What's Next, Los Angeles? with Mike Bonin
Los Angeles is at a turning point. We are living in a defining moment. What happens next is up to us. Over the past few years, problems and challenges have shaken this city -- and tremendous opportunities for change have presented themselves. How do we rise to this moment and emerge a better place to live? What will it take to create a more just and a more equitable community? Working together, how are we going to create a stronger, forward-thinking Los Angeles? Mike Bonin, writer, teacher, progressive activist and former City Councilmember, looks at the issues and problems facing Los Angeles, examines ideas, and talks with the people who will lead us to a brighter future.
Produced in partnership with LA Forward.
What's Next, Los Angeles? with Mike Bonin
Wendy Carrillo: Candidate for State Senate
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Today, we continue our focus on the race for the State Senate seat in District 26, currently held by Maria Elena Durazo, who is termed out of office.
District 26 is a dense, urban district centered in Los Angeles, including Downtown LA, Boyle Heights, Echo Park, and surrounding neighborhoods. It’s home to largely Latino and immigrant communities, with a mix of working-class families and renters, and it sits at the center of many of the city’s biggest challenges — from housing affordability and homelessness to economic inequality and access to public services.
Today’s guest is Wendy Carrillo, a member of the California State Assembly.
Carrillo represented the 52nd Assembly District from 2017 to 2024, covering much of Northeast Los Angeles. Before entering elected office, she worked as a journalist and communications professional, and has long been active in immigrant rights and community advocacy.
In the legislature, she worked on issues including housing, labor, and immigrant protections, and has been part of broader debates in Sacramento over affordability and the cost of living.
She’s now running for State Senate in a competitive race to succeed Durazo. And in this conversation, we also talk about something more personal — her experience with sobriety and recovery, and how that has shaped her life and approach to public service.
What's Next, Los Angeles? is produced and hosted by Mike Bonin, in partnership with LA Forward.
A state assembly member and former journalist who has represented communities in Northeast Los Angeles is now running for state senate, and she's bringing a deeply personal story about recovery and public service into the campaign. Wendy Carrillo joins me to talk about her campaign for State Senate on this episode of What's Next, Los Angeles. Hey everyone, and welcome. It's Mike Bonn and thanks so much for joining me. As I have mentioned over the last several months of episodes, between now and Election Day, we're doing conversations spotlighting candidates for various offices on the June ballot. And today we turn to the race for State Senate District 26, which is currently held by Maria Elena Dorasso, who's termed out of office. The 26th District is dense. It's an urban district centered in LA. It includes downtown LA and Boyle Heights, Echo Park and surrounding neighborhoods. It is home to largely Latino and immigrant communities. It's got a mix of working class families and renters, and it sits at the center of many of the region's biggest challenges, from housing affordability and homelessness to economic inequality and access to public services. Today's guest is Wendy Carrillo, a former member of the California State Assembly. Carrillo represented the 52nd Assembly District from 2017 to 2024. Before entering elected office, she worked as a journalist and a communications professional, and she's long been active in immigrant rights and community advocacy. In the legislature, she worked on issues including housing, labor, and immigrant protections, and she was part of broader debates in Sacramento over affordability and the cost of living. She's now running for state senate in a competitive race to succeed Drasso. And in this conversation, we talk about something more personal her experience with sobriety and recovery and how that has shaped her life and her approach to public service. I sat down with Wendy Carrillo recently to talk about her campaign and that broader journey. And we start by talking about that pivotal moment in January 2024 when she was arrested for driving under the influence. Wendy Carrillo, welcome to What's Next Los Angeles.
SPEAKER_00Muchas gracias. Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_03I'm glad to see you. How are you doing?
SPEAKER_00I'm doing good. Yeah. Outside of uh crazy traffic in LA and I don't know what what weather it is. It's cold in the morning, then hot later. It's like doing well.
SPEAKER_03I'm from New England. It reminds me of home. You can't predict the weather. It just keeps changing.
SPEAKER_00Weather happens in one day in LA.
SPEAKER_03Exactly. Exactly. So thanks for coming on. You know, as I told you, I've been talking to the different candidates for for this Senate district. And uh I I usually start by asking people what their pitch is, and we'll get to that. Uh and then ask about a bunch of issues and and get to that. But um uh first time I've seen you in person in a while, and I thought maybe we can get a little personal to start, um, because we've got something in common, uh, which is um uh sobriety. Uh we're both sober. Um and uh your uh your your getting to sobriety was uh a sort of public news development when you were running for city council. Uh and uh how long have you been sober now?
SPEAKER_00900 plus days.
SPEAKER_03900 plus days.
SPEAKER_00Congratulations.
SPEAKER_03How's it going?
