Articles from Housing is a Human Right

On the heels of widespread reports of rent gouging in Southern California following its recent apocalyptic wildfires, AHF’s Housing Is A Human Right (HHR) is asking the California Apartment Association (CAA), the state’s main landlord lobbying organization, to urge its CAA members to voluntarily enact rent freezes on their rental properties during the calamity.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s (AHF) Housing Is A Human Right advocacy organization is spearheading a Candlelight Vigil in Hollywood commemorating National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day on Saturday, December 21, 2024. Participants will read the list of people who died in Los Angeles before they could exit homelessness.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s housing advocacy division, Housing Is A Human Right (HHR), together with Healthy Housing Foundation (HHF) and the Granada on Broadway Outreach Project, are hosting the screening a powerful new documentary shedding light on homelessness in Los Angeles County.

Housing advocates with Housing Is A Human Right, a division of AIDS Healthcare Foundation, placed a full-page advertisement in both the Sun Sentinel and the Miami Herald Thursday (8/22/24) exposing Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis’ latest cruel and inefficient plan to address the housing affordability and homelessness crises in Fort Lauderdale.

Housing Is A Human Right strongly condemns Governor Gavin Newsom’s executive order instructing state officials to begin dismantling homeless encampments throughout California – a horrifying move that also makes no mention of where California’s 180,000 homeless people are supposed to live:

Housing Is A Human Right (HHR), an AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) housing initiative, released the following statement in response to the infuriating news that the state of California and its California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal ICH) are not tracking how billions of dollars are being spent on the homelessness crisis so there is no record of programs’ effectiveness or outcomes.

Housing Is A Human Right (HHR) applauds the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit for an important ruling that outlaws sweeps of unhoused residents in San Francisco while there continues to be a lack of safe shelter and affordable housing. We believe permanent housing is the best solution to help the unhoused population.

A broad coalition of California renters, housing advocates, elected officials, and social justice organizations will host a press conference in Visalia, CA on Saturday, August 19th in support of the ‘Justice for Renters Act,’ a statewide ballot initiative that would remove California’s rent control ban and give local communities the right to stabilize rents and make apartments more affordable for low-income and middle-income renters. This is the first Justice for Renters event in the Central Valley, which, according to NBC News, has seen some of the steepest rent increases since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 with rents up 39.4% in Bakersfield, 38.4% in Visalia, 38% in Fresno, 35.3% in Merced, and 29.6% in Redding.

As Los Angeles city leaders prepare to meet this morning in a Special Joint Meeting of the Housing and Homelessness Committee and the Government Operations Committee, AHF and its housing advocacy division, Housing Is A Human Right (HHR), are going on record expressing their concern with the steep cost of purchasing the Mayfair Hotel as interim housing for the City of Los Angeles’ Inside Safe program.

Advocates from AHF and its Housing Is A Human Right (HHR) division cheered and thanked the Los Angeles City Council for its unanimous vote today approving Historic Cultural Monument (HCM) status for the residence of Morris Kight, a 20th century Los Angeles LGBTQ+ rights pioneer widely considered to be the grandfather of the LGBTQ+ movement.

A wide-ranging group of advocates will be out in force at Los Angeles City Hall tomorrow (Tuesday, August 8) to testify and urge City Councilmembers to approve Historic Cultural Monument (HCM) status for the residence of Morris Kight, a respected 20th century Los Angeles LGBTQ+ rights pioneer. The home on 4th Street in the Westlake neighborhood is in Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez’s district (District #1) and is listed on the California Register of Historical Resources.

On Sunday, April 30th, speakers and panelists from across the country will be in Washington, DC to participate in the Housing Affordability, Rent Control and Homelessness Conference. Experts and advocacy leaders will illustrate how they successfully campaigned for solutions to the affordable housing and homelessness crises at the local, state, and national levels and speak about how they are passing legislation and ballot initiatives to address homelessness, enact and expand rent control, and increase low-income housing.

On Sunday, April 30th, national speakers and panelists from across the country will be in Washington, DC to attend the Housing Affordability, Rent Control and Homelessness Conference. Experts and advocacy leaders will illustrate how they successfully have campaigned for solutions to the affordable housing and homelessness crises at the local, state, and national levels and how they are passing legislation and ballot initiatives to address homelessness, enact and expand rent control, and increase low-income housing. To register for the conference, click here.

In response to an LAist report that collection of desperately-needed funds allocated for affordable housing and addressing homelessness in Los Angeles are on hold, Housing is a Human Right (HHR), a division of AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), is urging the Los Angeles City Council to move forward immediately on implementing Measure ULA:

AHF and its housing advocacy division, Housing Is A Human Right (HHR), will run the latest in a series of housing advocacy ads, this time targeting both the City of Los Angeles and the entrenched bureaucracy at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) in a full-page, full-color ad set to run this Sunday, October 30th in the Los Angeles Times. The ad headlined “LA’s Housing Standstill,” condemns all the players holding up creation of affordable housing, stating that “It is virtually impossible to get anything built in Los Angeles in less than five years.”

