Kamlager-Dove Secures $12.4 million for CA-37, Votes to Pass Bipartisan Government Funding Legislation to Uplift Families, Protect Women’s Rights, and Confront the Climate Crisis

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Last week, Congresswoman Kamlager-Dove voted to finalize $12,369,278 in Community Project Funding for CA-37 with the passage of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024, a package of six domestic funding bills focused on helping families and communities across the United States. The investments in the bill will lower the cost of living for working families, create and sustain good-paying jobs, and provide lifelines like food assistance and more affordable housing to people in need. Over the weekend, President Biden signed this legislation into law.
 
“As House Democrats continue to put people over politics, I was proud to vote for a bipartisan government funding package that invests in the programs and services that the people of California’s 37th District rely on while addressing some of our nation’s biggest challenges,” Congresswoman Kamlager-Dove said. “With these funding bills, Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate united to produce funding that makes government work for people. These domestic investments keep our government open and help Americans with the high cost of living while creating good-paying jobs, protecting women’s rights, honoring our commitments to our veterans, and confronting the climate crisis.” 
 
“I was particularly pleased to secure $12.4 million for 15 Community Projects across our district. I know this funding will have a profound impact within our community,” Congresswoman Kamlager-Dove continued. “These investments in our Los Angeles community create jobs with better pay, make us safer, and strengthen our communities. I am proud to have fought for this funding that directly benefits the people of my district.” 
 
Congresswoman Kamlager-Dove secured Community Project Funding for the following projects: 

• $500,000 for The IKAR Center and Supportive Housing Project. This project will build a 55-unit 100 percent Permanent Supportive Housing development atop a new Jewish community center and worship space, located on S. La Cienega Blvd., in a high-opportunity, transit-rich corridor that is severely lacking in affordable housing and particularly lacking in permanent homes for the unhoused. The project includes 55 units of Permanent Supportive Housing for formerly homeless seniors and space for supportive services, outdoor and indoor community space for residents, and sufficient parking for program staff.  

• $500,000 for Trauma-Informed Anti-Recidivism Initiative Project. This project provides engaging, highly effective, comprehensive, culturally relevant, evidence- and research-based, community-wide, trauma-responsive, and workforce development model programs that were developed and designed to address the specific needs of SPA 6 that is part of Congressional District 37. The program focuses on resilient young adults 12-24+ to prevent them from entering and re-entering the juvenile/criminal justice system to prevent recidivism and support law enforcement. 

• $1,000,000 for Renovation and Expansion of Amistad de Los Angeles Residential Reentry Facility. Amity seeks to renovate and increase bed capacity of the Amistad de Los Angeles Facility.  The purpose of this project is to increase bed availability through the Rehabilitation and Expansion of Amistad de Los Angeles residential reentry facility. This will enable better outcomes for all individuals with histories of incarceration in a state prison, ultimately decreasing recidivism and improving public safety. This project allows for the renovation of the existing facility to not only increase the capacity to serve a greater number of individuals (26 new beds), but also to significantly improve the standard of housing for the current 184 residents who were formerly incarcerated in state prison. 

• $510,000 for Avalon Gardens Cool Roofs. This project will provide much needed capital improvements to support and maintain the existing public housing stock in the City of Los Angeles.  The roofs at Avalon Gardens have exceeded their useful lives. The scope of the project will be the complete removal of the existing roofs and the installation of new cool roofs.  The new roofs would have the ability to help keep the residents cool during the hot summer months in Los Angeles. The residential units at Avalon Gardens are not equipped with air conditioning and having cool roofs would bring some relief.  The new roofs will bolster the community’s resilience by preserving scarce affordable housing, reducing housing insecurity, and making a lasting positive impact on the emotional and mental health of our low-income residents who have historically experienced—and continue to experience—inequities compounded recently with COVID’s devastation on their loved ones.  

• $640,000 for LA Crime-Reduction Advocacy for Transition Age Youth. This project provides support for support for the Transition Age Youth (TAY) Program, which serves Transition Age Youth (TAY, ages 12-17) and Non-minor Dependents (NMDs, ages 18-21) who are in the child welfare system and/or the juvenile justice system, all of whom are at risk of entry or reentry into the justice system. The TAY program’s purpose is to improve the criminal justice system, relieve the burden on law enforcement and probation, support crime reduction, and increase officer and community safety.  

• $500,000 for Community Healing Collaborative: Bringing Peace to South Los Angeles. The purpose of this project is to address gang and community violence by training faith leaders and former gang members in violence interruption; to transform neighborhood churches into safety and service hubs for communities in the 37th District; and to host healing sessions for those who survived violence, both as victims and as perpetrators. This model follows evidence-based and evidence-informed practices that emphasize empowering community members to interrupt the violence in their neighborhoods.  