SPEAKER_00Uh it's the most amazing thing that could have ever happened to me. Uh it's also one of the most public, shameful things that I had to overcome. And every day I'm grateful to God that no one was hurt and that I'm okay.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But most importantly, I think for me, it was such a dramatic uh wake-up call when I talk about the accident and I say, you know, the engine of my car was on the ground and I completely blacked out. People don't realize like I could have very easily died. Yeah. And it's only by the grace of God that I'm here. Yep. Right. But and it was hard, you know. I remember you reached out and you wanted to talk about it, and I just, I was not ready at that time. I didn't even know what I was going through, dealing with, right? Looking in the mirror is such an interesting, like retrospective way of thinking about your life.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I remember, you know, you take ownership and responsibility and you do all the things. And but being in jail and looking at that shiny silver toilet and thinking, how did I get here? And also my policy mind was like, why doesn't the monitor work? Why doesn't the phone work? Why, you know, like you start looking at all the things that are also wrong in our justice system. And you think, and I'm somebody that has influence and access to power. And I could only imagine what this is like for everyday people. But most importantly, I think the responsibility aspect of it, like right away and living my most shameful moment in public also means that I also get to have a very public comeback and a very public rise and take ownership and responsibility.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But own it. Also own it and talk about it in a way that most people don't talk about things, right? I remember I went I went to therapy right away, put myself in a program through Kaiser, had to force myself to pee in a cup every Monday for several various weeks, months. And when I hit my first 30 days and I was uh talking to my therapist, um I had the shakes. I couldn't like, I would get nervous, driving. I just, you know, and I thought it was anxiety, yeah, PTSD, depression. I got diagnosed with all the things. And my therapist said, Yes, yes to all of that. Yes, your nervous system has gone through something really terrible and you're, you know, reconnecting with yourself in that process, but you're also going through withdrawals. And that shocked me. I was like, What do you mean? What do you mean, withdrawals? And that's when I realized like substance abuse or whatever issues you're dealing with, like they sneak up on you. Right. And for the seven years that I had been in office, the space and the work, right? It brings you to dinners and fundraisers and have a glass here, a glass there. Before you know it, you're drinking two, three times a day. Yeah. Every day for seven years, your body gets used to a certain amount. Sure. And when you take it away, your body reacts. And that's what I was going through. And that's for me the moment that I was like, oh snap, like this is this is more than what I imagined it to be. Right. And I need to take ownership of what it looks like for me.
SPEAKER_03So that was that was a month after the accident.
SPEAKER_00Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_03Uh, and when do you measure your sobriety from? From the accident or from that point or from the accident.
SPEAKER_00From the accident. Because I stopped.
SPEAKER_03Yep.
SPEAKER_00Right. And I remember having that was on a uh like Friday, November 5th at like 12 in the morning. Yeah. Right. And after that, and you go through this, I had this moment when I was finally home and you look at your looked at my, you know, liquor cabinet. Yeah. And I had this moment of like very dramatic, you know, movie style, like, I'm just gonna drink all of this or throw it down the drain and you do all of it, right? And I collapsed and I cried by myself in my living room until I fell asleep. Yeah. Because I couldn't believe that this is where my life was at that moment. And this is all during the holidays. Yeah. 30 days after was right around Christmas time.
SPEAKER_03And that's that's a that that that's a big hurdle for a lot of newly sober people is that first holiday season, particularly when it's right when you're fresh.
SPEAKER_00Mm-hmm. Those first meetings, facing yourself, right? Like talking about it out loud, just the emotion, the shame, the guilt, everything.
SPEAKER_03Yep. I I remember my first sponsor told me that it was like a month before I made eye contact with people because my eyes were just always on the floor. You know? Um, but man, it's transformative.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I remember my first, I was obviously I was still an elected. I was the assembly member of our community. And I there was like a tree giveaway that we were doing that weekend that I just couldn't go to.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And then the following week, it was a Veterans Day event. And all of these veterans showed up for me and they hugged me and, you know, held me high and said to me, You have no idea how many of us in our community are facing the same situation that you're facing publicly. And we just want to know let you know that we're here for you. I was crying and bawling, and I just I felt seen and supported, but also I had this immense sense of like responsibility.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That there was something new opening for me, and I didn't know at the time what it was.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Uh well, now that you've had some time, uh, what is it?
SPEAKER_00It's just it's a better understanding, I think, of the issues that our community faces. Behavioral health, mental health, substance abuse, wraparound services, like multi-u-lingual, culturally relevant information that's helpful.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I remember trying to search for things in Spanish so that I could learn to talk about it with my parents. Right.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Even meetings that were like, what should I bring my family? Do they need to understand? Like, can we do it in a language that's, you know, beneficial?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00None of that transpired, but it really opened up my eyes to all the missing pieces of how to search for help.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00And where is help available? It wasn't a thing that I thought would connect me to community the way that it has. Yeah. But there have been so many people that have reached out, shared their own story, their own challenges, somebody, themselves or their family or someone, and have also thanked me for being open about what sobriety and recovery looks like.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And not shy away from it.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00And I think that's the part that not enough elected, you know, you're one of few that have been very open about what recovery looks like and not be ashamed of it, but actually talk about it.
SPEAKER_03No, I mean, to I always considered it, I mean, for me, it was different. I I I didn't have to do it, right? I mean, because I was sober long before I ran for office, but it was just part of my story. It's just who I am. And, you know, for me it was meth. So I knew at some point, you know, some asshole was gonna try to make an issue out of it. So you know to me, the story wasn't that I was on meth. The story for me was that that I'm not on it anymore. Right. And it it always gave me a different sense of responsibility the way you're talking, but also um, you know, when I fell down, people helped me up. And to me, a big part of public service was making sure that there's ways to help people up, right?