AHF and its housing advocacy division, Housing Is A Human Right (HHR), are sending a group of advocates and mobilizers to the LADWP Board of Water and Power Commissioners’ meeting tomorrow, Tuesday, October 25th in Downtown Los Angeles to address the Board and demand major changes to the delivery of services by the beleaguered utility. The advocates, who will be wearing shirts that read, “We Own the DWP,” will be targeting the entrenched, inefficient bureaucracy at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP).

AHF and its housing advocacy division, Housing Is A Human Right (HHR), will run the latest in a series of housing advocacy ads, this time targeting the entrenched bureaucracy at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) in a full-page, full-color ad set to run this Sunday, October 23rd, in the Los Angeles Times. The ad headlined “DWP Has to Go” criticizes the utility as an “unaccountable bureaucracy governed by an anonymous board of political appointees.”

Housing Is A Human Right (HHR) and key state and local legislators will host a “National Conference On Affordable Housing” on Saturday October 1st, 2022 at the Nate Holden Theatre in Los Angeles. This national conference will feature elected officials along with community leaders from 6 different states (MA, IL, MN, NY, CO and CA) including National Coalition for the Homeless, the Bring America Home Campaign, Housing is a Human Right (AHF), Tenants and Neighbors New York, Hope Center of Chicago, Massachusetts Tenants Alliance, Pomona United for Stabilized Housing, Tenants Together, Santa Monicans for Renters Rights, Progressive Democrats of America and more. Additionally, this event is sponsored by Housing is a Human Right and Los Angeles Council Office of Heather Hutt (10th District).

Housing Is A Human Right (HHR) and community leaders from New York, Chicago, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Colorado and cities across California to celebrate the grand opening of an adaptive reuse exhibit which will showcase underutilized buildings (hospitals, courthouses, hotels, educational facilities) that have been converted into affordable housing for homeless and low income communities. With the cost of building new construction for homeless housing exceeding $700,000 a unit, adaptive reuse creates a low-cost alternative to creating affordable housing.

A platoon of housing advocates affiliated with AHF and its housing advocacy division, Housing Is A Human Right (HHR), will attend and testify at this Wednesday’s Los Angeles City Council meeting (July 27, meeting commences at 10:00 a.m.). The advocates will urge City Council Members and other city officials to do what it takes to preserve the city’s supply of single room occupancy buildings (SROs) as future affordable housing at a time when the L.A. homeless crisis continues to escalate.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) and its housing advocacy division, Housing is a Human Right (HHR), will run another full-page, full-color housing advocacy ad targeting Los Angeles elected and city officials, which will run this Sunday, July 17th in the Los Angeles Times. The ad, headlined “City Hall: Fill the Cecil Now!” urges City Hall to fill the mostly empty, 700+ unit Cecil Hotel and also urges city officials to save other single room occupancy buildings (SROs) citywide as L.A.’s homeless crisis continues to worsen. This is the fourth housing advocacy ad that AHF and Housing Is A Human Right have run in the paper over the last month.

Advocates from Housing Is A Human Right (HHR), the housing advocacy division of AHF, will take part in “Sweepless Summer 2022,” (LA March Against Criminalization of the Homeless Friday, June 17th starting at 10:00 a.m. from historic Olvera Street across from Union Station in Downtown Los Angeles (845 Alameda St, 90012). The march—which will proceed to the Federal Building (300 N. Los Angeles Street, 90012)—is part of a national action against unjust clearing of encampments in DC and cities across the country and is being held in solidarity with the National Poor People’s Campaign and National Coalition for the Homeless events that will be taking place in Washington, DC this weekend.

AHF and its housing advocacy division, Housing Is A Human Right (HHR), are calling on City of Los Angeles Councilmembers and Planning Department officials to deny certain building entitlements to property developer Cushman and Wakefield after the developer quickly gutted the interior of the historic Morrison Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles over Memorial Day Weekend to pave way for a luxury hotel and residential complex. The developer’s action effectively removed the Morrison’s 111 SRO hotel rooms from Los Angeles’ affordable housing stock.

Housing Is A Human Right:

Housing justice advocates from AHF and its housing advocacy division, Housing Is A Human Right (HHR), will host a rally and advocacy/protest march on Tuesday, May 3 at 9:30 a.m. in downtown Los Angeles to spotlight and protest the finger-pointing, buck-passing and epic mismanagement of Los Angeles’ homeless crisis by both L.A. County and City of Los Angeles and elected leaders and government officials.

KABC-TV7 reported earlier today that Governor Gavin Newsom awarded $18 million in state funding to Los Angeles County for Project Homekey. The station noted, “The county received $5.5 million to purchase a 20-unit hotel, which needs to be rehabilitated, and turn it into interim housing with supportive services for homeless families.”

