At town hall, Rep. Garcia reiterates support for Downey YMCA funding
DOWNEY — At a town hall address Monday, Congressman Robert Garcia (CA-42) assured that the Downey YMCA would receive significant federal funding for its current demolition and reconstruction project.
Standing in front of a crowd of some of Downey’s elected officials, business owners, volunteers, and community leaders inside Downey Fire Station 1, Garcia relayed many of the undertakings currently taking place in Congress.
Notably, he reaffirmed that the YMCA – which closed its already deteriorating facility during the Covid-19 pandemic - would receive funding for its current rebuilding endeavor.
“We were really excited right now that at the federal level, there’s enormous amounts of federal funding that is just being made available for programs, for grants, for different types of activities,” said Garcia. “One of the opportunities that we have which we’re doing this year is we are, at the federal level, going to be providing major grant support to the Downey YMCA to actually reopen and rebuild their facility.”
Garcia added that it is currently unknown “what the final number will be,” however said that it would be up to the $3 million that the Downey YMCA had requested.
“Best case scenario, we’ll get the full $3 million,” said Garcia. “If for some reason we don’t get the $3 million, it will still be substantial to get them to that number.”
Garcia also expressed interest in supporting Downey’s library and fire departments.
“Downey has needs that relate to if there’s ever a major emergency in the future, as it relates to having an operations – whether it’s center or vehicle – that can handle a major catastrophic event in the city of Downey,” said Garcia. “That’s been a request that your council has talked about. These are some of the issues and possible funding opportunities that we would be very happy and excited to help with.”
When asked about the homelessness crisis, Garcia said that the state has to do “a dramatically better job at building housing,” while also providing mental health care, job opportunities, and assistance and support.
“I believe that every single person that is homeless is a human being, deserves dignity, and somewhere, they have family or had family at one time, and are suffering, often times from severe crisis at no fault of their own,” said Garcia. “I also believe that as a mother or a family member, you should be able to feel safe to have your son or daughter walk to school, and not feel that you cannot send your kid on a safe walk to school because something is going to happen, or someone is unwell.”
“One that is happening right now is this idea is it is also unsafe to allow someone who is suffering, who is extremely mentally ill or suffering to be out on the street without assistance or support. So, this idea is that we should be looking at building housing that also includes a medical support component…”
He continued:
“We’re trying to look and find people that are experiencing homelessness, that can also receive medical attention where the state can be more involved in it. We deregulated that a long time ago, and unfortunately, we’re not able to help people who need our support. So, these changes to California law should hopefully allow us to do a little bit more.”