The Los Angeles Community Action Network – LA CAN – gathers the forces of low income and houseless residents of L.A., and is based in downtown’s Skid Row, where over 13,000 people of all ages and ethnicities live in dire poverty, 3,000 to 5,000 of them sleeping on the streets, in emergency shelters, or in temporary housing.
As property values in the inner city rise, big land owners are pushing for expulsion of these long term residents – just last spring, developer Tom Gilmore, supported by L.A. County Supervisor Gloria Molina, blocked the conversion of the vacant Cecil Hotel into housing that would have served hundreds of homeless people as well as market rate tenants. Just a few months later, “anonymous stakeholders,” with the support of local council member Jose Huizar, along with other officials, published a “Homeless Initiative” which incorporated a not-so-secret agenda to disperse low income residents and intensify arrests.
LA CAN is grounded on its mission to unify people and to build true power in our diverse communities.
With its community partners, LA CAN is planning a Town Hall meeting, currently scheduled for late January or early February 2015, to address the issues confronting people in poverty, including the demand for adequate housing and the preservation of public housing, such as L.A.’s Jordan Downs, which is scheduled for demolition at a time of acute need. “We have to do our own planning,” says General Dogon, LA CAN organizer. “It’s time to talk back, move forward. We plan to create a community collage of thoughts, questions, proposals – then follow up with work groups – in this time of crisis. Stay tuned through our website for more details.”
LA group plans town hall talk fest
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Cathleen Williams is an organizer, poet, and journalist for street newspapers. She lives in Sacramento, California, and is active in the Sacramento Poor People’s Campaign and the League of Revolutionaries for a new America.
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