ACCORDING to a 2023 U.S. News and Reports report, Los Angeles is the second-most expensive city in terms of cost of living.
To most, that’s not a surprising find, especially to those who live in the City of Angels, in which homelessness and lack of affordable housing are two interconnected issues that have plagued the city for decades.
Despite local lawmakers’ promises to expedite housing solutions, the problem persists, but there’s one Los Angeles City Council hopeful who has first-hand experience in advocating for renters and homeowners.
Ysabel Jurado, a Filipina American housing rights attorney, is currently running to represent Council District 14 (CD 14) of Los Angeles, where she grew up and currently resides.
Through a progressive platform and years of social justice organizing and representing renters, Jurado, if elected, would be the first Filipino LA city council member.
“I’ve always been an organizer and I never thought I would run for office, it’s true. But I feel called for this by my community. We [Filipinos] are the second-largest Asian population in Southern California and yet we haven’t had a council member ever is wild to me,” Jurado told the Asian Journal in a late 2023 interview in her home in Highland Park.
Jurado and seven other challengers (including the incumbent Kevin de Leon) will appear on the ballot for the primary election on March 5.
Currently, Jurado has been endorsed by several progressive organizations, such as the Democratic Socialists of America — Los Angeles, Ground Game LA, and the Pilipino American LA Democrats (PALAD). She’s also received endorsements from LA City Controller Kenneth Mejia (who is also Filipino American) and LA City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez of the 1st council district.
CD 14 comprises much of the east and northeast region of LA proper, stretching from Boyle Heights and Downtown LA to Eagle Rock and Highland Park.
Born in Echo Park and raised in Highland Park, Jurado described her upbringing as what many would consider the epitome of the American Dream. Through the 1965 Immigration Act, Jurado’s maternal grandmother immigrated to the U.S., which encouraged many of Jurado’s family members to follow suit.
Settling in Echo Park, the family was very poor to the point where Jurado’s father worked three jobs. Eventually, the family made enough over three years to buy a house in Highland Park — where Jurado still lives to this day.
“[We’ve had this house] since the 80s. This is the house I grew up in. My mom passed away here and my Lola passed away here, so I’m deeply rooted here,” she said.
While juggling the difficulties of being a young single mother, Jurado attended UCLA Law, where she took on jobs defending workers against wage theft and exploitation, which was motivated by her own father’s experiences as an immigrant worker.
This was around the time of the 2008 housing crisis when Jurado became motivated to fight against gentrification on behalf of families that were similar to her own: working-class immigrant families that had lived in LA for decades and were now facing displacement.
“That’s when I brought into my scope to be a community economic development lawyer, and added housing to the mix,” Jurado explained.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jurado said she was the only Tagalog-speaking eviction defense attorney. Working with clients in both LA and Orange counties, Jurado represented many renters who weren’t just facing eviction but deportation as well.
“I think there’s a lack of compassion when we think about our unhoused neighbors. I always try to put it into the kind of conversation that housed people can understand,” Jurado said.
Jurado continued, “Imagine half your stuff being taken away from you, and imagine your mental state being challenged 365 days a year, where people are consciously ignoring you. Or, do you remember when you’re in a meeting and you voiced an idea and nobody reacted? How did that feel? Now sit with that and repeat it for 24 hours and 365 days.”
CD 14 has one of the most concentrated homeless populations, according to the LA Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA). In 2021, the district, under de Leon, opened up a tiny home village, a community of temporary shelters that provide climate-controlled sleeping and living quarters and communal bathrooms.
But Jurado noted that more permanent solutions are needed to ensure that people stay off the streets by developing and expanding community resource hubs for the unhoused, which she said would prevent criminalization and prioritize health and well-being.
Another priority Jurado has is helping communities preserve and maintain affordable housing to avoid displacement.
To aid in this goal, if elected, she would work on strengthening tenants’ protections, expanding access to counsel, and working with community land trusts that make sure property is affordable in perpetuity for residents as well as business owners.
Like many Angelenos, Jurado expressed disappointment in the LA City Council racist tape scandal that broke in 2022 involving the incumbent, de Leon. Though she is distancing her campaign away from using that scandal as fuel, she believes that the district requires fresh leadership.
Jurado acknowledged the rich history of Filipino leadership in LA — including legendary organizer Ruby de Vera and LA City controller Kenneth Mejia and the deep history of organizing among Filipino farmworkers — and noted that the Filipino community has always been one of her strongest motivators.
“Uplifting the Filipino American agenda to the forefront of local government means so much to me. Our struggle for visibility always continues, and I’m a community organizer first,” she said, noting that her campaign not only sought the advice of policy experts but also of everyday people in the district.
She added, “The work we’re doing right now is coalition building, and that’s the work that we intend to do when we’re in office instead of being this distant person on an ivory tower. I’m a regular working-class person like you, and I’m running because I know what it’s like to struggle in this district.” (Klarize Medenilla/AJPress)
