Dear RUN,

Last week was a big week. Everyone who was on the Community Care call on Wednesday got the rundown: we’ve got a budget showdown coming.

Here are the details. We already know that the Governor wants to put a lot of money towards some good things and some not-great things in his budget. But he doesn’t decide the budget by himself - he has to negotiate with the Assembly and the Senate. Last week, the legislature announced that they want to put $1 billion ongoing towards homeless housing and services, which they’ve never said before! That’s close to what we were asking for in AB 71, and the reason it’s in there is because we fought so hard to get our legislators to care about it.

For that, we should be proud. But that ongoing money is not certain yet, because the Governor could say no to it. We’ll know by June 15, when the final budget goes to his desk. That means we have two weeks to wait.

In the meantime, Assemblymember Luz Rivas, who spoke at our Lobby Days rally and has been a tireless, fearless advocate for homelessness funding, decided to make AB 71 a two-year bill. That means it will not have a vote this year. If that budget showdown works out in our favor, though, we could get something that looks a lot like AB 71 without a vote.

Confused? Excited? Join us at the Community Care call on Wednesday at 1pm, led by our new statewide organizer Robert Villagomez, for more.

Take good care,

Tori

Connect with RUN

• Join us for a Community Care call this Wednesday from 1-2pm to dig into what happened with AB 71. Everyone is welcome, and we provide interpretation in Spanish. It’s fun! Here’s the Zoom link, or you can join via phone at 669 900 6833, Meeting ID: 977 6290 7497.
• Do you live in the Inland Empire? You’re invited to a RUN Power Hour training series, every Thursday in June from 2-3pm! This week’s training will show how to use storytelling as a tool for organizing to change hearts and minds. Attend 2 of the trainings and receive a $25 gift card, and if you attend all 4 trainings you will receive a $50 gift card and a Housing Advocate Champion Training Certificate. Register here!

News you can use

• Our partners at Western Center on Law and Poverty published an op-ed today about the Governor’s stigmatizing rollout of his homelessness budget proposal, which RUN members discussed in depth last month on a Community Care call. Tina Rosales of Western Center said, “We need solidarity from our elected officials, not insults, and we need our leaders to speak to our highest instincts and innate empathy for each other, not to stereotype-driven fears.”