• $1,000,000 for Technology and Entrepreneurship Center. This project will support the construction of the SoLa Technology and Entrepreneurship Center in Crenshaw, which will make a meaningful and measurable economic and educational development impact in South Los Angeles and the 37th Congressional District. Core components include electrical (low voltage, networking and general), structural, finishes, inspections, permits, mechanical and signage. The tech center will serve at least 1,000 youth and adults annually by offering opportunities for community members to train in in-demand tech career skills, gain entrepreneurship and fiscal literacy training, provide community gathering space and opportunities for small business generation. 

• $850,000 for The South LA Community Resilience Center. The South LA Community (SLAC) Resilience Center Project will offer expanded economic and community development activities, including resilience programming to help this community and its surrounding neighborhoods mitigate and adapt to climate-related environmental and societal disasters. The Resilience Center campus will also serve as a food distribution site and an educational programming hub for workshops and panels on community preparedness, climate awareness, food nutrition, green technology, circular economy, sustainability, and economic empowerment, and will contain classroom and civic forum spaces to support our current and expanding business, entrepreneurial, and workforce education programs.  

• $500,000 for Slauson Connect Recreation Center. This project will provide a blight removal in service of community redevelopment to establish a community park in an area of the City that is lacking in open green spaces in an underserved community and disadvantaged community. To further develop economic opportunities within the local community, the project is pursuing an emphasis on hiring local contractors and labor.  

• $1,840,000 for The Prentice Permanent Supportive Housing Improvements. This project will renovate the 45-unit permanent supportive housing to provide a safer and healthier environment for the residents, who are people who previously experienced homelessness. Enabling them to have a key resource necessary to positively contribute to society and the economy. 

• $500,000 for Youth Empowerment and Development. This project will help increase and sustain the delivery of trauma-informed, developmentally sensitive, culturally relevant services for violence reduction, specifically for the youth in the 37th district who have been affected by poverty, sexual assault, domestic violence, and other traumas. This project will create an organizational infrastructure and safe haven for the most high-risk populations in Los Angeles. This project will provide the opportunity for the most high-risk youth populations in Los Angeles to address everyday trauma problems, receive mentoring, and learn how to become advocates within their communities. 

• $900,000 for the Safe Housing Project. This project will provide housing and all the supportive services necessary to empower formerly incarcerated women for family unification by providing them with pickups from jail or prison, transportation to appointments, referrals to community services/assistance, and advocacy to navigate those systems. They receive all the necessities of daily living, including healthy meals, clothing, and toiletries. They are provided with access to onsite 12-step recovery programs, family reunification services, personal/family counseling, job training, employment/educational opportunities, legal services, computer training, personal/leadership development, financial planning, communication-building workshops, and permanent housing – all designed to facilitate self-sufficiency and economic prosperity.

• $1,666,279 for Butterfly’s Haven Youth Housing. The Butterfly's Haven Youth Housing Project provides equitable housing security and opportunities for community members to thrive in Los Angeles. The project will provide permanent supportive housing and a workforce development hub centered on careers in early childhood education. 

• $500,000 for Slauson Neighborhood Revitalization Project. This project will bring economic revitalization to an area considered disadvantaged because it meets more than one burden threshold and the associated socioeconomic threshold. The poverty rate is 28%. Ethnic makeup is 67% Hispanic, 30% African American, and 1% White. The Median Household Income is $43,388, which is 30% below the average national of $69,021. Approximately 24% of families in the 90044 zip codes are living below the poverty line. This project will bring a dedicated space to promote micro-enterprise and local entrepreneurship training, access to jobs, and small business revitalization.  

• $963,000 for Transitional-Aged Youth Mentoring and Career Development Project. The project is an appropriate use of taxpayer funds because research indicates that mentoring enhances self-confidence, academic performance, social connections, and economic prosperity, while diminishing the likelihood of drug abuse, violent behavior, depression, and delinquency. Thereby reducing crime and assisting law enforcement in keeping the community safe. 

 
In this first government funding package, Democrats rejected extreme Republican cuts and policies and invested in America’s future. This legislation delivers for the American people by: 
 

• Helping with the high cost of living, creating and sustaining tens of thousands of good paying jobs, fighting inflation, and providing full funding for key lifelines such as food assistance and more affordable housing and homeownership
• Protecting women’s rights by blocking attempts to limit women's access to reproductive health care, including abortion, and by increasing funding for gender-based violence prevention and prosecution programs.
• Confronting the climate crisis, fighting climate change, and ensuring America’s energy independence with robust, transformative investments in deploying clean energy technologies in communities across the country, and providing funding for cutting-edge scientific and climate-related research.
• Honoring our commitments to our veterans by ensuring they receive the care and benefits that they have earned and investing in veterans’ health care, including targeted investments that advance women's health, mental health, and homelessness assistance.
• Funding community projects, responding directly to pressing needs in the Los Angeles area and across the country by supporting underserved areas and fostering the economic development that makes communities healthier, safer, and stronger through community projects. 

 
This package includes the following funding bills: Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies; Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies; Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies; Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies; Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies; and Transportation and Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies. The remaining six appropriations bills for fiscal year 2024 are expected to be released in the coming days and be voted on ahead of their expiration on March 22.

A detailed summary of the bill is available here. 

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