Former Supervisor Hillary Ronen

Background:

My passion for this work is rooted in my upbringing and experience. I was born and raised in Southern California in a working-class family. My father immigrated to America when he was in his 20s. Watching the discrimination that he faced in the workplace had a profound effect on me, leading me to dedicate my life to advancing the rights of workers and their families. My mother is a speech and language teacher who instilled in me the importance of a quality public school education and lifelong learning.

After earning my undergraduate degree from UC San Diego, I moved to Northern California to attend UC Berkeley School of Law. Upon graduation, I moved to San Francisco’s Mission District to join La Raza Centro Legal where I spent over six years fighting for immigrants’ rights and organizing to get unpaid back wages for domestic workers and day laborers. This experience taught me the power of community organizing, and eventually led me to start my legislative career as Chief of Staff with then-District 9 Supervisor David Campos. During six years in this position, I helped craft a wide range of legislation, including laws that protect families and teachers from eviction, the Free Muni for Youth program, improved health care access for San Franciscans, and facilitated the development of 1,000 units of affordable housing.

My husband and I are raising our five year old daughter in the district.

Priorities as Supervisor:

Since I assumed office as District 9 Supervisor in January 2017, I have been laser focused on tackling the most urgent issues impacting my constituents and saying yes to innovative solutions to pressing problems in our neighborhoods. While we are working on a large range of policy and community issues, I wanted to share my top four priorities as Supervisor:

• Addressing Street Homelessness in the Mission

It is unsafe and unacceptable to have people living in tents on the street; it’s not healthy or dignified for homeless or housed residents. I believe that the only way we can solve street encampments is by creating alternative places where people can be safe and have access to services to help them exit homelessness. Navigation Centers provide a dignified alternative for people to leave the streets, and I am committed to continuing to find sites and resources to ensure sufficient Navigation center beds in our city.

• Ensuring Public Safety in District 9 Neighborhoods

My office works closely with the captains of the three precincts that serve District 9: Mission, Ingleside (Bernal/St. Mary’s Park), and Bayview (Portola). I am a strong proponent of community policing and am fighting to ensure that we have officers at our district stations who are familiar with our neighborhoods, are visible on the street, culturally competent, and focused on preventing violent crime as well as car break-ins, bike thefts and burglaries. I am also advocating for police reform efforts citywide to help usher in more police accountability and transparency.

• Building More Affordable Housing

I am committed to protecting existing rent-controlled housing and I am determined to use my time on the Board to find resources and sites to ensure that we are building new deeply affordable and workforce housing.  I also believe that we must use every tool at our disposal to maximize the number of affordable units that private developers include as part of their mark-rate projects. Finally, I am committed to ensuring that local residents in our neighborhoods get access to the affordable housing built in our district.

• Protecting the Culture and Character Of Our San Francisco Neighborhoods

As a result of skyrocketing rents and increased gentrification, San Francisco is at risk of losing our ethnically and culturally distinct neighborhoods – the people, languages, art, festivals, food, and music that make us the unique world-class city that we are. I am working to recognize and protect ‘Cultural Districts’ in District 9 and throughout the city to give tools and resources to help small businesses, artists, low-income residents, and nonprofits stay in the city and preserve the vibrant character of our beloved neighborhoods.

San Francisco is at a crossroads, where deep poverty and urgent needs intersect with tremendous wealth and privilege. District 9 continues to face extraordinary challenges in housing and displacement of residents and businesses, street homelessness, and high crime. My staff and I are committed to addressing these issues while also serving individual constituents in a timely manner.

---