Venice Equity Alliance

Housing is the key for people living on the Venice Boardwalk, not criminalization and threats

This week, the LA County Sheriff and others unfamiliar with Venice and its unhoused residents held press events on the Venice Boardwalk calling for the forced displacement and criminalization of unhoused people in order to “clean up” the Boardwalk. Time and time again, this approach has proven to fail in Los Angeles, and cause harm to people already dealing with crisis, trauma, and the extreme lack of affordable housing across our region and especially on the Westside. While the Sheriff claimed his team would engage in outreach for a few weeks before clearing the area by the 4^th of July, his outreach team is not connected to the housing and service organizations in Venice and there are nowhere near enough resources, unfortunately, to house everyone in three weeks. Additionally, outreach connected to threats of enforcement and displacement only further isolates most people who have been pushed around from the streets to shelters to jail and back to the streets for years.  

Everyone can see the housing and humanitarian crisis in our neighborhood and in our region. While exacerbated by the COVID pandemic, it is the result of decades of disinvestment in affordable housing and other critical resources, systemic racism in land use policies, housing, employment and mass incarceration policies, and growing income and wealth inequality. Not one politician, one law enforcement official, one non-profit, one neighborhood group is going to suddenly have the ability to solve this crisis because it’s summer and people think that tourists, visitors and local housed and unhoused people are unable to share the beautiful and inclusive space of the Boardwalk and Venice Beach. We actually can share the space, be kind to unhoused neighbors, continue the local outreach and street medicine efforts that support people until they are housed, and put more resources into permanent housing solutions for folks on our streets.  

Our collective community will work to provide emergency services, secure, preserve and build more housing, and stand in solidarity to protect the rights of unhoused folks, and hope that anyone interested in helping alleviate homelessness in Venice and beyond joins the effort from a human-centered, social justice framework. 

Grass Roots Neighbors

Safe Place for Youth

Venice Black, Indigenous and People of Color Elders

Venice Community Housing

Venice Family Clinic

Venice Justice Committee

Westside Local of the Los Angeles Tenants Union

Venice Equity Alliance

A block celebration of Venice’s diverse community, happening August 3rd at Westminster Ave and 7th Ave from 10am – 6pm. 

This event is being planned by the Equity Alliance, a grassroots community organization that promotes a progressive vision of Venice, free from gentrification, racism, sexism, classism, environmental degradation and homophobia.  

We will demonstrate that real community does exist in Venice and it is still a place for all walks of life, not just the wealthy.  

This event will also show the cooperation that is taking place to sustain this vision. The Equity Alliance invites all those who stand for justice in the community to join us in celebrating the unique history of Venice and the lives of those who live and prosper there today.

Venice Lives!

Donate here: https://gofundme.com/venicepeoplescelebration

We are a collective alliance dedicated to bettering the lives of the most excluded and oppressed folks of Venice, and in doing so steer Venice as a whole.

We aim to encourage dialogue and action that promotes fair equity distribution in Venice to ensure the leadership of the historically economically challenged and working class Venetian, which includes those who self-identify as Venetian, and specifically acknowledges African American, Indigenous, Traveling People, Latinx, Womxn, and LGBTQ contributions and concerns. We are building a Venice, a coastal community; that is sustainable and equitable for all life that is anti-racist and anti-sexist. We are committed to language justice; creating a space where everyone can express themselves in the language of their choosing.

The Alliance is committed to: Unity, Shared Work, Raising Consciousness of ourselves and others, Being present and informed, acting as solid allies to each other, staying open to growth. We are committed to telling our history of Venice.

Collective knowledge will be one of our aims, where the most marginalized voices are heard; this includes the voices of poor and working class Venice, and especially that of youths and elders. We will build collective knowledge together through collective analysis, this includes decolonizing on a daily basis and in between meetings.

We will be guided by members who take it upon themselves to attend the most meetings and steer the Alliance. Our decision making structure (even if temporary) will strive for consensus. If no consensus, rely on 80-90% vote if needed, defer to Alliance leaders who are low-income and/or from communities of color if needed.

All members will remain committed to actively and regularly engaging poor and working class, youth and elders to inform our work either collectively or individually to achieve equity.

Our allies/accomplices will be determined by the alliance in its entirety.