Policy Wins
Delivering Bold, People-First Leadership for CD1
Since taking office in 2022, Eunisses has led with courage, compassion, and the belief that Los Angeles can be a care-first city. From housing and public safety to environmental justice and community services, her leadership has delivered real, measurable change across District 1 – and the city.
REIMAGINING Public Safety
Unarmed Crisis Response: As of April 2025, every neighborhood in CD1 is now served by 24/7, trauma-informed, unarmed crisis response teams. These trained professionals respond to non-violent emergencies like mental health crises and wellness checks, connecting residents to care instead of criminalization. Eunisses co-chairs the Ad Hoc Committee on Unarmed Models of Crisis Response (UMCR) and is working to expand a UMCR model citywide after a pilot that yielded incredible results, saving lives, City dollars, and thousands of hours of patrol time, and diverting more than 20,000 non-violent 9-1-1 calls from LAPD, with 96% of calls safely resolved on scene. In 2026, thanks to Eunisses’ leadership, Los Angeles officially adopted UMCR citywide, turning a successful pilot into lasting infrastructure for how we keep people safe.
Building a Department of Community Safety: Eunisses co-introduced and advanced a motion to begin formally establishing a Department of Community Safety, laying the groundwork for a coordinated, citywide system that brings together unarmed crisis response, violence prevention, and community-based care under one roof. That means a centralized dispatch system that sends the right response every time, stronger coordination across services, and a long-term shift away from a one-size-fits-all, enforcement-first approach.
Holding LAPD Accountable: In 2025, Eunisses introduced a motion demanding full transparency after LAPD was reported to be supporting federal immigration raids, requiring detailed reporting on every request from federal agencies, what actions LAPD took, who was in command, and whether those actions violated Los Angeles’ Sanctuary City law. The motion also called on the City Attorney and Police Commission to determine how to further limit or prohibit LAPD’s involvement in federal immigration enforcement altogether. She also co-introduced a motion calling for federal agents operating in Los Angeles to be clearly identifiable, pushing for “unmasking” requirements so agents cannot operate anonymously in our communities.
Eunisses has also led efforts to protect Angelenos exercising their First Amendment rights. When LAPD attempted to roll back protections and use force against journalists during protests, Hernandez pushed and won unanimous Council action to block it, standing up for press freedom and protestor safety.
Beyond individual motions, Eunisses is fighting for structural change. She has been a leading voice in Charter reform efforts to give City Council real oversight over LAPD. Right now, the people paying the bills don’t have the power to hold the department accountable. Strengthening oversight means transparency, consequences, and democratic control over one of the largest departments in the city.
Street Medicine That Meets People Where They Are: Since August 2023, CD1’s USC Street Medicine Team has delivered thousands of visits providing wound care, prescriptions, STI treatment, ultrasounds, and mental health support directly to unhoused residents. This work eases pressure on first responders and helps move people onto a path toward stability, getting them housing-ready and connected to permanent housing.
Peace Ambassadors: Eunisses has deployed Peace Ambassadors across every region of CD1, ensuring that our neighborhoods have trusted, community-based teams on the ground. These are trained local leaders, many of them system-impacted, who know our streets and step in early to prevent harm before it happens. Peace Ambassadors provide safe passage for students traveling to and from school, support families during moments of tension, and engage in gang intervention rooted in trust and relationships. They de-escalate conflicts, connect people to resources, and create a consistent, visible presence that helps communities feel safe.
Standing Up to a Broken System: Eunisses was the only Councilmember to vote “no” on the 2023/24 City budget, which allocated 25% to LAPD while underfunding infrastructure, seniors, and youth. Blazing a trail, in 2024, two more Councilmembers joined her in demanding a people-centered budget. Today, as a member of the Budget and Finance Committee, she leads the charge on fiscal responsibility and budget transparency, demanding more equitable spending. This budget cycle, she fought to successfully cut LAPD hiring goals in half to save over 1,000 city jobs, protecting funding for crossing guards, street services, graffiti abatement, and legal aid for immigrants, and expanding unarmed crisis response by $4.4 million.
PROTECTING IMMIGRANT COMMUNITIES
Sanctuary City Protections: Eunisses co-authored Los Angeles’ landmark Sanctuary City ordinance, ensuring that city resources are never used to assist federal immigration enforcement. She has continued building on this work by advancing policies that strengthen protections and close loopholes, making clear that our city stands with immigrant families.
Holding LAPD Accountable: Eunisses has introduced and supported motions to ensure the Los Angeles Police Department is fully compliant with Sanctuary City law, demanding transparency when there are reports of cooperation with federal immigration authorities. She has pushed for stronger oversight, clear reporting requirements, and consequences when policies meant to protect immigrant communities are violated.
