Dr. Flo’s Priorities

Why is it that here in Sacramento - the capital of the richest state in the richest country in the world - we have thousands of people sleeping on our streets, sleeping on the sidewalks, sleeping by the river, sleeping in their cars? Why are thousands more people living in fear that they’re just one emergency, one layoff, one medical bill, or one more rent increase away from becoming homeless too? How long will we allow this crisis to continue?

The status quo is broken. Sacramento needs new leadership.

We have a duty to solve the affordable housing and homelessness crisis, to protect our climate, create quality jobs, and to keep our neighborhoods safe. I’m not accepting corporate money that corrupt our politics. We’re building a people-powered movement for change.

As an epidemiologist, policy director, and four-term chair of the city’s Measure U committee I have built coalitions, advocated for change, and passed policies that benefited working families. As Mayor, I’ll work with you to build a city where all of us can thrive.

Read more about our plans and priorities below.

  • As mayor I will immediately reduce homelessness and encampments by expanding temporary shelter space and safeground options that provide basic services to our unhoused neighbors, and puts them on a path to more permanent housing.

    Keeping residents housed in the first place creates a stronger community, provides greater family stability, and is a much more effective use of tax dollars. Once residents lose their home, every step towards re-establishing housing is more difficult.

    We cannot adequately address this issue until we help people remain in their homes, stem the flow of Sacramento families pushed onto our streets, and meet the needs of our unhoused neighbors while putting them on a path to permanent housing.

    We must immediately act to reduce homelessness and expand affordable housing to ensure that everyone in Sacramento has a roof over their head. Here’s some of what I’ll do to reduce homelessness and ensure that people can afford to live and thrive in Sacramento:

    • Support Sacramento Forward, a plan supported by council members, labor, and community groups, and which directly aligns with policy solutions put forward by my organization, Public Health Advocates, to address some of the most critical root causes of homelessness.

      • Build more affordable housing

      • Stop people from losing their homes

      • Prevent corporate purchases of property

      • Stop the race to the bottom for wages

    • Support safeground efforts — sites that provide basic services including water, trash pickup, toilets, showers, laundry — until shelter or permanent supportive housing can be secured, and make it possible for all of our neighbors to productively participate in our community.

    • Support tenant protection programs that help keep people housed and stem the flow of families entering our streets because they simply cannot keep up with overwhelming rising costs.

    • Challenge predatory bank practices that push homeowners into foreclosure, especially our seniors.

    • Establish better communication between the City, businesses, and neighborhoods, to identify issues and enhance collaboration. 

    • Re-evaluate developers fees and a vacancy tax, in order to help our city generate the revenue to expand housing.

    • Ensure tenants and landlords know their rights, and fund legal housing assistance for people who cannot afford it.

    • Establish Community Benefits Agreements for new city-subsidized projects to prevent resident displacement and ensure new projects are minimally disruptive.

  • Public safety means everyone can enjoy our city’s neighborhoods and walk around midtown and downtown without worrying. We should feel safe in our communities and across the city. Supporters have called me the “fund public safety” candidate because I’ll prioritize programs that prevent violence and poverty, in addition to supporting emergency response.

    Sacramento went two years without any youth homicides. Then politicians cut the youth programs that prevented homicides, and we’ve seen violence rise. We must invest in our youth, and invest in programs that prevent violence and poverty in order to keep everyone safe.

    • Restore our investment in programs that have successfully helped prevent violence: Sacramento went 2 years without youth homicides when these programs were in place.

    • Increase proactive City Hall’s neighborhood engagement to understand and respond to community safety concerns, emphasizing the “public” in “public safety.”

    • The City’s Department of Community Response needs funding to respond to 9-1-1 calls about mental health and homelessness. That way, appropriately trained and equipped people can show up to solve these problems, while police focus on solving violent crimes. The LAPD police union also agrees that these types of nonviolent calls do not require law enforcement response.

    • Implement the City’s action steps in the resolution to redefine public safety

    • Invest in programs and services that promote community well-being, such as recreational and educational activities and spaces, and creative, cultural and community-building initiatives that promote love, respect, trust, and restorative justice.

    • Develop better cohesion, integration, and partnership among the victim support programs offered by the County, City and community-led organizations.

    • Continue to partner with the County of Sacramento on expanding mental health and substance use disorder services for those who need it.

  • Ensure residents can access living wage jobs and entrepreneurship opportunities through intentional investment and creative partnerships.

    • Cultivate a Sacramento Green Jobs Hub to create thousands of jobs while protecting our climate.

    • Expand support for labor unions, increase high paying union jobs, and support Sacramento as a living wage community.

    • Strengthen support for small businesses while cutting red tape.

    • Conduct an evaluation of the city’s long-term revenue streams for efficiency and sufficiency.

    • Support the Sacramento City Public Bank, which is in active discussion now. This is one way for the city to develop the critical (and missing) funding necessary to build 45,580 affordable housing units.

    • Allocate the cannabis tax revenue to community-based projects in areas most harmed during the racially-motivated war on drugs.

    • Partner with local unions and (Sacramento Employment Training Agency) SETA to ensure access to job training programs.

  • The climate crisis is an enormous challenge. It’s also an enormous opportunity for Sacramento to invest in our infrastructure, our economy, and our families’ futures. Transforming our energy system to 100 percent renewable will create thousands of jobs from building new bike lanes, to weatherizing existing homes, planting trees, and building thousands of new units of sustainably designed affordable housing. Sacramento can be a national leader for a just transition.

    I plan to activate and mobilize people all across the city to support and implement Sacramento’s Climate Action Plan to achieve zero emissions by 2030.

    • Fully implement an urban tree plan to ensure we’re planting, protecting and maintaining city trees.

    • Work with SMUD and the air district to make homes and businesses more resilient, which includes weatherization, water and energy efficiency improvements, and electrification.

    • Work with SMUD and the air district to implement a comprehensive electric vehicle charging network.

    • Work with (Sacramento Employment Training Agency) SETA to create a Green Jobs Incubator in partnership with local unions to ensure that our residents are ready to take advantage of new job opportunities.

    • Explore a funding measure to help make all of our streets safe for pedestrians and cyclists while improving overall traffic safety.

    • Explore opportunities with Sacramento Regional Transit to expand the free transit beyond the current K - 12 program.

    • Transform the mayor’s Climate change committee into a standing city Committee.

  • City Hall needs to be responsible for proactive outreach and engagement with residents and organizations. Not everyone has the time to go to City Council meetings, or feel comfortable sharing opinions in such a public venue. City leaders must provide opportunities for residents to ask questions and feedback. 

    • Host a City Council retreat to establish 2-year city priorities after each election.

    • Conduct a participatory budgeting process for public input into the development and funding of neighborhood projects.

    • Establish a process for city decisions that new legislation that allows for meaningful community input by:

      • Publicizing policy proposals on the city website by category.

      • Soliciting input on the proposals from the relevant City Boards, Committees and Commissions.

      • Inviting community organizations and neighborhood associations to formally sponsor, support or oppose policy proposals.

      • Allocating equal time for presentations in support and in opposition to a proposal.

      • Establish a policy for city meetings and materials to ensure language access to address the issue outlined in the 2022 City Auditor’s Language Access Gap Analysis: “there is not currently a citywide policy regarding what materials to translate, the resources required to translate them, or what languages to translate into”.

    • Host a monthly community town hall listening session and rotating office hours in each district to communicate with and hear from residents and neighbors more consistently.

    • Establish online, email, text and media channels to keep Sacramentans informed about city events, programs and services.