SPEAKER_00Well, that's exactly it, right? Like, and you don't know it until you experienced it.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_00And I know that campaigning is ugly, and I know that people are talking about it, and I know that my opponents are talking about it, and I know that my opponent supporters are talking about it. Some have even said that I'm still a drunk and that I'm still drinking and that they know that. And I'm just like, how? You don't know me for anything.
SPEAKER_02Right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But people will say in the political space what they need to say to advance or to advance their candidate.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I just hope that at the end of the day, they're able to sleep at night.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00You know, I don't wish anybody any ill will. Yeah. I'm like, I'm gonna run my race and I'm gonna run it with integrity and honesty and connection and rooted to the community that I grew up in.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And if people vote for me, amazing. And if they choose to vote for someone else, that's how democracy works. Right. Right. Yeah. But what I won't put up with is for people that are lying, uh, people that choose to lie about my recovery. Nobody can talk about my recovery, only me.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00Right. Only I know my own experience and what I choose to share.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00Uh, but it just it's just really sad, I think, that people that want to seek public office in an effort to do good for others will choose an opportunity to discredit someone else that's also gone through something really um impactful in their lives and has turned their life around because of it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. And it is a it it's not an experience that everybody has, but everybody has a friend or a family member, right? I mean, addiction is just that pervasive. Um, when when when your accident happened and and when you got sober, I I thought of someone a lot of the listeners probably have not heard of, Mike Hernandez, who uh when I was a new young staffer, I was two years sober, and Mike was a member of the city council, um, uh got arrested for cocaine uh and uh went into like rehab for 60, 90 days and then came back into council chambers a couple months later, and there were hundreds of people jeering him, demanding he resign. A couple of his colleagues demanded he resign, Laura Chick and Mike Feuer. Uh there were like 13 TV cameras there. And I'm like, man, the courage this guy has to to sort of come in here and do that. And you're you're you're having the sort of your your your public rock bottom and then having to navigate sobriety publicly in a spotlight, like he did, is just I mean, kudos to you for doing it. Um I mean, it makes it it makes what is a really hard process. I imagine makes it a lot harder.
SPEAKER_00It's interesting. You know, I'm I'm very fortunate that I have such a an amazing family. I have four younger sisters, we're very close. I think the my first meeting my family that Sunday uh when the accident happened, uh was the hardest moment. It was like looking at my family in the eyes of my father and the eyes, my mom, my sisters, and I kept saying, Well, nobody got hurt, and my sister stopped me and she said, No, you got you got hurt.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And that was a a deep moment. And so for me, it's like the hardest conversations politically that you can have are often at your own kitchen table.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But when you have the strength and courage to be able to move forward, and also the fact that I've worked a lot in the restorative justice space and the anti-recidivism space and the opportunity to and brought millions of dollars into this community for second chances. And the number one issue or the number one thing is you don't judge someone by the worst moment of their life, right? You offer opportunities and and resources. And if I've done that work for others, why would I not give myself the grace to do that for myself?
SPEAKER_03Right. Yeah. I remember when I was first thinking of running for office. I remember I sat down with Mike Hernandez and I said, Is is is being sober compatible with running for office? And he's like, I'm not sure. How are you finding marrying sobriety with the trials of public office?
SPEAKER_00My last year in the assembly in 2024, there were a few legislators that approached me and said, Because of what happened to you, I am now just so much more careful in what I do, the events that I attend, how I, you know, how I am with others. So that was interesting in terms of you make impact whether you know it or not.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh policy-wise, my last year in office, when I started my sobriety journey and was a lot more clear-headed, there's this thing that we don't talk about, and that is the the feeling of anger. The feeling, yes, acceptance, responsibility. But then there's a moment where you just feel angry. And you I felt angry at the liquor store guy next to Roosevelt High School who sold my friends and I alcohol, Boone, Strawberry, Hill, um, dating myself, loose cigarettes, like all the things that we just we just wanted to have fun and party. Right.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I was mad at that guy. I was mad at, you know, you go to quinceaneras and you go to family parties at the family members or the family members of friends, right, that would offer me and my friends tequila. We were 14, 15 at a quinceanera, but you know, you wanted to be a cool uncle or aunt or whatever. And you think it's totally normal. It's not normal at all. Right. And I remember in 11th grade at Rosewell High School, there was a class that I took. It was like a half day, you know, uh, don't have sex without a condom because you're gonna get STDs.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00And don't drink and drive because it's bad.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00I specifically remember that. And then we go get chili fries after with your friends, right? After that class. And I said, what if I expanded on that policy? So I actually wrote a law my first, my last year in office uh related to my accident that took that policy of don't drink and drive because it's bad, but expanded it to explain this is the these are the long-term effects that long-term drinking can have on your body, your nervous system, your mental health, your physical body, all of those things. That's now been incorporated for every graduating high school senior in California since 2025.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00So we changed that policy to not just be drinking and driving is bad, but here's what it actually does to your body, and you should know that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Right. Yeah. If you're gonna go off to college, you're gonna go to parties, you're gonna frap parties, you're gonna do all that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But even if you don't, like we're still part of a culture that is still harmful. Right. You just have to know and limit yourself and just know what the impacts are.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. They should have a similar course for what being a candidate does to your body and your mind.