Community Defense & Rapid Response: Knowing government alone can’t keep people safe, in partnership with Mijente, Eunisses launched a first-of-its-kind Community Defense program in CD1 over a year ago, and well before the height of the ICE raids: training over 100 residents as block captains and organizing real-time, multilingual text alerts to warn neighbors of enforcement activity. This grassroots infrastructure connects families to legal resources and ensures communities can protect each other in moments of crisis.
Protecting Legal Aid & Worker Centers: Eunisses fought to preserve funding in the City budget for programs like RepresentLA and day labor centers, which provide critical legal defense and worker protections for immigrant communities. These investments help keep families together, protect workers from exploitation, and ensure access to justice regardless of immigration status.
Standing Up to Corporate Targeting: When corporations attempted to install harmful “mosquito” noise devices to push out day laborers outside the Cypress Park Home Depot, Eunisses took action and, in partnership with her state colleagues and IDEPSA, forced them to shut it down. She has made it clear that public spaces cannot be weaponized to harass or displace immigrant workers trying to earn a living.
Know Your Rights Outreach: Eunisses led efforts to expand Know Your Rights information across CD1, including multilingual text alerts and public education campaigns on STAP bus shelters so families have the tools they need to stay informed, prepared, and protected.
Tackling the Housing Crisis with Urgency
Thousands Housed:
Since taking office, over 5,300 people have been brought indoors off the streets and into interim housing.
Since taking office, over 1,700 people have been moved from interim into permanent housing.
In FY23/24 (first year in office), 413 people moved from interim shelters to permanent housing—a 95% increase over the prior year.
Interim Housing Expansion: Through collaboration with Mayor Bass, over 500 unsheltered residents were brought indoors.
Building Long-Term Solutions: Since taking office, Eunisses helped bring 298 permanent supportive housing units online—with 467 more under development.
Northeast New Beginnings: Opened in January 2024, this 95-bed innovative shelter has already transitioned 33 residents into permanent housing and is operating at over 95% capacity. An expansion is fully funded and underway with doors set to open in summer of 2026.
Encampments to Homes: Eunisses secured over $6 million in state grant funding to address encampments along the 110 Freeway and create a pipeline into interim and permanent housing, supporting outreach and safe transitions indoors.
Mobile Outreach That Works: In her first 10 months, CD1’s mobile teams:
Washed 4,000+ loads of laundry
Connected 277 individuals to 2,700+ services
Made 39 housing placements
Fighting to Keep Renters Safe and in Their Homes
Council District 1 has reduced evictions by nearly 10% over the last three years — more than double the citywide decrease of about 4%. That’s what it looks like when you invest in tenant protections, outreach, and enforcement of anti-harassment laws.
Landmark Protections Passed: In January 2023, Eunisses helped pass the strongest renter protections in over 40 years:
Universal Just Cause protections for tenants across Los Angeles
A new eviction threshold: tenants can’t be evicted for owing less than one month’s rent
Relocation assistance for tenants facing rent hikes over 10%
Capping the Rent: Eunisses led the fight to update LA’s rent stabilization formula, bringing annual increases down to 1%–4%, tied to inflation. That’s a major shift from previous caps that went as high as 8–10%, putting limits on displacement.
Setting Citywide Precedent for Tenant Enforcement: Eunisses’ tenant outreach team helped secure the first-ever TAHO (Tenant Anti-Harassment Ordinance) citation in Los Angeles, setting a powerful precedent that landlords who intimidate and harass tenants will be held accountable.
Door-to-Door Tenant Organizing: Every month, Eunisses’ tenant outreach team canvasses rent-stabilized (RSO) buildings alongside USC law students, going door to door to make sure tenants know their rights, understand their protections, and have the tools to fight back, in order to disrupt the eviction to homelessness pipeline.
On-the-Ground Tenant Defense: Eunisses’ Housing & Homelessness team has helped more than 70 families facing eviction stay in their homes, many in Westlake and MacArthur Park, neighborhoods with some of the highest rent burden and immigrant populations in the city. From securing relocation funds, to organizing tenants, to forcing repairs in neglected buildings, this is hands-on, case-by-case work.
Rental Assistance & Stabilization: Eunisses invested $400,000 in discretionary funds for emergency rental assistance, helping stabilize families before they fall into crisis.
Safe & Livable Housing: Eunisses authored legislation requiring landlords to provide cooling devices during extreme heat, because safe housing means livable housing, especially as climate impacts hit our most vulnerable communities first.
Transforming MacArthur Park with Care
MacArthur Park sits at the heart of one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in the country, yet for decades it has been defined by disinvestment, environmental injustice, and a reliance on enforcement instead of solutions. Tired of seeing our City doing the same thing year after year and expecting different results, Eunisses is taking a new approach: building a comprehensive ecosystem of care that brings together public health, community safety, environmental investment, and long-term planning.
