Jurado calls for difficult decisions about the City's future with or without LAHSA and a housing-led, public health response to homelessness
LOS ANGELES – Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson has appointed Councilmember Ysabel Jurado chair of the newly-created Homelessness and Health Committee, effective August 31, 2026.
"I am honored to be entrusted with the responsibility of chairing the City Council's new Homelessness and Health Committee," said Councilmember Jurado. "Our backs are against the wall, and we have to make hard decisions to ensure Los Angeles addresses issues of accountability while still providing long-term solutions to homelessness. That includes deciding whether the City's future is with LAHSA or requires a different model. Leadership means having difficult conversations, saying plainly what is not working and changing course when results demand it. Whatever path we choose, we must protect essential services and workers, establish clear responsibility and measure whether public dollars are helping people become and remain housed,"
As chair, Jurado will prioritize homelessness prevention, permanent supportive and deeply affordable housing, health and behavioral health services, and housing-led alternatives to the cycle of sweeps and displacement.
"Housing is a human right, and homelessness must be treated as the public health crisis it is," Jurado said. "Our goal must be to bring people home and build a system that keeps them housed - not move them from block to block or push poverty out of sight."
Councilmember Jurado will also serve as vice chair of the Housing Committee; as a member of the Civil Rights, Immigration, Social Services, and Neighborhoods Committee; the Planning and Land Use Management Committee; and the Ad Hoc Committee on Unarmed Crisis Prevention, Intervention, and Community Services; and as chair of the Ad Hoc Committee for Boyle Heights Fire Recovery. Although she will no longer serve on the Economic Development and Jobs Committee, Jurado said she will continue advocating for small businesses, street vendors, local entrepreneurs and neighborhood commercial corridors.
"Separating Housing and Homelessness into two committees must not mean separating the solutions," Jurado said. "Housing, health, civil rights, land use, crisis response and environmental justice must work together. Committee assignments may change, but my commitment to the small businesses and working families who define the spirit of our district does not.”