In new ad running Sunday, October 23, AHF criticizes the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) as an “unaccountable bureaucracy” getting in the way of organizations like AHF from providing affordable housing
AHF’s ad notes that while homelessness rages, DWP does nothing to help, but charges outrageous amounts to non-profits and cannot provide the power that is needed on a timely basis. AHF urges the DWP to “Come down from your ivory tower and genuinely help right now!”
LOS ANGELES (October 21, 2022) AHF and its housing advocacy division, Housing Is A Human Right (HHR), will run the latest in a series of housing advocacy ads, this time targeting the entrenched bureaucracy at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) in a full-page, full-color ad set to run this Sunday, October 23rd in the Los Angeles Times. The ad headlined “DWP Has to Go” criticizes the utility as an “unaccountable bureaucracy governed by an anonymous board of political appointees.”
After launching its Healthy Housing Foundation (HHF) in 2017 to help alleviate the twin homelessness and housing affordability crises in Los Angeles, AHF quickly learned that working within the city’s existing framework and bureaucracies—like the DWP—to produce low-income housing in Los Angeles costs too much, takes too long, and is maddeningly difficult. AHF ran prior housing advocacy ads targeting the city and city officials and is now targeting DWP, declaring “DWP Has to Go.” The ad continues:
“Racked by continuous scandal, the current DWP is a disservice to the people of Los Angeles.
We pay too much and get too little.
DWP is ruled by an unaccountable bureaucracy governed by an anonymous board of political appointees.
While homelessness rages, DWP does nothing to help but charges outrageous amounts to non-profits and cannot provide the power that is needed on a timely basis.”
“Instead of maintaining an unaccountable bureaucracy that impedes progress on the creation of extremely-low-income and homeless housing, DWP should place low-income housing at the top of the list for installations and upgrades and offer genuine concierge service for permits and building inspections as part of a comprehensive plan to help address homelessness in Los Angeles,” said Susie Shannon, Policy Director for AHF’s Housing Is A Human Right.
In its ad, AHF summed up its demand on DWP, admonishing the monopoly utility to:
“Come down from your ivory tower and genuinely help right now!”