SPEAKER_00My God. And that was the thing, right? Like highly stressful city council race. I felt like a lot of people, you feel betrayed when the support doesn't come in, when you've done so much for others. And then you realize like, none of this is personal, it's business at the end of the day.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But you push and you push and you push yourself because that's the candidate's life, right? Until you're exhausted.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_00Um, there's something seriously wrong with any one of us that's running for office, right? But but it just makes it harder. And so just learning how do we take care of each other, how do we cope with stress, how do we cope with all the demands of the job and you can't be everywhere at once. Right. Um, and learning how to take care of yourself.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Well, I mean, sobriety gives you a a a different toolkit than than you had when you were uh drunk, right? Right.
SPEAKER_00Right. Or yeah, when you're drinking. But I'll tell you like I think everybody should do the steps program. Yeah. I think you learn a lot about yourself. You become a better version of yourself.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00When you really take inventory of how you've been treated, your boundaries, what you allow in your life, but also the way that you've treated others, right? And all the things that you have to come to terms with.
SPEAKER_03Yep. So you have this accident. You get sober, uh, you you you run for city council, um, don't win. Um adjusting to life out of office as a sober person. Why jump back into a race for state legislature? What what uh what motivated you?
SPEAKER_00I'm not done. You know, I think one of I work in the healthcare space, so I think um I think healthcare advocacy and the right to I truly believe healthcare is a human right.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um grew up in this neighborhood and have seen the changes of this community and also just how difficult it is for people to be able to afford to stay and live here. But most importantly, when we don't take care of our health, and this is also now very personal to me, yeah. When we don't take care of our health, like it has this trickle effect on everything in our lives, right? Our success, our downfalls, everything. So that's one thing why I'm running and why I ran in the first place back in 2017 when I first ran for office. But seeing all the ice rates in our community as well, um, in 2021-22, I did a bill called the Vision Act. It would have closed all the loopholes established in SB 54, which is sanctuary state policy. There are 58 counties in the state. Each county, the reason that bill passed is that each county has an opportunity to have their own policy on their own collaboration with ICE, which is why we have 58 different policies across the state. Nobody thought that I could get that bill across, got up, got it all the way to the Senate floor with law enforcement completely opposing it.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00It failed the Senate by three votes when there were eight Democrats that could have voted for it and chose not to vote for it then. Some even spoke in support of ICE at the time. And this is the part that just really infuriates me. It's performative. The what's the point of having a full Democratic majority in the assembly and the Senate and the governor's office when Democrats lack the political courage to do what's right when it's right in front of them. This was during the Biden administration. Trump was not in office. We saw the continued funding of ICE and the potential that that could have.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00If things went a different way, right? And we knew it, we were right, and that bill failed. And now those sane Democrats are out there saying ICE is terrorizing our communities.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So you can take your hypocritical voting self, right? And actually tell the community where you were because when you had a chance to stand up, you chose not to. So I'm getting all fired up again, just even thinking about it. But those are the things that motivate me to run for state office. Those are the things that I think policy wise, we need to one, most important, learn how to count. 41 votes, 21 votes, you get it to the governor's desk. We did a Smaller version of that bill got it to the governor's desk and he vetoed it because he didn't want to take a position on ICE. So this is what I mean, right? Like political courage as Democrats to do what's right. Yeah. Even when our friends don't agree.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And that's what's missing. And I think that's like a big part of why there's so many things that are messed up across our state. Uh but I'm excited. I'm excited to return.
SPEAKER_03So let me ask the the way I like to sort of frame the interviews is uh to to give candidates an opportunity to give sort of their their elevator pitch to the voters. Who are you? Uh why should people vote for you? What do you want to do?
SPEAKER_00I am a young girl who fled El Salvador Civil War and started fresh in Boyle Heights in East LA. Formally undocumented, had a pathway to residency, citizenship, first generation American, first in my family to be able to attend college, graduate high school, go to college here, went to Roosevelt High School, East LA College, Cal State LA, an alumni, and then went to USC for grad school. I'm I'm homegrown. And I think it's real, it's really the dreams of our parents, right? Who sacrificed so much for us to be able to move forward and to build a new life here in LA, in this beautiful state and our nation. And so I just believe that there's so much more of us and so much power that we have as community, as immigrants, we get the job done, right? Um, and when I had the opportunity to run and win and have a seat at the table, it's not just having a seat at the table, it's what you do when you have that seat at the table. I know way too many folks that are very comfortable where they're at and don't push.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And it is, this district is one of the most safe, it's progressive, left-leaning uh safety zone areas in the entire state. We, this is the area where we push. This is the area where we push forward and move forward agendas that are about uh protecting our safety net, protecting vulnerable communities, ensuring that people are able to stay at home and pay their rent and be able to afford to live in LA when so many things are much more expensive, right? $100 is not the same at a grocery store anymore. But I will say this like there's a there's a letter by John Adams that he wrote to his wife that just really inspires me. And it was during the Revolutionary War. So he goes off to France and he's uh fundraising for the Revolutionary War, and he's there with a bunch of folks, and he writes to his wife, and he writes, Um, My dearest Abigail, the gardens of Versailles are beautiful. And I wish that I had the time to write to you and explain their beauty to you, but I must get back to work and I must go study politics and war so that our sons have the liberty to study mathematics and philosophy, so that their children have a right to study art and music. And that I think is the story of America that inspires me that every generation has an opportunity to build a better life for themselves and for their families, no matter which generation you are. And so I want to be a part of that solution. And I'm inspired by that because I think that when democracy wins, when we put people that don't come from money, that have different lived experiences, that have different trajectories, that have fought and clawed their way to get to where they're at, they bring a different perspective and a different fight.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00And that is how we change our nation. That is how we change our city, our state, our country. And at this moment, I think we're all feeling that our country is going in a completely different direction. And who we elect as our leaders matters, not just at this moment, but for the future.