32% Reduction in Overdose Deaths: In the MacArthur Park area (ZIP code 90057), overdose deaths among people experiencing homelessness dropped by 32.8% from 2023 to 2024, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health -- the same year we launched our interventions. That kind of reduction comes from sustained investment in harm reduction, street medicine, overdose response, and consistent outreach. On the ground, that has translated into hundreds of lives saved through overdose reversals, alongside thousands of interactions connecting people to care, services, and pathways to stability.
A Layered, Care-First Approach: Instead of relying on a single system to respond to every issue, Eunisses has built a layered approach that addresses immediate crises while also creating long-term stability. That includes expanding street medicine and mobile overdose response, ensuring healthcare is delivered directly to people on the street, investing in Peace Ambassadors, who are out every day building relationships, providing safe passage, and de-escalating conflicts before they turn into violence, and stabilizing families before they fall into crisis through tenant support and direct assistance.
Public Health & Harm Reduction in Action: MacArthur Park has become a hub for real-time, on-the-ground public health intervention. Through street medicine, mobile overdose response, and harm reduction partnerships, care is no longer something people have to seek out—it comes directly to them. That work includes 260+ street medicine visits in and around MacArthur Park, reaching dozens of individuals with wound care, treatment, and referrals to longer-term services. At the same time, harm reduction efforts have led to the safe disposal of more than 14,000 sharps, reducing risk for both unhoused residents and the broader community.
Community Safety Through Prevention: Safety in MacArthur Park is being rebuilt from the ground up through community-based prevention. Peace Ambassador teams — rooted in the neighborhoods they serve — are providing a consistent, trusted presence in the park and surrounding areas. They’ve made more than 15,000 community contacts and successfully de-escalated at least 70 incidents, intervening before situations escalate into violence. This includes providing safe passage for young people, supporting families during moments of tension, and responding in real time to conflicts on the ground.
On-the-Ground Environmental Impact: Eunisses has made major investments in the physical conditions of MacArthur Park, because public safety is also about the environment people live in every day. This has meant sustained, coordinated cleanups led by multiple crews operating throughout the week. Together, they’ve removed 3,000+ bulky items, cleared 24,000+ bags of trash, and addressed more than 54,000 hazardous items across the neighborhood.
Preventing Displacement Before It Starts: Stabilizing MacArthur Park also means keeping people housed. Through direct intervention and support, Eunisses has helped 45 families in the Westlake/MacArthur Park region access rent relief, delivering more than $75,000 in assistance to prevent displacement.
Reconnecting MacArthur Park (RMAP): In addition to addressing immediate conditions, Eunisses is also working to repair decades of structural disinvestment through the Reconnecting MacArthur Park (RMAP) initiative. RMAP is a long-term effort to reunify the park, improve accessibility, and create a safer, greener, more connected public space for the community. It’s one of the most ambitious public space transformations in Los Angeles—and it’s being shaped directly by the people who live here. So far, the process has included 2,500+ survey responses and more than 60 outreach events, ensuring that community voices are not just included, but centered in the vision for the park’s future.
Making Neighborhoods Safer & Cleaner
Clean Teams, Six Days a Week: CD1 funds its own crews in addition to city services—targeting the neighborhoods with the highest need.
Safer Streets for Students: Added 15mph zones and traffic-calming improvements around 14+ schools, including Berendo Middle and Union Ave Elementary.
Infrastructure That Matters: In 2023, Eunisses’ office helped coordinate:
1,296 potholes filled
2,923 illegal dumping cleanups
3,979 streetlight restorations
3,358 trees trimmed
7,927 miles of streets swept
Bringing Life Back to Our Parks
MacArthur Park Playground: Eunisses opened a brand-new play area in February 2024 — just three months after breaking ground.
Rio de Los Angeles Park: Broke ground on a $9 million renovation in May 2024 to add soccer fields, walking paths, and shade structures.
Lincoln Heights Rec Center: Reopened after 3 years, featuring a new soccer field, outdoor gym, lighting, and major upgrades.
Lifting Up Animal Welfare
Action on the Shelter Crisis: Introduced a breeding permit moratorium, fought for more Animal Care staffing, and expanded the Spay/Neuter Voucher Program.
Connecting Pets to Homes: Hosted multiple Pet Adoption Days in CD1 and at City Hall, helping alleviate overcrowding in shelters.
Connecting Residents to Food & Opportunity
Food Access for Families: CD1 holds 6–8 food distributions each month, putting thousands of bags of groceries directly into the hands of residents.