Outraged Community Members Hold a Press Conference, Urging the Mayor and Council to Uphold Their Constitutional Duties and Put the Community Led Rent Control Initiative on the Ballot
SACRAMENTO – Nearly two years after 47,000 signatures were submitted to put rent control on the ballot, Sacramento City Council and Mayor have continued to suppress the will of working class communities of color by refusing to move the initiative forward. With a looming mass eviction crisis that threatens to destabilize Black and Latinx communities the hardest, tenant leaders argue that now, more than ever, to create racial justice and protect families from this pandemic, the City Council must put the community led rent control initiative on the ballot immediately. Racial disparities in housing did not start with the pandemic however. In a report from Sacramento Steps forward, 2019 Point-in-Time Count, “Black community members represent 34% of the homeless population but are only 13% of the total residents in Sacramento County and are disproportionately represented.”
What: Press Conference
Where: Sacramento City Hall, 915 I St, Sacramento
When: 2pm, Tuesday, July 28th
Who: Sacramento for Real Rent Control Coalition
“With our communities’ survival at stake and thousands of Sacramentans taking to the streets to demand racial justice, the least the council can do to live up to this historic moment, is by fulfilling their constitutional duty and putting the people’s rent control initiative on the ballot. It is outrageous that the community has had to wait this long for their voices to be heard,” said Kristin Lopez, a member of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) who worked for months to collect signatures from community members to get rent control on the ballot.