SPEAKER_03You talked about this seat being a seat where you can really push, right? Uh this seat for a long time, particularly under under Senator Dorasso, has really been associated with labor power and immigrant communities. Umigrant workers who um working in the hotel industry, in the food service field, and logistics. What are your top policy priorities around wage theft, workplace safety, unionization?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Senator Durazzo and I worked very closely since it's uh my former assembly district is a 100% overlap of the Senate district. So we worked on those policies quite a bit together. I think sometimes legislators focus a lot on a bill, a policy.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00What I wanted to do, and funny enough, that we're at Cal State LA, um my first election was in 10th grade. One 10th grade class president at Roosevelt.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_00My second election was to be the vice president of finance at Cal State LA for the Associated Students Incorporated, ASI, ASI. Yep. So I find that the budget and the budget process is such a key instrumental part of actually fighting for workers.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So through my when I was chair of our budget subcommittee, not only did we pass policies that gave the Department of Labor or the labor agency that more um opportunities to go after um companies and employers that were actually bad actors and doing wage theft.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But we put money in the budget so that they can hire the investigators. Because what's the point of passing policy when it's not funded?
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00When the resources aren't there, that those that's what I call false wins.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So as we go through a budget deficit in the state and in the city, the urgency of protecting what's been done is critical, to not take away resources from the labor agency to be able to go after corporations that are stealing funds. That's the number one issue across the country and certainly in the state. Yep. Especially when you have low-wage workers who um may be working off an ITIN or may not be fully uh have their paperwork in order and folks that take advantage of that. That's real, that's happening every day.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um and there are ways that we can work on those issues.
SPEAKER_03Aaron Powell Uh you mentioned immigration a little bit earlier uh and bills you had supported and fought for.
SPEAKER_00Uh if you were back in the legislature now, or if you get back in the legislature in a few months, uh is there any legislation that that isn't being pushed now that you want to introduce a lot of I would like to see more funding and resources go towards the mental health bets needed to get people off the street and into treatment. I worked on an initiative for five years that gave LA County General Hospital $50 million to rehab that hospital to create the mental health that's necessary to get people off the street and into treatment. Right. The biggest obstacle is that there, and you know this, there are various different levels of uh homelessness, chronic homelessness, and then folks that are just being priced out of communities. Yep. But in my lifetime, I've only seen seen Skid Row grow. The inhumane way in which folks are treated or don't receive care, or the fact that there are people there and all across different communities that are suffering from very real mental health challenges. And after Reagan got rid of all the mental health hospitals and institutions, they were supposed to be replaced and they never were. And so now we just let people wander in the streets without the ability to care for themselves. There's that's not a society that I want to live in. I don't think this that's a humane way to treat people. But if we don't have the healthcare staff, the places, the beds, the wrap, the 24-hour wraparound services, the humane way for treatment, right, then what are we doing? Yeah. We're just keep we keep throwing money at a problem and saying that interim housing is the the solution. It's not. Yeah. Because you can't put somebody that's been living off in the streets for 20 plus years that has a substance abuse issue or a mental health challenge or whatever issue, put them in a single room by themselves and think that it's going to be successful. It's not. And that's been proven over and over. So I just don't think that we're doing, we're taking the right approaches when it comes to resources or the places needed to actually care for people.
SPEAKER_03And so much of the the debate over homelessness and mental health sort of comes down to fights over whether or not uh the the state should have a greater ability to forcefully institutionalize somebody, right? Yeah. Uh and very rarely is it about the the resources to to help people. Um Right.
SPEAKER_00So some folks would say, well, you're uh I remember uh and I love the ACLU and the ACLU has taken this position too that we're infringing upon someone's um civil liberties. But does that individual know what's going on with them? Are they a danger to themselves or to others? Right. Like there's what what kind of society have we become when we know that someone's having a mental health episode on the street and we choose to do nothing?
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00Or the only other option in the past has been incarceration. Right. Put that person in a county in a in county jail. That's not a solution. It's not a solution for the deputies within the jail, and it's not a solution. We're not trained, by the way, to deal with any of this. Or that individual. It seems as if in the past we've been okay with turning the other cheek, not wanting to see and having that person just simply be imprisoned versus that person needs help and we should figure out how to do it.
