By our powers combined…
Obscure 90s cartoon references aside, an alliance sounds pretty cool! Let’s meet the team…
The five member mayors of this new alliance include Los Angeles’ Eric Garcetti, San Francisco’s Ed Lee, Portland Mayor Charlie Hales, Seattle’s Ed Murray, and Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy.
So what’s this alliance, full name: The West Coast Alliance of Mayors, seeking to do?
In brief, the mayors from some of the west coast’s biggest cities will use the alliance for sharing strategies and policies geared toward addressing homelessness, but also other issues. They will also come together to collectively demand the resources needed to solve the crisis.
More specifically, a joint statement from the mayors seeks support from federal partners to increase funding for affordable housing development; increase funding for rent assistance and supportive services for homeless people; and increase the flexibility of federal regulations so that programs can better meet the unique needs of each city.
The WCAM seeks to set the bar for data collection and information exchange on this front, and will share what they have learned to the U.S. Conference of Mayors in January.
Hooray for the Alliance!
The press release on Mayor Garcetti’s web page can be found here.