, Mayor Garcetti quickly condemned the idea and said he disagreed with the Council’s decision. However, in the several months since this order has been in place, Mayor Garcetti has failed to come up with any meaningful housing policy to benefit both tenants and renters. 

The most substantive measure that Los Angeles has taken to provide rental assistance is to offer aid for 50,000 randomly chosen families from a $103 million fund. However, more than 100,000 people applied to the program when it first opened, meaning it likely will not be enough to stem another spike in the city’s homelessness population in the weeks and months to come, especially if the state legislature fails to come to an agreement on a relief bill.

The city did try and provide housing for some through Project Roomkey, which was a statewide effort to provide high-risk homeless individuals with available space in hotel rooms so they could avoid contracting COVID-19. However, four months into the project, the city had only provided rooms for about 3,600 people, despite a goal of housing 15,000.

Housing is not the only area where Mayor Garcetti has failed Angelenos, either. His anti-business policies, starting all the way back with his initial failure to deliver on his promise of eliminating the city’s business tax, have driven job opportunities out of the city in droves even before the pandemic. 

Now, more than one in five Angelenos are unemployed, with low-income communities being hit the hardest, compounding the city’s housing crisis. 

Understandably, disgruntled residents are starting to take more serious action, as a recall effort gains momentum to replace Mayor Garcetti and instill more capable leadership in his place. Given how ineffective Mayor Garcetti has been, it should come as no surprise that this initiative is taking hold and more people are advocating for change.

Now more than ever, Mayor Garcetti is demonstrating that he is more concerned with aimless posturing than he is with helping those who elected him. Unless he wants to find himself looking for work in the near future, he should take real action rather than threaten to waste law enforcement’s time by using them as a tool for dangerous political gestures. With a startling rise in homicides and violent crimes across the city, increasing homelessness and economic devastation all under his watch, house parties should be the least of Garcetti’s worries.

Austin Mejia is a former Democratic grassroots operative who resides in Los Angeles County.