LOS ANGELES – Mayor Eric Garcetti announced Monday in his annual State of the City address, that he will seek to spend nearly $1 billion on initiatives for addressing homelessness, as well as allocate $235 million for the city’s Emergency Rental Assistance program, intended to help up to 100,000 households and other critical needs.
Garcetti laid out proposals for $25 million to help 5,000 small businesses negatively impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic to reopen and rebuild with grants of $5,000. The Mayor also targeted $151 million in additional funds for programs and pilots to advance racial justice and economic progress.
The mayor’s speech is a preview of the proposed 2021-22 City Budget he will send to the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday.
Garcetti proposed a guaranteed basic income pilot project that would pay $1,000 a month to 2,000 to the city’s neediest households over the next year as part of a “basic guaranteed income” pilot program that he described as the biggest of any city in America.
“We’re betting that one small but steady investment for Angeleno households will pay large dividends for health and stability across our city and light a fire across our nation,” Garcetti said.
He also outlined plans for a $12 million L.A. REPAIR – Reforms for Equity and Public Acknowledgement of Institutional Racism – program to address racial injustices of the past by investing “to support job creation and provide organizational backing for community intervention, racial healing, justice and reconciliation.”
A vast majority of the mayor’s proposals would be funded with $1.3 billion from the federal government’s American Rescue Plan.
Other Highlights included:
Making outdoor dining permanent in many neighborhoods.
Cutting red tape for restaurants, including speeding up the process to obtain alcohol permits, cutting fees and suspending some valet and off-site parking requirements.
Paying DACA fees for 505 Dreamers in Los Angeles community colleges.
Installing WiFi access points in 300 underserved neighborhoods.
Declaring a moratorium on new oil and gas drilling in Los Angeles.
Banning citywide styrofoam and single-use foodware.
Establishing a memorial to an 1871 hate incident that resulted in the massacre of 19 Chinese Angelenos.
Putting up memorials to COVID victims around the city.
