Miguel Santiago says that the community must keep its home, especially at the time of the pandemic

Miguel Santiago, an assemblyman for California's District 53, said some of his priorities on Capitol Hill include immigration, environment and education. However, it indicates that in times of the coronavirus, his focus has been to advocate for tenants, the homeless and for a reduction of firearms on the streets.

Its areas of representation, which includes Huntington Park, Boyle Heights, Koreatown, Pico Union, Vernon and part of Downtown Los Angeles, have a high number of immigrants as well as homeless people, and it is one of the areas with the highest pollution due to as highways 110, 101, 5, 10, and 60 interconnect.

In an interview with La Opinion, Santiago indicated that since the pandemic began, attempts were made to attack the problem in California.

For example, on March 16 the Assembly approved up to $ 1 billion so that Governor Gavin Newsom could spend it during the crisis. Additionally, another $ 100 million was approved to continue helping schools.

"At that time we thought the crisis was going to last a week or two as all the health experts in California thought," he explained.

"That decision put us in a much better situation than other states because instead of tying the governor's hands, he had the money to attack the problem."

Two days later, Newson sent $ 150 million to help the homeless.

"And every time he released the money it was because we had given it to him and at the same time we were fighting to obtain resources for our communities," Santiago said, asserting that he was one of the leaders in requesting that support for the undocumented be approved.

This was summed up in the $ 75 million that is distributed today in California for undocumented immigrants who did not qualify for the federal government stimulus check or unemployment aid.

“We say that it is little. People without documents support the California budget by $ 3.2 billion or so … So getting a misery of less than $ 100 million is not enough. "

The 47-year-old politician (d) was elected to office in 2014. / (Supplied)

Fight weapons

When the order to stay home announcement was made, some counties called for nonessential businesses to be closed — including shops that sell firearms.

Santiago asked Governor Newsom to suspend the sale of arms and ammunition statewide to civilians.

"An emergency happens and while some are looking for milk for their children, these people are going to buy more weapons than God wanted to give," said the Assemblyman.

In addition, he emphasized his concern when he saw the long lines that formed outside the arms stores after the possible temporary closure of these premises was announced.

Santiago said he feared the state would start selling the weapons faster without doing a proper review of the buyer's record.

"It is one thing for someone to have collectible weapons and another thing to (want) to have weapons at home to protect themselves … And the people who were buying weapons (during the health emergency) are because they wanted to protect themselves from others thinking they could get sick ( of the coronavirus) ”.

Santiago said that having weapons stored inappropriately at home, especially when it is known that there could be an increase in mental health crisis due to the order to stay home, can be dangerous.

"I'm going to continue fighting for that, I wanted (the stores) to be closed throughout the state … I see a big difference between the importance of buying food and having a gun," he said.

Assemblyman Miguel Santiago helps with the distribution of food for his community. / photos: supplied.

Help the homeless

Since his election in 2014, Santiago has been proud to say that he has worked hard to provide housing for the homeless and stimulate the development of affordable housing in his district and across the state.

He explained that the legislative plan, pre-coronavirus, for the state to set aside $ 2 billion each year to help the homeless continues to stand.

This plan, which initially only consisted of helping to obtain housing for the homeless, will now also include a way to financially help Californians with their income.

"We are trying to see how we grab federal money so we can stick with the bill and at the same time see how we can give people rental assistance."

The assemblyman indicated that it is better to have the community living in their homes than to drop them on the street and try to rescue them later.

“In the city of Los Angeles it costs $ 650,000 to build a house. With that money we can help many tenants, ”said Santiago.

“Imagine how many people we can help you so that you are not evicted from your apartment. So at $ 2 billion we are going to try to change the language a little bit to try to help people stay at home, "he added.

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