Portside

We at ACCE were caught off guard Nov. 8th.  Stereotypes, racism, hate, and misogyny seemed to win the day. Today you might be feeling scared or depressed, but we want to encourage you to feel motivated.

In the face of last night’s knock down, we all have to come together to get back up and decide how to navigate this new reality and win for our communities. While nationally we need to rethink our strategy, there is much to celebrate across California. Our work and wins in California give us an opportunity to show how our state can be a model for the rest of the country as it relates to inclusion, opportunity, protection, and investment in our families.

One highlight is the collective work of the Million Voter Project, a new coalition with ACCE, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, California Calls, CHIRLA, Mobilize the Immigrant Vote and PICO California.  Together we knocked on over a Million doors and made contact with over 650,000 voters, asking them to prioritize investment in education, rehabilitation, and health over incarceration.  ACCE Action alone contacted nearly 82,000 voters to pass Props 55, 56, and 57, and we won! California voters chose schools over prisons!

In addition to the statewide propositions, locally many of our offices worked to ensure resources are directed at our communities, and to protect, preserve, and build affordable housing, and we won BIG.

ACCE members and local voters took matters into their own hands passing local rent control and stronger renter protections in Richmond and Oakland, winning infrastructure and housing bonds in San Diego and Los Angeles, and defeating real estate special interest campaigns intended to hurt affordable housing in San Francisco. Click here to learn more about our local victories!

Yesterday, voters made decisive choices about how we move forward as a state. We now have an imperative to help guide the nation toward a progressive future. The fight will be tough but together we can continue to create the California we want to live in -the California that will show the Nation that progress is still possible.

Statewide Electoral Wins:

As part of the Million Voter Project, a new coalition with APEN, CA Calls, CHIRLA, MIV and PICO, ACCE Action helped knock on over a million doors and made contact with over 650,000 voters in the last two months to prioritize investment in education, rehabilitation and health over incarceration. 

California voters chose schools over prisons! By voting to extend the income tax on California's wealthiest to keep funding public education across the state, voters made their voice heard: it's time to invest in our future by funding quality education. We also voted to shift from over-incarceration to rehabilitation, by preventing the high incidence of youth being tried as adults and establishing a credit system for non-violent offenders.ACCE Action alone contacted nearly 82,000 voters to pass Props 55, 56 and 57.

Local Wins:

This November was also about how to protect, preserve and build more affordable housing and we won BIG in local housing fights in Los Angeles and the SF Bay Area:

ACCE members and Bay Area voters took matter into their own hands passing local Rent Control and stronger renter protections in Richmond and Oakland to address the steep incline of rents and housing costs and defeated real estate special interest deep pocketed campaigns intended to hurt affordable housing in San Francisco. 

In Richmond:

ACCE members and our allies from SEIU Local 1021, Richmond Progressive Alliance, Tenants Together, APEN and Communities for a Better Environment celebrated a monumental victory when voters passed Rent Control and Just Cause for Evictions! Early this year, ACCE members and staff spent countless hours organizing tenants and gathering over 1,000 petition signatures to put Measure L on the ballot. Over the last few months ACCE knocked on more than 11,000 doors and identified 1,800 supporters of Rent Control. Thanks to our efforts, 9,900 units will be protected, which means 25-30,000 people will get real tenant protections.

Richmond also elected Melvin Willis and Ben Choi to Richmond City Council! As a Community Organizer with ACCE, Melvin has defended homeowners from the greed of banks and speculators and helped tenants whose rents are skyrocketing. Neither Melvinnor Ben accepted any campaign money from corporations or developers. We are confident that Melvin and Ben will continuetheir long standing support of rent control enforcement, health care for all, and local jobs and hiring.

Oakland: 

Last night Oakland won two critical victories, passing A1 (affordable housing bond) that will generate 3-5000 new affordable housing units and passing Measure L (Renter Protection Ordinance to extended renter protections for 12,000 more residents.  With the average rent for an apartment in Oakland over $3000 now - these victories are a first crucial step to slow displacement, make it harder for landlords to illegally increase your rent, protect more tenants from unjust evictions and strengthen the rent board to be more accountable and transparent. Oakland ACCE was proud to be a part of the Coalition to Protect Oakland Renters.

San Francisco: 

With 24 local initiatives and a dozen different candidate seats to fill, voters faced over 50 decisions and where overwhelmed with confusing messages from $40 million spent on mail and media.  Real estate, tech and developer special interests who have significant influence on City Hall spent millions to win a slate of candidates and ballot measures, filtering money through new PAC’s and manipulated slate cards.  Through the San Francisco Tenants and Families coalition, we won voter support for a slate committed to real affordable housing and putting people over profit.  In the final weekend over 20,000 fliers and hundreds of signs were distributed with this message.  The complete results of our “City Not for Sale” slate will not be known for a few days but we have already succeeded in stopping the Realtors and Apartment Association initiatives (P and U) who spent and lost heavily through out the Bay Area.  Key allies with in SFTF included the public employees, nurses and teachers unions, SF Tenants Union and hundreds of volunteers.

Los Angeles

In the midst of a housing crisis that has increased housing costs and homelessness, ACCE Members and allies helped pass measures HHH (Homeless Reduction) and JJJ (Affordable Housing and jobs Mandate).  Key Coalition allies include:  LA County Federation of Labor, Alliance for Community Transit (ACT-LA) and SoCal Association of Nonprofit Housing

Key to all of these local and state victories has been strong coalition and focus on grassroots field work with a clear message and reason for the communities most impacted to get out and VOTE. 

Join us.