Roy on Shifting Hotels From Hospitality to Urgently Needed Housing

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Ananya Roy, director of the Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy, co-authored an opinion piece for the Appeal that argued for the conversion of tens of thousands of vacant hotel rooms to house Angelenos threatened with homelessness. Given the downturn in the global tourist industry, many of these rooms are expected to remain unused for years to come, said Roy and co-author Jonny Coleman of NOlympics LA. The public acquisition of hotels and motels using tools such as eminent domain is the only way the region can add an adequate number of housing units quickly and affordably, they argued. “It is worth reflecting on how the present moment of compounding crises has broken past the limits of the possible,” they wrote. The piece pointed to the institute’s recently released report, “Hotel California: Housing the Crisis,” which was also cited in media outlets including LAist, Univision and NextCity.

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Ong Recommends Expanding CARES Act

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Paul Ong, research professor and director of UCLA Luskin’s Center for Neighborhood Knowledge, was featured in an IE Business Daily article discussing government relief efforts to support residents and businesses during the pandemic. Created in March, the CARES Act has directed billions of dollars in relief aid to U.S. citizens, major industries and small businesses. However, a recent study co-authored by Ong found that the CARES Act has favored some regions and groups more than others. With the CARES Act set to expire at the end of the month, the Trump Administration must expand the program or risk serious consequences, Ong said. He added that state and local relief policies should be adopted to fill in the gaps not covered by the federal government. “A lot of people are going to need help with their rent and their mortgage payments,” Ong said. “What we need is a major policy discussion.”

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Zepeda-Millán Finds Public Support for Releasing Child Detainees

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Associate Professor of Public Policy Chris Zepeda-Millán was featured in a Conversations with Changemakers interview about public opinions surrounding the current administration’s immigrant detention policies. He explained that “even before the COVID-19 pandemic occurred, jails, prisons and detention centers already had pretty bad conditions,” including poor sanitation, cold temperatures, inadequate medical care and dangerous overcrowding. Zepeda-Millán suspects an undercount in COVID-19 cases in detention centers, noting that only 1% of detainees had been tested but 60% of those tested positive for the virus. Before the pandemic started, one survey found that the public overwhelmingly rejected detaining children and preferred releasing immigrant children to family members or sponsors instead. Conditions have only worsened since the pandemic started, Zepeda-Millán said, and the public may be even more in favor of releasing detainees now that they know how the pandemic is spreading among incarcerated populations.

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Akee Alarmed by Undercounting of Navajo Population

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Associate Professor of Public Policy Randall Akee spoke with KJZZ News about the danger of undercounting the Navajo Nation population in the 2020 census. The coronavirus pandemic has hindered the self-reporting phase of the census; in April, fewer than 1% of Navajo had reported to the U.S. Census Bureau. Now, that number has risen to about 6.5% — still a fraction of the number that responded last time. Akee explained that it’s important for the census to get the numbers right. “Undercounting is horrible. It’s problematic because it affects everything from allocations of funding to congressional representation,” he said. Akee noted that funding for the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act was also based on population size. Undercounting of minority populations can drastically affect the allocation of federal aid and resources. Census workers are responsible for filling in missing data in order to account for lack of self-reporting.

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Ong Comments on Shifting Perceptions of Race Relations

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Paul Ong, research professor and director of the Center for Neighborhood Knowledge at UCLA Luskin, spoke to the Los Angeles Times about Californians’ increasing acknowledgement of racial discrimination, as highlighted by the results of a statewide survey. Compared to the results of a similar survey done in February, white Californians are now much more likely than they were earlier this year to say that Black people, Latinos and Asians are “frequently” discriminated against. The uptick comes as data have shown that the coronavirus disproportionately affects Black and Latino communities, and has led to an explosion in anti-Asian hate incidents, Ong said. “The impacts are unevenly distributed — whether we’re talking about health, whether we’re talking employment or stability or negative racial encounters.” There is a “continuing hierarchy” in which respondents perceive Black Americans to be the most affected by discrimination, followed by Latinos and Asian Americans, he added.