SPEAKER_03Right. And if we had enough mental health resources to begin with, people wouldn't be in that situation.
SPEAKER_00Right. We're now at a place where we are um reacting to a very severe mental health challenge that's right here in our own backyard versus being proactive on how to avoid them.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Let me ask about housing. Um Central, East, Northeast LA, they all have really intense displacement pressures and and and rising rents. Uh as a state legislator, what could you do to prevent displacement while still building the housing that we need?
SPEAKER_00Aaron Powell Right. I'm a big supporter of the repeal of the Ellis Act and the repeal of the Costa Hawkins Act. It's a position that I've had uh since I really began to learn about it. I didn't know what those things were.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00But basically the Ellis Act is being used as to way to as a way to displace individuals that live in um rent-controlled apartments or low uh rent apartments. Um we're talking about folks on disability with fixed incomes. A landlord can come in and say, uh, we need to fix something in the building, we need you to vacate, you're paying $600 rent, but now your rent's gonna be $2,700 market rate.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Like if you're a senior living on Source Security and a very small pension, like you're not gonna be able to afford that. And that's what's happening across the entire Senate district and across Los Angeles, right, to be quite honest, everywhere. The Costa Hawkins Act doesn't allow any new housing production to have rent control uh beyond I think 1992.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Right. And so all the housing that's being built right now is market rate, unless it's specified to be affordable housing.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00But even then, affordable housing is not affordable to everyone.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00So then we really need low-income housing, senior housing, veteran housing, mixed use, all of the things that make communities thrive and that allow for people to be able to afford to live in their neighborhoods. I live in Boyle Heights, I grew up in Boyle Heights. There's a 50-unit complex that's being built right on Caesar Chavez, very high dense neighborhood. Market rate, a bet one bedroom starts at $2,700. The medium income for a family in Boyle Heights is less than $40,000 a year. The question that I have is who are you building that for, if not for the community?
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00Because we know families. I know families personally that there are two to three families living in a one bedroom because that's what they can afford. Right. Right.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And so that's on the federal side, that's already considered homeless.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00When you are living on someone's couch, when you're sharing the amenities like that, that is already considered homeless by federal standards. So who are you building for? If we were to take inventory of all the new housing that's been developed, a large percentage is still vacant. Yeah. Because you can't afford it. And Echo Park, um, that French restaurant takes, I never know how to say it, takes, takes um, French restaurant right on sunset being demolished, community up in arms about it because it's a historic place, landmark. Uh just market rate housing being built on top.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And the Echo Park community is saying no one can afford it. No one can afford $3,500 for a one-bedroom or $4,000 for a two-bedroom. Right. That used to be a mortgage, Mike.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I know.
SPEAKER_00So then who are we building for?
SPEAKER_03Yep. Another issue that this district really faces is like a lot of environmental racism, right? Um some of the worst air pollution around in this district, you know, near the freeways, near industrial sites. What's your EJ agenda if you get elected?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So that's been out part of my agenda since I got elected. Um we are this district community is surrounded by the two, the five, the 10, the 60, the 101, the 710, the 134, and the five. Wow. Surrounded. Um multiple reports by the LA County Department of Health have said the district, this district contains the highest density of uh young children with asthma and seniors with asthma.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00This district has also been home to the largest uh environmental disaster the state has seen that no one knows about. And that's the Exide battery plant-led contamination that contaminated 10,000 parcels. And parcels include schools, parks, homes, nursery, daycare centers. Um, and we're still trying to clean up and remediate. Uh during the first Trump administration, Exide filed for bankruptcy. A Trump-appointed judge let them continue to file bankruptcy, and so they are not liable for anything.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00And the taxpayer now is, the state of California is.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00The department that allowed for their permit to continue allowed for that to happen. Uh so my environmental justice agenda is rooted with the people of this community and the fact that simply because Exite is in the city of Vernon and contaminated mostly East LA, Boyle Heights, and Southeast communities, most of which are Latino, most of which are immigrant, most of which are Spanish speaking, it allowed for this environmental racism to continue. Uh, and it takes folks to be able to stand up to corporate interests and to stand up again to departments within our state that allowed for it to happen.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00When we learned that the dirty, the the the dirty dirt, the contaminated dirt from these communities contaminated by lead was then by the Department of Toxins uh within the state, was taken out of California and then delivered out of state to a nearby Native American reservation.
SPEAKER_02Whoa.
SPEAKER_00That's what the state did.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_00Dirty, contaminated dirt, because the state has passed all this policy on like where that we can't have our own contamination.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00The state went to a nearby state and deposited that dirty, contaminated dirt via Native American reservation. And it took some very intrepid journalists to uncover that and bring it to my attention and to others. And obviously, none of that's okay.
SPEAKER_03No.
