|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Increased health care and housing resources are just a few of the goals that Jennifer Esteen is hoping to achieve if she wins next year's Alameda County Board of Supervisors District 4 election.
A registered nurse, community activist and former candidate for State Assembly, Esteen will be vying to defeat longtime Supervisor Nate Miley, who is running for reelection in the March 2024 primary to represent the sprawling district that includes Pleasanton.
"Another one of the reasons why I'm running is because I'm tired of yelling at the halls of power and having these people pay lip service but then vote against us," Esteen told the Pleasanton Weekly. "We as community members have to sometimes take matters into our own hands and that's a part of what this campaign represents — that we're all in it together and we're doing it so we can all have a better life."
Esteen has lived in the East Bay for 20 years and currently lives in Ashland, which is one of the communities that would be under her purview if elected to the District 4 seat. If elected, she would be the first openly LGBTQ member of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors.
As someone who was unemployed during the 2008 recession, lost her home to foreclosure and put herself through school in order to become a registered nurse, Esteen said that she embodies the average person who just wants to see her communities thrive.
She wants to see a county where everyone can afford housing, be able to afford to live in the areas where they work and have access to high-quality preventative health care, which would address folks with mental health issues that are sometimes forced into the criminal justice system due to a lack of those resources.
"When we spend on housing and preventive health care and primary care, we end up spending less on crisis," she said. "We spend less in the jail and we actually can make meaningful, long lasting benefits that are realized by the health of our community. But that's not what we're doing right now."
Esteen also wants to keep residents who live in Alameda County working within the county rather than leaving for outside agencies due to rent increases or better pay.
She said that if they can offer more help with housing, it will not only keep these workers within the county, but it will also help local economies and boost the bandwidth of what these county programs or resources can actually do for residents. That means the county would be able to prioritize funding for extended after school youth programs that would help kids better their futures and keep them out of jail.
She also said she wants to prioritize stronger countywide tenant protections to help that cause, arguing that the county needs to have housing subsidies that can benefit renters and people who are trying to buy homes.
While acknowledging she did lose the Assembly District 20 primary election in 2022, falling 1.7% out of a spot in the runoff ultimately won by Liz Ortega, Esteen said through that campaign, she was able to raise nearly $500,000 in individual donations without any corporate money — and those efforts show people are ready for a change and that they believe in her.
She added that while Supervisorial District 4 is a large area that covers a wide range of social, economic and political demographics, her main message is that she is here to listen to the different communities and find ways to engage with everyone in order to best address their needs while also sticking to her values.
"I think people are tired of being told that 'I'm welcoming but I'm not going to listen and I'm not going to carry water for you', and so they're ready for change," Esteen said. "Those are the community members that are coming to partner with me and to work with me."
Esteen serves as the vice president of the Alameda Health System Board of Trustees, which manages the $1 billion budget of the county's health care safety net, and is also a member of the Eden Municipal Advisory Council, which works to serve the county's unincorporated communities.
In addition to Pleasanton and Ashland, the other areas District 4 covers are East Oakland, Montclair, Castro Valley, Cherryland, Fairview and El Portal Ridge.
For more about Esteen's campaign, visit her website at www.jenniferesteen.com.
