CHARAS FOR THE PEOPLE

Built for the Community, by the Community

CHARAS/El Bohio is more than a building—it’s a symbol of resistance, resilience, and community. As a City Council candidate, I’m committed to reclaiming CHARAS for the community. We will return the site to public hands and fund a restoration rooted in sustainability, accessibility, and equity. CHARAS must be reborn—not as a relic of the past, but as a forward-looking hub of culture, care, and collective power.

The new CHARAS will be designed for the community, by the community. From multilingual design sessions to green building standards and full accessibility, this will be a space where everyone belongs. It will house a creative incubator for local artists, a digital justice lab to close the tech divide, and a cultural residency program to uplift voices too often silenced. This isn’t just about a building—it’s about building opportunity, expression, and belonging.

CHARAS will anchor essential services: tenant organizing, immigrant rights advocacy, youth programming, mental health care, and mutual aid. Through participatory budgeting, community land trusts, and innovative public-private funding, we’ll ensure CHARAS remains in community control—permanently. We’re not just restoring CHARAS. We’re restoring power to the people.