SPEAKER_00I also want to say that when it comes to EJ, like all communities should be part of the solution. Right now, when it comes to um like renewable energy, for example, you can't afford to buy an electric vehicle. Yeah. Right. You're still driving a uh a gas car. I drive a gas car. I can't afford an electric vehicle at the moment. Yep. But if you live in an apartment, there's no place for you to plug it.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00Right. So we need incentives for um apartments to be able to incentivize the, I think, technology needed for folks to be able to plug. Secondly, I would say we need to decouple utility bills. Yeah. So that apartment owners and apartments can also include solar and have that solar be divided by the units right now that doesn't exist. Right. And so the only way that you're part of the solution through solar is if you own a home and you own your roof.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And that's not an equitable approach to renewable energy.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Uh gotta ask a couple questions about education. Let me start with um sort of TK through 12. Um California is spending historically high levels overall uh on TK through 12, but there's still a lot of districts that are facing real budget pressures and enrollment declines. Uh and of course, state funding is based on um attendance. Uh any thoughts on how the state should change or whether it should change its school funding formulas uh or oversight so that money can actually reach the highest need students?
SPEAKER_00We well, I was in the assembly. There was a senator that carried policy to change that formula. I supported it, voted for it, but it didn't pass. But there should be ways that we're able to allow for school districts to be able to budget and plan ahead.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um and that's not the case right now since it's based on attendance in the homeroom. So you so as somebody that used to skip homeroom, I got kicked out of I got kicked out of Roosevelt because I wouldn't go to first first period and homeroom. I'd show up after nutrition and so you know, go to everything else. I didn't know. I didn't know that my my the funding for my education came from me attending homeroom.
SPEAKER_03Right. Right. Um the UCs and CSUs. Um the states cut funding for for for both recently, but they still have to meet the same goals on enrollment, on equity, workforce preparation. So in response, a lot of them are doing tuition hikes or they're cutting programs, like there's the students at the CSUs who who can't graduate because they've they've they've cut programs they need to finish their requirements. Uh any thoughts on how we uh stabilize or strengthen public university funding while still keeping uh uh tuition low enough uh for low and middle income students?
SPEAKER_00Aaron Powell That used to be the the the master plan on education, that a CSU or a UC education in California would be provided to all California students.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_00Guaranteed. There are guarantees now with LAUSD that every student that graduates should be able to come to a CSU.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But when we're not funding the CSUs, when adjunct adjunct professors make absolutely nothing, they're not able to afford their own uh livelihoods. Many adjunct professors are no longer on tenure track.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_00You're teaching at various different campuses just to try to toggle up together, puzzle up together a a living wage.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_00That's that's not um that's not a good way to to to be in your career as a professor. It doesn't help you focus, it doesn't help you maintain the relationships that you need with students. And so it needs to be a priority to the state. I remember I'll send you a photo of a 2003 um 22-year-old Wendy protesting here at at Cal State LA, the the CSU hikes that then Governor Schwarzenegger was doing at the time. So every time there's a a budget conflict, it's students and education that suffer the most. And when most students look like me across the state, most students are Latin in the TSU campus, the average student is Latino, immigrant, first gen.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Very similar to the UC student body population. And so when you hurt the largest population in the state, you're also saying that you're not making an investment in the future of California.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Public safety. It's such a the the dialogue around public safety is pretty polarizing, right? On one side, you've got tough on crime. On the other side, you've got care, not cages. For for this district, how would you define and describe a public safety agenda?
SPEAKER_00Public safety starts with, I think, after school programs. My first year in office, I delivered a $50 million budget increase to ACES, which is a statewide run association of after school programs. The biggest ones in LA are LA's Best and Beyond the Bell. Yeah. They're mostly in all of our elementary schools, even in some junior highs. Um, I grew up as a latchkey kid. Both my parents work, right? So uh after school programs were critical and keeping my sisters and I out of trouble. When those programs disappear, that's when you have idle hands and with young people. Uh, that's why the grid program is so important that the city of LA does and be able to replicate that not only in the summer, but year long.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00Um, so education is part of public safety. Um there are a lot of concerns about growing encampments in certain communities. Right. And so children having to, and we've seen the news reports, children having to walk on the street to avoid tents, uh, people with disabilities. I've seen that firsthand in Eagle Rock under the 134. Um, uh a woman in a wheelchair having to not have the ability to cross in the sidewalk because it's filled with encampments, yeah, with tents. So then the question becomes locally the enforcement of what that looks like. Like. So how do you help people get into housing or get into services when others feel like they're not being seen or prioritized or public safety is at risk? I think the biggest challenge that I saw, and we try to change this policy when it comes to the tents and the encampments, is that if people don't have ID, it's very difficult to get them services.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00So I did a pilot project during COVID that allowed for the first time ever mobile DMV services, which allowed a person with an iPad to go and actually provide somebody an ID. It's huge. Right. We did that during COVID. Highly successful. I ran the policy to make it permanent.
SPEAKER_03Yep.
SPEAKER_00Got vetoed by the governor. Too costly.
SPEAKER_03That's short-sighted. Long run, it's not. Right. Long run it saves money.
SPEAKER_00Correct. And so I thought we're putting all this money into housing, into services. And but if people don't have ID, that's the number one challenge. The second challenge is folks that are highly attached to their pets, their animals.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_00So we did again pilot project during COVID, wanted to extend it during as a permanent, allow for more funding for uh new housing or intermittent housing to be able to receive pets.
