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What Do Mayoral Candidates Think About Housing, Aging, and Livable Communities?
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AARP is committed to ensuring voters have the information they need to cast their ballot. That is why we are sharing how Los Angeles Mayoral Candidates plan to act on critical issues important to 50-plus voters if elected. These issues include age-friendly efforts, affordable and accessible housing, access to city resources, safe sidewalks, transportation and parks.
AARP has a proud history of nonpartisan voter engagement and does not endorse or oppose candidates or make contributions to political campaigns or candidates. All certified Los Angeles Mayoral Candidates were invited to participate in this questionnaire.
Candidate responses are listed below in alphabetical order by last name and published exactly as submitted, without any edits or alterations.
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AGE-FRIENDLY CITY
1. How will you support ongoing efforts to make our city more age-friendly and demonstrate your commitment to Purposeful Aging Los Angeles (PALA), the City and County of Los Angeles’ Age-Friendly Action Plan?
Karen Bass – City of Los Angeles, Mayoral Candidate
Over 700,000 L.A. residents are over the age of 60. The wellbeing of our seniors is critical to our City’s collective success. As Mayor, I am committed to making Los Angeles more age-friendly now and throughout my second term.
I am proud to fully support the Purposeful Aging Los Angeles Initiative and the Age-Friendly Action Plan. In fact, my administration has implemented many of the recommendations outlined in the plan and we will continue to do so.
For example, to enhance civic participation and employment, we placed Adult Navigators within the City’s WorkSource Centers to help older adults find jobs. Additionally, within the Mayor’s Office, we hired multiple Senior Community Service Employment Program team members to provide constituent services to City residents.
To enhance transportation, I’ve expanded free fare programs as Chair of the Metro Board. I am committed to expanding these programs even further – with an emphasis on expanding access to seniors and individuals with disabilities.
Under my leadership, Los Angeles also continues to provide multipurpose senior centers, nutritional senior meals, case management, and door-to-door transportation services. In my second term I look forward to expanding services and deepening partnerships in each of the core areas outlined in the Age-Friendly Action Plan: civic participation and employment, communications, community support and health services, emergency preparedness and resilience, housing, outdoor spaces, social participation and inclusion, as well as transportation. In fact, my administration recently sent a letter to the State advocating for a robust budget for senior programs.
Nithya Raman – City of Los Angeles, Mayoral Candidate
Every Angeleno should be able to age with care and dignity. Too often, my conversations with older Angelenos come back to the same worries: where the next meal will come from, how to cover a DWP bill on a fixed income, and whether they can keep paying for a roof over their head. Purposeful Aging Los Angeles gave the City, the County, and AARP a shared framework for a city where people can grow old in the neighborhoods they built. Its implementation has lacked accountability.
As Mayor, I will prioritize the Age-Friendly Action Plan through these commitments:
- First, I will name a lead in my office responsible for PALA and aging policy, with authority to convene every department that touches older adults. Age-friendly outcomes will be written into the performance targets I set for general managers.
- Second, I will publish annually which PALA goals are on track.
- Third, I will push for age-ready housing through the Citywide Housing Incentive Program, protected senior nutrition funding, case management through 311 and the senior centers, intergenerational programming, and an elder abuse and fraud response network.
- Fourth, I will make emergency response work for older adults. Most of the people who died in the Palisades and Eaton fires were older or disabled, and heat kills older adults first. Every emergency plan will include in-language door knocking and transportation to safety for seniors who cannot get there alone.
- Finally, Los Angeles will remain in AARP's Network of Age-Friendly Communities.
AFFORDABLE AND ACCESSIBLE HOUSING
2. Older adults are the fastest growing population experiencing homelessness. Given Los Angeles’ ongoing efforts to increase housing production and affordability, what further steps would you take to ensure older adults have access to affordable, accessible and safe housing?
Karen Bass – City of Los Angeles, Mayoral Candidate
As Mayor, I am already taking action to house and stabilize older adults who are experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity.
Under my leadership, the City is implementing a number of new policies and programs for seniors. In fact, the United to House LA (ULA) Income Support Program provided up to $20,000 to nearly 500 low-income seniors and individuals with disabilities. These funds prevented seniors from being displaced from their homes or falling into homelessness. In my second term as Mayor, we will expand these critical programs with new funding from Measure A.
My administration has also accelerated the opening of over 10,000 affordable housing units since my term as Mayor began. Nearly 500 of these new units were dedicated to seniors.
The City of Los Angeles currently has over 5,600 covenanted, affordable, senior units. The Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) operates 35,500 units serving seniors over the age of 55+. We will protect and expand these senior housing units in my second term as Mayor.
I’m also really proud of our House Our Vets initiative. We’ve housed over 1,100 veterans, including many seniors. To do so, I united over 50 mayors across the country to advocate for and change federal policies. Veterans no longer have to choose between housing vouchers and other necessities like food and healthcare. We also aggressively recruited landlords to welcome veterans with vouchers. In my second term, we will end veteran homelessness as we know it.
Nithya Raman – City of Los Angeles, Mayoral Candidate
Older adults in Los Angeles are working past retirement age, falling behind on rent, and becoming homeless because the cost of housing and food is outpacing their fixed incomes. Even a senior who can pay the rent often lives in a home that was never designed for older adults, or adapted as their care needs grew.
We must keep seniors housed, build homes designed for aging, and move older adults off the street quickly by:
Keeping seniors housed: On City Council I led the strongest tenant protections Los Angeles has passed in more than 40 years, including just-cause eviction protections and limits on rent increases. Those rules protect seniors most, because they can least absorb a rent hike. As Mayor I will enforce them, expand eviction defense, and fund rental assistance that keeps a senior in place for far less than rehousing them. I will also help older homeowners downsize without penalty through Prop 19 awareness and a revived ADU Accelerator program.
