Just San Bernardino (Just SB) is a coalition made up of nine non-profits based in the City of San Bernardino.
The forum was attended by over 50 individuals, who received a presentation on the results of a community survey filled out by over 4,000 residents.
Grecia Perez is a Project Coordinator with Just SB. She says, “We’re engaging with the community, and we’re gathering information, opinions about what kind of city they want to (see), as it relates to the economy.”
Just SB says their ultimate goal in retrieving all this data is to create a People’s plan that will look to create good-paying jobs and sustainable modes of commerce for the city.
“The main importance is to bring all the people that have participated in the different methods of gathering information together to really think about a future, visioning some solutions that they would like to see,” added Perez.
Mike Chavez is the Executive Director of the Inland Empire Labor Institute. He said each of the nine non-profits individually sent out the surveys and that the two main issues brought up by community members were lack of affordable housing and lack of good jobs.
Mike Chavez said, “People are pretty aware that jobs exist, but they’re not good jobs. Warehousing has really taken over and driven what we like to call the race to the bottom with substandard jobs that pay below a living wage, that don’t provide benefits.”
Chavez says that at the end of the day, his organization wants to see people living better in the City of San Bernardino.