Housing Is A Human Right (HHR) has proudly released a must-read book for understanding the powerful alliances and devastating policies that fuel the housing affordability and homelessness crises in California. Titled Selling Off California: The Untold Story, and written by award-winning advocacy journalist Patrick Range McDonald, the short book exposes the harmful, self-serving agendas of key politicians, YIMBYs, and Big Real Estate, which have triggered skyrocketing rents, higher eviction rates, worsening homelessness, and gentrification.

Citizens of Los Angeles together with advocates from Housing Is A Human Right (HHR) will stage a PROTEST and PICKET LINE Friday, November 12, 2021 beginning at 8:30 a.m. in front of Los Angeles City Hall (200 N. Spring Street, Main Street entrance, L.A. 90012). Protesters are demanding that City Council members and other city officials move swiftly to fully reopen City Hall to the public so that constituents may participate in city council meetings and other government business that they are legally entitled to.

In its ongoing effort to stop California bills SB 9 and SB 10, Housing Is A Human Right, the housing advocacy division of AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), has taken out a full-page ad in the Thursday edition (8/26/21) of the Sacramento Bee, urging Gov. Gavin Newsom to oppose the harmful legislation. SB 9 and SB 10 will not only fuel gentrification and higher rents in middle- and working-class neighborhoods, but they also have no requirements for the construction of more affordable and homeless housing.

Polling commissioned by Housing Is A Human Right (HHR), the housing advocacy division of AHF, on two real estate development bills now making their way through the California Legislature, suggests Governor Newsom facing strong voter headwinds should he support of sign either bill. The poll found that a plurality of 46% surveyed would view Governor Gavin Newsom—who faces a recall election September 14th—less favorably if he supported or signed either bill. Both bills also face overwhelming voter sentiment against them.

Polling commissioned by Housing Is A Human Right (HHR), the housing advocacy division of AHF, on two real estate development bills now making their way through the California Legislature, suggests overwhelming voter sentiment against both bills. The poll also found that a plurality of 46% surveyed would view Governor Gavin Newsom—who faces a recall election September 14th—less favorably if he supported or signed either bill.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) and its housing advocacy arm, Housing Is A Human Right (HHR), today called for Millennium Partners, a troubled luxury property developer, to completely abandon plans to build its Hollywood Millennium development.

Housing Is A Human Right (HHR) and key state and local legislators will host a “Community Hearing on Homelessness, Housing and Hunger” on Friday, June 25th in Downtown Los Angeles. The hearings will include 3 panel discussions with public testimony (‘Hunger’ at 11:00 a.m., ‘Housing’ at 1:30 p.m. and ‘Homelessness’ at 3:00 p.m.) to explore root causes, brainstorm solutions—and hear compelling testimony from people who are unhoused, rent-burdened, facing hunger issues and grassroots organizations working on the ground. The event is FREE and registration is encouraged. (Registration link) The community hearing will also be streamed live on Facebook: to view the panels and testimony, click here:

Housing Is A Human Right (HHR) and key state and local legislators will host a “Community Hearing on Homelessness, Housing and Hunger” on Friday, June 25th in Downtown Los Angeles. The hearings will include 3 panel discussions with public testimony (‘Hunger’ at 11:00 a.m., ‘Housing’ at 1:30 p.m. and ‘Homelessness’ at 3:00 p.m.) to explore root causes, brainstorm solutions—and take testimony from the public. The event is FREE and registration is encouraged. (Registration link)

California Assembly Member Miguel Santiago (D-Assm. District 53, Los Angeles) on Thursday will be joining Los Angeles City Councilmember Kevin de León (D, District 14), and community partners for a candlelight march and rally calling on the State Legislature and the Governor to invest $20 billion over the next 5 years into homelessness. The candlelight march will start at the headquarters of the Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA CAN) after a rally and speaking program there. The march will go down San Julian St. and end at the Downtown Women’s Center.

Housing Is A Human Right (HHR), the housing advocacy arm of AHF, will share results from new polling it conducted on homelessness in Los Angeles, the City’s response as well as voters’ thoughts on alternative housing models and solutions to address the problems. The poll found homelessness remains the dominant concern for L.A. voters and suggests popular support for directives Federal District Court Judge David O. Carter issued in his injunction against the City and County of Los Angeles and their homeless housing solutions.

AHF and its housing advocacy arm, Housing Is A Human Right (HHR), tonight hailed the withdrawal of the nomination of former ‘Loveline’ radio talk show host Dr. Drew Pinsky to a Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) committee. The withdrawal was announced in a statement released earlier this evening by Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger (R, 5th District), whose nomination of Pinsky to the panel last week drew widespread outrage and criticism from homeless advocates and organizations.