Homelessness and Housing, Mental Health and Education Dominate Assembly District 41 Forum

Homelessness, housing, diversity and opportunity took center stage on Tuesday evening at Pasadena City College as two of three Democratic candidates— Claremont City Councilman and former Claremont Mayor Jed Leano and Dr. Phlunté Riddle, a former Pasadena Police lieutenant and former District Director for Assemblyman Chris Holden—participated in the first of what will likely be several candidate forums for the 41st State Assembly Seat.

The third, California state commissioner and former Sierra Madre City Councilman and Mayor John Harabedian, was unavailable and did not participate in the event.

The trio are running for the soon-to-be-vacant Assembly seat held by  Chris Holden, who will term out and has declared his candidacy for the 5th District L.A. County Supervisors’ seat currently held by Kathryn Barger. 

The candidate forum was presented by the PCC Pre-Law Club along with the Pasadena City College Forensics team.

Moderator James Farr, host of the Conversation Live local news, interview, and commentary program, hosted.  PCC students in the audience asked questions.

The top issues that emerged at the forum were homelessness and affordable housing. The candidates raised mental health, education, and transportation topics.

Riddle introduced herself first, noting that she is a Pasadena native and former PCC student. 

Said Riddle, “I grew up right here in Altadena. My father’s from Jamaica and [when] my mother and he separated, she raised us in Altadena and she worked two jobs. We had a lot of home housing insecurities. I moved four times before I was in the 10th grade. Later, I graduated from John Muir High School, but before that, my 10th grade counselor shared with me that I wasn’t going to college because my mother was on government assistance.” 

“And so,” she explained, “instead of taking Algebra 2, he ‘steered’ me,  that’s the word I know now, to the Home Economics department. But when I graduated from John Muir, I came right here to Pasadena City College. I am a Pasadena City College graduate.” 

Riddle was strident and unapologetic about her career with the Pasadena Police Department saying, “I wanted to become a police officer. I wanted to serve my community in that capacity. What I didn’t know is that I shouldn’t have been there. What I didn’t know is that they didn’t want me there. What I didn’t know is that I would be considered and treated like an affirmative action hire. 

“And during that time,” she continued, “even as I improved myself over and over again, I worked diligently. I learned everything I could. I was the first, as they said in my bio, the first African American woman to be promoted to the rank of sergeant, Lieutenant and Chief’s Adjutant, and even [served] up in the helicopter, as a traffic observer. Yet I never was given the respect because they were not willing to accept me.” 

Leano, an immigration attorney and first-generation Filipino-American, told the audience that, “My dad was on a Navy ship during the Cuban Missile Crisis. My mom worked nights in a VA hospital 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., and rushed home just to get me and my sisters to school before 8. I know firsthand the immense sacrifice that immigrant parents make to give their kids a shot at America.”

Leano explained that he has used his training as a lawyer “to represent the most marginalized and disenfranchised people in our society and that’s immigrants facing deportation. That’s been the work of my lifetime as an attorney and that’s who I am and that’s how I fed my family.”

“Five years ago,” he continued, “I felt a calling to public service and it wasn’t because I wanted to cut ribbons. It wasn’t because I wanted to rename sidewalks, it was because of homelessness.

“We need a better service delivery system to confront the issue,” he said. “I made it the calling card of my first year in office and by my second year in office (on the Claremont City Council), we have reduced homelessness over 41%.” 

Both candidates agreed on the need to build more housing in order to ease the housing crisis, with Riddle explaining, “The housing situation that we’re in now is because most cities decided that they would not build unaffordable units, not single family homes, but affordable units, and to make sure that they stabilized rents because there was a decision made literally that that was not something that we needed to do here (in Pasadena). And so consequently we’re in a crisis.  Now this community has 9,000 units that it must build or is supposed to build before within the time span.” 

Riddle also stressed the need to build “not just moderate housing,  or low-income housing but very low-income housing throughout the community,” and it would be along the A Line Metro, near transit areas.

Leano stated that housing “is the most important issue facing this district and the state of California. And if you want to meaningfully address this problem, we need leadership that can confront and accept some very basic fundamental premises.” 

“Our housing is not working,” he said,  “because we are not building enough housing to keep up with the demands of the modern workforce. And why are we not building enough housing? Because there is a lack of political courage to do so because there is a lack of political courage. 

“So,” he continued, “if we are going to meaningfully impact the California housing crisis, we need set metrics. We need to double housing production in the state of California. Right now we need about 180,000 housing units per year just to keep pace with population growth and economic growth. 

“And right now we average barely 100,000 units a year. So why is that? Why is that? I can tell you right now, it is because of a lack of political courage to make the decisions necessary to double housing production.”

Leano cited his work in Claremont, spearheading the Village South Pacific plan and increasing its density for the largest mixed-use residential development in the city’s history. 

“Right next to transit,” he added, “I spearheaded the production funding and approval of our first very low-income and extremely low-income affordable housing developments in our city’s history and our first affordable housing in over a decade.”

Both candidates also agreed on the need to create more opportunities and diversity in both schools and among disadvantaged and underrepresented communities, as well as increasing access to higher education.  

The General Primary Election is set for March 5, 2024.