Brown serves our seniors

When shelter-in-place orders were made and stores were being ransacked, Vallejo City Councilmember Hakeem Brown moved quickly to organize to ensure seniors had access to essentials and fill any gaps in services. In coordination with senior housing program managers, Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano County, Florence Douglas Center and community volunteers, we worked to deliver food and toiletries to our most vulnerable seniors.

This small act of compassion filled a critical need gap for many seniors while organizations took time to adapt and stores worked to restock shelves. Councilmember Brown provided our seniors with a safety net for basic needs, a sense of security and support during a very frightening and uncertain time. This type of Vallejo-grown organizing in service of our seniors is no surprise considering many of the elders in our community directly or indirectly shaped Hakeem’s life growing up in Vallejo. His respect and care for our seniors runs deep. Since joining city council in 2019, Hakeem Brown has actively sought opportunities to expand support of our seniors in any way he can:

• Hosting community resource fairs and workshops in every neighborhood.

• Advocating for changes to the city website to improve access to senior resources and programs.

• Providing monthly office hours and participating in the Senior Round Table at Florence Douglas Center to understand and address issues facing seniors.

• Helping hundreds of seniors stay in their homes by proposing and providing the data necessary to pass an emergency rent increase moratorium in 2019.

• Supporting residents of senior housing by attending resident meetings and advocating for improved property conditions and communication.

And he has improved and expanded senior services by:

• Proposing funds be allocated from city council’s 20202021 discretionary budget to support services at the Florence Douglas Center.

• Supporting the development of the Homeless Navigation Center which will provide shelter and service coordination for people who are unhoused, many of whom are seniors.

• Participating in the Homelessness Roundtable and engaging organizations to work to develop alternative housing options to serve people who are unhoused.

And finally, Brown has protected seniors curing the COVID-19 pandemic by:

• Hosting COVID-19 resource workshops specifically to address challenges and resources for seniors.

• Supporting Project Room Key to house people without homes, many of whom are seniors, at hotels and directly organizing to strengthen medical service coordination for the most at risk.

Hakeem Brown is a different kind of council member. He goes above and beyond making votes in council meetings. He actively seeks every opportunity to make a difference big or small for our seniors from delivering groceries to proposing and passing tenant protections to keep seniors in their homes. He takes the time to listen, learn, and implement tangible steps to protect, serve and improve quality of life for our seniors.

— Richard Fisher/Community

organizer