SPEAKER_03Sure. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Got vetoed by the governor.
SPEAKER_03Well, and as sure as we're sitting here, there's there's someone, a neighborhood leader or a politician who's you know criticizing someone who's unhoused for being service resistant when they don't have an ID and they can't access services.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_00Right. Uh and then I would say like an additional thing here locally that I really like that the city is doing is the um unarmed response.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Right. And and mental health support. And uh sometimes even providing a law enforcement person to be able to go with somebody that offers the services. So that most of the time those workers tend to be young women. I know because my sister is one. She got her MSW. She was working down at Skid Row at um school on wheels. And so she saw a lot. Yeah. And so, but part of it is also making sure that those workers feel safe. Right. And going into places that maybe unfamiliar or maybe they don't know or just need a little bit of reassurance.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Uh what are your thoughts on the billionaires tax? Looks like it's gonna be on the support. Uh what about Calcare?
SPEAKER_00Original author on Calcare. Um not surprised that it didn't get out of committee. I think there's a lot of special interests that get in the way of what that's supposed to look like. Uh it's one of my platforms as to why I'm running and why I believe that universal health care is the direction that we need to go in. Um, Medicare for All. Like those are all things, right? Um if since the Trump administration is cutting funding on community clinics, more than nine community clinics have closed down. This district has seen four hospitals shut down.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_00And I think one of them is gonna come back. But the closure of hospitals, the lack of health care professionals, we should be investing in more nurses, more doctors, more mental health therapists, more of the healthcare workforce to meet the needs of Californians. We have done amazing work in passing policies that allow for undocumented seniors to be able, our abuelitos to be able to receive care.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00But again, false win when the governor delays that implementation, when clinics are shutting down, when clinics are not receiving the federal funds needed to stay open. There's an initiative for the June ballot as well. This is called Measure ER. It's for LA County only.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_00That's uh supposed to be to protect and preserve our community clinics so that they have the funding that they need, right? So these are just minimal steps.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_00But all of it, again, is just a band-aid until we get to the real solution, which is Calcare and Medicare for All.
SPEAKER_03Last question. Um there's so much bad shit going on. Right. The underpinnings of democracy are like getting knocked down. Uh we've got, you know, people being seized off the streets by masked agents. Uh the the economy's in the in in in the crapper for a lot of people. Costs are going up, housing crisis. Uh there's a lot of people who have just they they've sort of lost faith. They've lost hope, right? Some of them are just they they've given up. You're running for office. Uh clearly you've got a perspective that that things can get better. Um where do you in in these dark times draw your strength and your faith?
SPEAKER_00Wow, that is that is such a that's a deep question, Mike. Um I would say that since I started my recovery journey in my sobriety, I'm I'm thankful because it's opened my eyes to and reaffirmed my faith. Um I study a lot the teachings of like the Jesuit leanings within the Catholic Church. I love and adore Father Greg Boyle.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I I look at the history of my own country in El Salvador and Jesuit priests who were uh slain because of their support for revolution and supportive people. Um, and I'm inspired to think about how we use faith in a way that serves those that need the most. Um and I think faith has been uh hijacked and kidnapped by the far right, by Christian nationalists who use the Bible to their convenience, uh, but really don't have the faith that actually Jesus talked about, right? Like for the for for what it what is the saying? It's um for what you do to the least of them is what you do to me, right? Something like that. It's the proverb. Um excuse me, I'm I'm butchering it at the moment, but it is how do we use our faith to help others when we have power for a short amount of time because of term limits, right? How do you do the most good for the most people while you can? Yeah, and that's it. I think about the story of Jesus uh flipping tables, right, uh, at a church setting because they were profiting of people that were going, and that's not the intention, right? Um, I think about that in terms of billionaires who are just um amounting such an uh incredible amount of of resources and money while people starve. Yeah, right. What's the point of saying that California is the fourth largest economy in the world when we have the highest poverty rates? Yeah, when we have the lowest school achievement rates, when we have the lowest reading rates, when we're only increasing our unhoused neighbors because they can't afford to live here. Yeah, right. What is the point, Mike?
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00Right. So I get grounded in justice, I get grounded in resilience, I get grounded just by walking my community and talking to my neighbors and thinking when I was five years old and I came to the US and I went to Sheridan Elementary School and I was undocumented and I didn't have access to a doctor and I got sick and I went to a community clinic. Somebody at that time was looking out for me and my family. I don't know who they are, but I'm grateful. And now it's my chance to do the same.
SPEAKER_03Wendy, thanks so much for joining me.
SPEAKER_00Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_03That's it for this episode of What's Next Los Angeles. My thank you to Wendy Carrillo for joining me, and my thanks to Tonya Wecias for editing and producing, my thanks to LA Forward for sponsoring this podcast, and my staff at the Pat Brown Institute for helping research and prepare it. Please also tune in to our sister podcast, LA Podcast, where I'm part of a stable of co-hosts where we discuss and analyze the latest news about politics, policy, and government in the LA area. You can find it wherever you listen to podcasts. And stay tuned for more episodes of What's Next Los Angeles in the coming weeks. Until then, thank you. Peace and take good care.