Inglewood Councilwoman Gloria Gray hosted her second Town Hall meeting in District 1 and this time brought one iconic Congresswoman Maxine Waters as her special guest. Rep. Waters also serves the City of Inglewood as 43rd District House of Representative member. (Francis Taylor/Photo)
By Francis Taylor, Executive Editor
On March 25, Inglewood City Council Member Gloria Gray, hosted her second Town Hall Meeting at the Inglewood Senior Citizen’s Center and the highlight of the meeting was her special guest, the Honorable Maxine Waters (CA 43), who gave a comprehensive presentation of her legislative accomplishments as the Chair of the Congressional Financial Services Committee and as the Senior Minority Leader in the U.S. Congress
After Council Member Gray acknowledged the elected officials present, she introduced Mayor Butts who provided a comprehensive review of how the City of Inglewood has changed since he assumed office in February, 2011, compared to the present. The city went from a financial deficit of $18 million to $125 million in cash reserves; The city laid off 130 employees and now has 837employees. Remaining workers experienced a 10% pay cut and now the city is paying competitive wages. Inglewood’s Bond Rating climbed from a poor BBB- to a favorable AA+ and the city’s unemployment rate declined from 17.5% to the present rate of 5.5%.
Mayor Butts then presented a professionally prepared video that gave the audience a visual perspective on the physical changes in the city including the NFL Sofi Stadium, the anticipated NBA Intuit Dome, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Youth Orchestra Facility, and the relocated Girl Scout Regional Headquarters, to name a few. The only thing that has changed in Inglewood, under his mayoral leadership, in everything.
Following Mayor Butts’ presentation, Council Member Gray introduced “Auntie Maxine.” Congresswoman Maxine Waters, acknowledging the unprecedented tenure and accomplishments of the iconic Congressional Representative.
Congresswoman Waters deftly thanked Council Member Gray acknowledged the accomplishments of Mayor Butts and the Inglewood City Council and recognized the distinguished persons in the audience. She then addressed our nation’s worsening affordable housing and homelessness crisis, citing it as one of her top priorities.
She summarized that housing is at the heart of everything noting that without stable and affordable housing, families suffer, children and seniors suffer and young people cannot afford to buy a home and are locked out of building generational wealth. She noted that housing is essential to the long-term well-being of our community and our country.
Congresswoman Waters said that, as a nation, we are currently in the middle of a housing crisis where the demand for housing has outpaced supply leading to one of the worst housing affordability and homelessness crises in our nation’s history, She added that since the onset of the pandemic of 2020, home prices have skyrocketed by nearly 47% and rents have increased from 20-40% nationwide, as housing costs remain a key driver of U. S. inflation, making up nearly 79% of outstanding core inflation.
Unfortunately, the State of California, including the Los Angeles area, is at the epicenter of the housing and homelessness crisis. In January the median home price in Los Angeles was $750,000, the median monthly rent reached $2,000 and homelessness increased in the greater Los Angeles area by 9.5% with over 71,000 people now experiencing homelessness.
Congresswoman Waters noted that while there was a lot of work left to do, she is proud of what she has been able to achieve with the Financial Services Committee and House Democrats to secure unprecedented levels of housing investments over the last two Congresses to prevent evictions, expand affordable housing and help the homeless in Los Angeles.
Between the CARES Act and the American Rescue Plan, she secured $46.6 billion for the first-ever Emergency Rental Assistance Program, of which nearly $5.8 billion went to California, helping1.2 million people avoid evictions in the state. She secured $10 billion for the Homeowner Assistance Fund while California received $1 billion in funding to create the largest mortgage relief program in the nation, that helped over 31,000 Californians.
The Congresswoman secured $10 billion in homelessness assistance including $5 billion to build permanent supportive housing and $5 billion for the, first time, Emergency Housing Voucher Program, with the Los Angeles area receiving the largest share of new emergency housing vouchers.
Our representative, as the Chair of the House Financial Services Committee, wrote legislation to provide over $150 billion in fair and affordable investments through the Build Back Better Act, which passed the house in 2021. However the historical measure was blocked by Senators Manchin and Sinema in the Senate.
However, Congresswoman Waters was able to secure several housing priorities through the recent Fiscal Year 2023 Omnibus spending package, including the largest-ever annal infusion of homeless assistance funding through HUD’s Continuum of Care Program. Last month HUD announced that the State of California was awarded the largest level of assistance than any other state at a total of $601 million. The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority received nearly $189 million.
Als last month, Congresswoman Waters reported, the House passed a bipartisan tax bill, which included an expansion of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program. It will incentivize the development of 200,000 affordable housing units and its success hinges on HUD housing subsidies for low-income households. She and her Democratic colleagues have continued to lead the charge to secure robust new investments in fair and affordable housing.
In 2023 she reintroduced her groundbreaking legislative housing package which includes the Housing Crisis Response Act which would invest more than $150 billion in fair and affordable housing investments to create nearly 1.4 million affordable and accessible homes and the Endless Homeless Act, which would end homelessness and significantly reduce poverty by transforming the Housing Choice Voucher Program.
Congresswoman Waters also reintroduced the Downpayment Toward Equity Act which would help revive the dream of homeownership for all and help address the racial wealth gap by providing $100 billion in direct assistance to help first time, first generation homebuyers cover the downpayments, closing costs and buydown mortgage interest rates.
Together these bills represent the single largest and most comprehensive investments in affordable housing in U.S. history and as the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, Congresswoman Waters looks forward to getting these critical bills across the finish line and ensuring that housing for all is one day a reality. With the help of local elected officials, she explained, streamlining the building permit process, reducing cumbersome building codes and addressing unnecessary or restrictive zoning and land use policies, we can make local progress on our shared goals.
At the conclusion of her presentation, Mayor Butts presented Congresswoman Waters with a proclamation that he read aloud from the Inglewood City Council commemorating her for her many years of successful and effective legislative work in the United States Congress.
Before the Town Hall Meeting was adjourned, Council Member Gray then introduced many of the city’s department heads that provided an overview of their duties, responsibilities and accomplishments.
