Centering the Dignity of L.A.’s Unhoused
California’s recent rainstorms, triggered by an “atmospheric river,” dumped record-breaking amounts of rainfall onto the West Coast, imperiling the lives of the unhoused. In Los Angeles, which has one of the largest populations of unhoused people in the United States, city and county officials scrambled to ensure there were enough shelters. More such storms are on the horizon.
In a city that will continue to see the impacts of climate change even while preparing to host the 2028 Olympics, eviction attorney Ysabel Jurado has firsthand experience on tackling housing and homelessness. Jurado, who is a candidate for Los Angeles City Council District 14, spoke with YES! Senior Editor Sonali Kolhatkar on YES! Presents: Rising Up With Sonali about her solutions centering the dignity of the unhoused.
Sonali Kolhatkar
joined YES! in summer 2021, building on a long and decorated career in broadcast and print journalism. She is an award-winning multimedia journalist, and host and creator of YES! Presents: Rising Up with Sonali, a nationally syndicated television and radio program airing on Free Speech TV and dozens of independent and community radio stations. She is also Senior Correspondent with the Independent Media Institute’s Economy for All project where she writes a weekly column. She is the author of Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice (2023) and Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence (2005). Her forthcoming book is called Talking About Abolition (Seven Stories Press, 2025). Sonali is co-director of the nonprofit group, Afghan Women’s Mission which she helped to co-found in 2000. She has a Master’s in Astronomy from the University of Hawai’i, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. Sonali reflects on “My Journey From Astrophysicist to Radio Host” in her 2014 TEDx talk of the same name.
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