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Diaz on Lack of Latino Representation on Redistricting Commission

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Sonja Diaz, founding director of the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Initiative (LPPI), was interviewed by Spectrum News 1 and Hecho en California about the early exclusion of Latinos on the state’s 2020 Citizens Redistricting Commission, which convenes every 10 years to draw new district lines. Latinos make up nearly 40% of California’s population, but none were included when the first eight members of this year’s commission were chosen through a randomized selection process. A Sacramento Bee opinion piece citing LPPI’s work on the issue noted that Latinos are chronically underrepresented in the redistricting process, from the number of applications submitted to the final slots provided to members of the community. “It’s really important as we think about how to rebuild and reopen our economy that Latinos have a seat at the table,” Diaz said, adding that she hopes the remaining six seats are filled by Latino voices or voices that recognize the needs of Latino political power.

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Reber Calls for Federal Funding to Support Reopening Schools

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Associate Professor of Public Policy Sarah Reber co-authored an opinion piece in the Hill urging Congress to quickly pass a major funding package to enable schools to resume in-person instruction. As fall approaches, many health experts are calling for schools to reopen to support student learning and mental health and allow parents to return to work. With decreased funding from state tax revenue, school districts must rely on federal funding to cover the costs of new technology and infrastructure to ensure teacher and student health and safety. Reber and co-author Nora Gordon of Georgetown University recommended a relief plan that distributes funds to states based on their levels of child poverty and child population. “To avoid the dangers of social isolation for the well-being of children, schools need another federal relief package that is big enough, flexible enough and soon enough to allow them to open this fall,” they wrote.

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Shoup on the Benefits of Congestion Pricing in L.A.

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Distinguished Research Professor of Urban Planning Donald Shoup authored a Bloomberg article recommending the implementation of congestion pricing in Los Angeles. In 2021, Metro will launch a pre-Olympics pilot program consisting of one or two high-occupancy-vehicle toll lanes adjacent to four or five free lanes in each direction. While some are opposed to the idea of paying to drive on highways, Shoup argued that drivers are already paying for congestion in wasted time. The congestion pricing system will allow toll lane users to travel faster and save time and will also benefit public transit riders who will no longer be trapped in buses “immobilized by the congestion that more affluent drivers create.” By reducing fuel consumption, air pollution and carbon emissions and making public transit faster and more reliable, “congestion pricing can improve life for most people who own a car and for all people who do not,” Shoup concluded.

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Blumenberg and Brozen on Inaccessibility of COVID Testing Locations

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Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies Director Evelyn Blumenberg and Deputy Director Madeline Brozen co-authored an opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times about the accessibility of Los Angeles’ COVID-19 testing sites, most of which are drive-through locations. Public health officials have stressed the importance of testing to combat the pandemic’s spread, but the locations of testing sites are inaccessible for many Angelenos who don’t own cars. Many neighborhoods do not have a walk-in location within walking distance, and borrowing a car or taking public transit to a testing location increases risk of exposure. “If you live in a household without a car in Los Angeles County, you are much more likely to be poor, 65 or older, Black, a recent immigrant, living with a disability or uninsured,” they explained. “These same households also face higher risks of contracting COVID-19, so making sure they have access to testing is paramount.”

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Tilly on the Deterioration of Worker Protections

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A KQED podcast series on how American workers have lost benefits, power and protections over the last few decades spoke with Urban Planning Professor Chris Tilly, an authority on labor economics. Tilly explained the phenomenon of the “fissured workplace,” where full-time employees work side by side with part-timers, temps, gig workers and contractors. Some classes of workers receive no health coverage, overtime pay, worker’s compensation or other protections, increasing company profits while breaking up worker solidarity. Tilly described a job he held in the late 1970s at a hospital that directly employed not just health-care professionals, but cafeteria staff, custodians and maintenance workers. Now, such positions would be outsourced at many companies, a trend that emerged not from new laws or regulations but from “an experimentation process,” he said. By testing existing legal boundaries, Tilly said, managers and executives discovered that “we could get away with this, there’s nothing stopping us from doing this.” Tilly’s segment begins at minute 23:35.

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