Building homes designed for aging: I will expand the Citywide Housing Incentive Program to add age-ready and mixed-age units reserved for low-income older adults, built with no-step entries, elevators, accessible bathrooms, and fall-prevention design. I will speed all housing production with a permit shot clock and self-certification.
Moving seniors off the street: I will prioritize older adults for permanent housing with services rather than cycling them through motels, and pair every placement with case management so they stay housed.
ACCESS TO CITY RESOURCES, SERVICES AND PROGRAMS
3. With the Department of Aging now consolidated into the Community Investment Department (CID), how will you ensure that older adults continue to have equitable access to services, resources, and programs that support their independence, health, and well-being?
Karen Bass – City of Los Angeles, Mayoral Candidate
As Mayor and a former emergency room Physician Assistant, I understand the complexity of the needs of seniors – and the significant need to break down silos and integrate services.
The consolidation of the Community Investment Department brings together the city teams focused on seniors, youth, families, workforce development, and economic development. This consolidation is already resulting in greater integration of services and better outcomes
for seniors. For example, the WorkSource Centers now have Adult Navigators onsite. These Adult Navigators are specially trained to help seniors find employment.
Additionally, the Office of Aging Services now has greater senior staff support. We’ve appointed a new Chief of Aging and she is supported by an Assistant General Manager and a high performing General Manager. This leadership team will ensure access to new resources and services that the stand-alone department did not have access to before – including family wrap-around services, financial assistance, help enrolling in public healthcare and food assistance programs, support for small business owners, and more.
In my second term as Mayor, we will further integrate and enhance services for seniors. More specifically, we will integrate health services into our programming at our senior multipurpose centers and senior housing facilities. We will also better integrate programming at libraries and senior centers – expanding access so older adults can learn new technology skills, strengthen health and financial wellness, and participate in creative writing.
Nithya Raman – City of Los Angeles, Mayoral Candidate
Aging brings many challenges: discrimination, growing caregiving responsibilities, rising health needs, and a benefits cliff that can penalize seniors who try to keep working. Serving older Angelenos well takes expertise on aging, and we cannot afford to lose it inside a larger department. As Mayor, I will:
- Put leaders with aging experience in charge of senior services at CID, protect their budget, and set performance targets that I review myself. If senior nutrition, case management, or the Multipurpose Senior Centers fall behind, it will show up in the general manager's evaluation. I will find the funding and partnerships to keep them whole.
- Expand case management and service navigation so older adults can get help through 311, the Multipurpose Senior Centers, libraries, and FamilySource Centers, with one application that connects them to everything they qualify for. The City should plug into the County's No Wrong Door network so an older adult never starts over at a second agency.
- Increase intergenerational programming at City centers with community partners, because isolation is a health risk, and build a coordinated elder abuse and fraud response network so seniors get the right help fast.
- Reach seniors before crisis by partnering with community groups and faith organizations to check on older adults living alone, so help reaches people who would never think to ask for it.
- Train City staff across every department on age discrimination, recognizing and reporting elder abuse, and serving older adults well — a city that works for older adults cannot be one division's job.
SAFE SIDEWALKS, TRANSPORATION AND PARKS
4. The ability for individuals to safely walk in their neighborhoods—to access essential services, public transit, and parks—is critical to both physical and mental health. What would you do to ensure that older adults can safely access sidewalks, public transportation, parks, and public spaces?
Karen Bass – City of Los Angeles, Mayoral Candidate
I fully support walkable neighborhoods for seniors, families, and everyone in Los Angeles. As Mayor, I issued the first-ever citywide Capital Infrastructure Program. This program forges a new path for Los Angeles, allowing the city to better plan, prioritize, and finance necessary improvements to our sidewalks, curb ramps, roads, parks, and other public infrastructure. I also advocated to change the City Charter to mandate that a Capital Infrastructure Program is institutionalized for decades to come. This is on the ballot in November and I look forward to fully implementing the program in my second term.
I also support Charter Amendment PRK that will be on the ballot in November. After it passes, we will invest hundreds of millions of dollars in recreation and parks. Over a period of ten years, this measure will double the budget allocated to the upkeep of green spaces, playing fields, community gardens, senior centers, walking trails, and more.
In my second term as Mayor, I am also committed to fixing our senior centers in need of repairs. These improvements will enhance the experience of older adults while they enjoy meals and programming at our senior centers.
Nithya Raman – City of Los Angeles, Mayoral Candidate
Getting around should be safe at every age. Right now a broken sidewalk, a dark street, or a bus stop with no shade can keep an older adult at home. Fixing that starts with the basics.
Sidewalks: The City is years behind on the repairs it promised under the Willits settlement. I will accelerate that funding, complete a citywide condition assessment, and set a public five-year repair target, prioritizing routes to senior centers, clinics, transit, and parks.
Lighting: Roughly 30,000 streetlights are out across Los Angeles. I will fix them and hold the Bureau of Street Lighting to published response times.
Transit: I will use my seat on the Metro Board to push for shorter waits on Access Services, reliable bus service, and safer stops and buses, and deliver 600 bus shelters by the 2028 Games so older riders have shade and a place to sit.
Streets: I will make Vision Zero real with protected crossings, longer signal timing, and speed reductions on the corridors where older pedestrians are hurt most.
Parks: I will expand shade and seating, plant 100,000 street trees by the Olympics, and open 100 Community School Parks so every neighborhood has a park within walking distance.
Connection: I will build partnerships between Multipurpose Senior Centers and community organizations that run intergenerational programs, so getting out of the house leads somewhere.
Older Angelenos should be able to walk to the store, the bus, and the park without fear.
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