Ana Rodriguez

Ana Rodriguez (she/her) is a Master of Public Policy student with a concentration in social policy. She graduated from UC San Diego with a bachelor’s in political science. She currently works as a teaching assistant for the Department of Labor Studies and as an outreach fellow for a nonprofit organization, Inclusive Action for The City. Ana is an aspiring public policy analyst in social justice affairs. She aspires to achieve policy solutions through data analysis and contribute to the expansion of research in the field of Latinx politics in the U.S.

Ana is working on this project alongside students Jack Kearns, Gloria Magallanes, Andrew Rock, and Sydney Smanpongse.

Project Overview

Our projet is focusing on the intersection of housing and labor. Our client, Unite Here Local 11 (UH11), has made the housing crisis central to their work, advancing a range of strategies to make housing more affordable, stable, and proximate to work for its members and the rest of the working poor. The project’s research questions include: How can UH11 advance initiatives to transition small hotels and motels into temporary, emergency, or permanent housing or addiction treatment centers in the Los Angeles metropolitan area? And how should UH11 structure initiatives to purchase housing that can be turned into cooperatives to be rented or owned by the union’s members in the Los Angeles metropolitan area?

Why is this topic, specifically, important to you?

The intersection of homelessness and labor justice is extremely important to me. Coming from a working class family, I am passionate about one’s right to earn a livable wage. I see my family, friends, and strangers struggle to financially survive in this economy. Too many individuals are one paycheck away from being homeless. Some of these workers are already homeless, living in cars and parking lots. Homeless people cannot get back on their feet on a minimum wage job. These low wages make it easy for individuals to become homeless and makes it hard to escape homelessness. There is absolutely no reason why anyone should not be able to afford basic human rights, such as housing and food. It is a terrible reality that needs to be addressed with innovative policy solutions. 

Who are the partners involved in this project and how will you be working with them?

We will be working with Unite Here Local 11 to address housing issues impacting their members. This will involve leveraging available institutional data and member knowledge.

Victor Narro, Project Director at the UCLA Labor Center, and Gary Blasi, a public interest lawyer and affordable housing advocate, will be advisors on the project and help guide our research.

How do you hope that this project will impact the field moving forward?

I hope that our research findings and policy recommendations are able to be adopted not only by Unite Here, but also other unions statewide. I also hope this project highlights the connection between homelessness and the need for livable wages. I hope it can continue the conversation about alternative solutions to the housing crisis in Los Angeles. Since we will be focusing on hotel conversion and co-op housing, I hope this is also an opportunity to inform more people about how the housing crisis can be tackled in creative ways.