Incumbent Los Angeles City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez is heading into a June 2 primary race for District 1, and voters are once again being asked to decide what kind of future they want for neighborhoods like Westlake, Pico Union and Highland Park.
Hernandez is one of five candidates running for the seat, facing Raul Claros, Sylvia Robledo, Lou Calanche and Nelson Grande in a race that has become a heated debate over public safety, homelessness, housing affordability — and whether City Hall’s policies are improving life on the ground.
In 2022, Hernandez, an organizer and daughter of immigrant parents, campaigned on promises to challenge the status quo. She ran on making housing more affordable, expanding tenant protections, investing in alternatives to traditional policing, protecting immigrant communities and redirecting city resources toward neighborhood services in communities she argued had long been overlooked.
Now, nearly four years into her first term, Hernandez is running for reelection with enough experience on the LA City Council for voters to judge not only her vision, but also what she’s been able to accomplish.
Affordable housing and tenant protections
Housing affordability was one of the core issues Hernandez campaigned on in 2022, especially in neighborhoods where longtime renters increasingly fear displacement.
For Hernandez, the issue was personal. In 2022, she told L.A. Taco that she saw firsthand how gentrification reshaped Highland Park, the neighborhood where she grew up.
“It happened really fast. The community tried to organize around it and against it, but we just saw whole apartments bought up, people displaced,” Hernandez told L.A. Taco. “We need to build so that the people who work here can live here.”
Over the last four years, Hernandez backed tenant protections, rent relief efforts and affordable housing projects. She supported measures expanding protections for renters facing eviction, backed pandemic-era tenant assistance programs and has frequently advocated for stronger antidisplacement policies in neighborhoods like Highland Park.
Her office says they have deployed more than $1 million in emergency rental assistance, food distribution programs and support services across District 1. Hernandez additionally supported policies requiring landlords to share eviction data, limiting the legal grounds for eviction and strengthening local anti-harassment protections for tenants. She also backed amendments protecting renters from displacement while waiting for emergency rental assistance applications to be processed.
Since taking office, she voted to support a funding plan for Measure ULA, which taxes high-value property sales to help pay for affordable housing and tenant assistance, and has pushed for city-owned and publicly subsidized housing projects in her district.
In Lincoln Heights, she helped break ground on a 48-unit affordable housing project funded through Measure ULA aimed at creating more housing for low-income residents in the district. She has also supported larger developments such as Centro Westlake, a major mixed-use project planned above the Westlake/MacArthur Park Metro station that includes income-restricted affordable units.
At the same time, Hernandez has backed expanding interim and supportive housing options for unhoused residents. She supported the expansion of the Northeast New Beginnings interim housing site, which added units and onsite supportive services, and secured $6 million in state funding intended to transition people living along the 110 Freeway and the Los Angeles River into permanent housing with wraparound services.
Hernandez has also supported policies like SB 79, making it easier to build affordable housing near transit while arguing that wealthier neighborhoods across Los Angeles should take on more housing development, instead of concentrating new dense projects in communities like Westlake and Pico Union.
“I believe that the entire city needs to take responsibility for meeting our housing goals,” Hernandez said in a recent interview with The LA Local.
Hernandez initially opposed the bill, raising concerns about how it could affect hillside communities in Highland Park, where she said narrow roads and high fire risk made denser development a concern. She told The LA Local she later backed the measure after additional protections were added, saying the city as a whole, especially neighborhoods on the Westside, still need to build more housing.
Housing advocates have generally viewed Hernandez as aligned with tenant groups and antidisplacement efforts. Critics, however, argue that despite the policies that she’s backed, many residents continue struggling with rising costs and housing insecurity.
Alternatives to traditional policing
Perhaps no issue better defines Hernandez politically than her push for alternatives to traditional policing. Before taking office, Hernandez, as a criminal justice organizer, helped campaign for Measure J in 2020, a county ballot measure aimed at directing more funding toward community services and alternatives to incarceration rather than law enforcement. Since then, she has continued to support expanding Los Angeles’ unarmed crisis response teams focused on outreach and de-escalation.
One of the biggest programs she touts is the city’s unarmed crisis response initiative, which sends trained mental health and behavioral response teams — instead of LAPD officers — to certain 911 calls. Hernandez says the program has now responded to roughly 20,000 calls, and teams only needed LAPD backup about 4% of the time.
“My goal is to scale it up citywide by the Olympics,” Hernandez said.
Supporters say the program represents a major shift in how Los Angeles responds to mental health crises and homelessness. Victor Narro, a longtime immigrant rights advocate and professor who supports Hernandez, said the district now has more outreach workers, ambassadors and healthcare teams operating in neighborhoods like MacArthur Park.
“In the past, when you looked at MacArthur Park and talked about addressing the issue, it was always LAPD,” Narro said. “She shifted away from that.”
But the issue has also become one of Hernandez’s biggest political vulnerabilities.
Critics argue residents still feel unsafe in parts of District 1 despite millions being spent on outreach and intervention programs. MacArthur Park in particular has become a political flashpoint, with public drug use, homelessness and gang activity drawing growing frustration from residents and business owners. The issue became especially visible after recent Drug Enforcement Administration and the Los Angeles Police Department operations on May 6 in MacArthur Park, targeting alleged fentanyl trafficking and gang activity.
Hernandez has also drawn criticism from some homelessness advocates over the increase in CARE+ encampment cleanings carried out in District 1 during her first term, despite previously speaking out against sweeps.
A recent LA Public Press analysis found CARE+ operations in her district rose significantly between 2024 and 2025 as the city expanded encampment cleanup efforts overall. Hernandez’s office has said the operations are intended to address sanitation, accessibility and public health concerns while connecting unhoused residents with outreach and services.
Small businesses, infrastructure and daily quality of life
In a 2022 campaign video for Los Angeles City Council, Hernandez said, “It’s not radical to demand clean sidewalks, working street lights and neighborhoods you can walk through safely.”
Supporters say that focus on everyday neighborhood conditions has also shaped her time in office, pointing to smaller neighborhood-level investments that may not generate the same headlines but still affect residents’ day-to-day quality of life.
Her office has brought about a $400,000 grant program for small businesses in her district struggling after the pandemic and amid immigration enforcement fears.
Hernandez also points to infrastructure projects like repairing streetlights and improving sanitation services. This year, her office invested $500,000 from her discretionary funds to convert 91 streetlights in District 1 to solar power. She also says her office used discretionary funds to fix lights that had remained broken for years before she took office.
Hernandez has backed several transportation and street safety projects across the district focused on pedestrian and cyclist safety. One of the largest is the Pico Boulevard Safety and Mobility Plan, which would redesign 3.5 miles of Pico Boulevard with protected bike infrastructure. The city is also planning a separate active transportation route connecting Koreatown and Pico Union along streets like New Hampshire Avenue and Berendo Street.
Still, frustrations remain for residents. Illegal dumping, trash and dangerous intersections continue to be common complaints throughout parts of the district, according to city data.
Even some Hernandez supporters acknowledge that change has been slower than many hoped.
“What she’s doing will definitely support the revitalization without displacement,” said Sergio Jiménez of Community Power Collective. “But folks can’t expect a magic wand will fix everything ASAP.”
That may ultimately be how many District 1 residents decide whether to bring Hernandez back for a second term: Has she laid the groundwork for long-term change, or are voters tired of waiting?
