According to Picasso, food insecurity tends to blend with other problems that affect unsheltered or low-income individuals, such as lack of regular access to job opportunities, transformation, stable housing, education or internet service—things that can help individuals improve their quality of life.

Lawson Picasso’s career trajectory is far from traditional but it’s always been rooted in community and emphasizes helping the underserved, especially those in San Antonio.

Lawson highlights the fact that it is a necessity that folks need to be able to advocate for themselves and the folks who know best what they need are people who have had experiences that we are trying to problem solve.

A successful amendment proposed by committee member Lawson Picasso…would (if approved by council) require developers to include a displacement impact assessment, which outlines potential degrees of area resident displacement and plans to mitigate it, when they apply to build or rehabilitate housing with bond funds.

“We can’t utilize public funding and public dollars to continue to [further segregate] … communities,” she said.

“I’ve been working to serve and support this precinct longer than I have lived here,” Alaniz-Picasso said. “My four-and-a-half years of experience working boots on the ground have always been to serve and support those that have been under-served, which is the southwest and East Side of town.”

“The drastic makeup of precinct one is beautiful, but it’s also very complex. You go to the Northwest Side, go to Alamo Ranch. Those issues are a lot different than when you’re going to the South Side of it,” she said. “It’s understanding that there’s no one size fits all for this community. It’s understanding that there’s going to have to be differences of approaches.”

“When you see this, this is an insult to folks that have to pay taxes, just to see their taxes are not actually going back, there’s no return on investment for them,” said Picasso.

Lawson shares how virtual reality helped engineers describe how a major San Antonio transit project will benefit historically disadvantaged neighborhoods

A pair of San Antonians are making a big impact in helping shape national food insecurity policy. As politicians work on strategies to end hunger and increase healthy eating, formerly homeless Lawson Picasso shared her story this week in Washington D.C.