2024 Annual Meeting A Success!
For many members, the 2020 California Healthy Housing Coalition Annual Meeting in Sacramento was the last in-person meeting attended prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, we returned to Sacramento for the first time since. It was a great reminder both about how much has changed in four years as well as how many of the challenges we were facing four years ago remain.
We were honored to have Assemblymember Christopher Ward, Chair of the Assembly Committee on Housing and Community Development, open our meeting with an inspiring message about the critical role of healthy and affordable housing in the state and the importance of our work.
Day one continued with “Updates on Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention,” including a policy review from Larry Brooks with the Alameda County Healthy Homes Department (slides) and an overview of the California Department of Public Health’s progress and timeline for taking over administration of the EPA RRP certification by Max Weintraub from the Department’s Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program (slides). The lead presentations were followed by an introduction to Social Housing with Shanti Singh with Tenants Together and Zach Lou with the California Green New Deal Coalition providing an overview of social housing and its intersection with healthy housing (slides).
We then were joined by Bryan Kirkness with the City of Los Angeles and Orlando Givens with 4Leaf to discuss the challenges of addressing unpermitted units while minimizing displacement. Mr. Givens provided an overview of state law and tenants’ rights related to unlawful units (slides), while Mr. Kirkness outlined LA’s approach to help owners convert to legal ADUs or ensure tenants receive relocation assistance (slides). We then concluded the day with some coalition updates and breakout sessions for each of our workgroups to share and discuss priorities for the year.
We gathered again on day two with a peer-to-peer discussion on the role of government partners in healthy housing advocacy. In small and large groups, members explored the various ways government partners, who often face limitations on their ability to directly lobby, can be strong advocates for healthy housing by forming strong community partnerships, sharing their expertise, and supplying vital data. Finally, Pete Roque and Cecilia Muela from 4Leaf provided a training on Enforcing Healthy Housing Laws (slides coming soon).
Additionally, over a dozen members spent the day at the state capital building relationships with their state representatives.
