‘I don’t think the landlord thought we would stand up, but we did.’

Author: Niketa Kumar of Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus

For 50 years, Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus has partnered with communities and grassroots organizations to advance economic security, immigrant justice, and an inclusive, multiracial democracy. Here’s the latest from movements to win justice for low-income, immigrant, and underserved Asian American and Pacific Islander communities.

 

‘We’re turning the tide and putting people’s well-being ahead of unchecked displacement.’ Amid a growing wave of San Francisco tenants filing for their unions at home, eight Chinatown tenants and the Community Tenants Association have won an important settlement with one of the city’s largest SRO management companies that affirms their rights to harassment-free housing and language access, reports Mission Local. All of the tenants are immigrants and fluent Chinese speakers. All but one are seniors. 

 

Through a pandemic, family and personal struggles, and a court system that too often fails to uphold the rights of people who use non-English languages, tenants in two buildings owned by Valstock Management led the fight for long-term change for their families and other Chinatown tenants targeted by eviction threats and displacement. As KTSF reported, Valstock Management and its related corporations have agreed to:

• end their practice of imposing $200 and $50 fines on tenants for long-standing practices like hanging laundry outside windows or leaving shoes outside their doors;

• provide all tenants with bilingual English and Chinese leases with Chinese translations of all material notices affecting their tenancy; 

• attend trainings every two years on fair housing anti-discrimination and anti-harassment requirements, among other measures. 

 

The Valstock tenants’ win comes as elderly tenants throughout the neighborhood are raising awareness of the urgent lack of affordable housing, underscoring the threat of eviction and the deep fears that people will otherwise have nowhere else to go. Shao Yan Chen, a 76-year-old resident and one of the Valstock case plaintiffs, explained: “Many of us have lived in the buildings for a decade or more. We moved there because it was what we could afford. It has also been important for us to live in Chinatown where we can go about our lives in a community that understands us.” 

 

Earlier this week, the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project published its Evictorbook for San Francisco and Oakland to help residents untangle the web of corporate housing ownership in these cities.

 

Pulling back the curtain on ‘in the interest of national security.’ On the heels of a federal court ruling in Pars Equality Center, et. al v. Pompeo et. al. that the Biden administration must undo the lasting harms of the Muslim & African Bans, lawyers on the case from ALC and the National Immigration Law Center, experts at mPower Change, and Rep. Rashida Tlaib held a community discussion on Wednesday about the decision and ongoing advocacy to reunite separated families. 

 

As the midterm elections approach, community members are getting out the vote and urging President Biden to stop upholding the Bans and create a fair visa reconsideration process for the 41,000 people denied entry.

 

While the Bans sparked worldwide outrage, lesser-known national security programs like the “Controlled Application Review and Resolution Program” or CARRP are also blocking Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian communities from entering or staying in the United States. At mosques and community centers throughout the Bay Area, ALC staff are helping people whose immigration applications may be unjustly delayed or denied by secretive programs like CARRP, including community members who helped the U.S. government in Afghanistan.

 

And, in the wake of Temple University professor Xiaoxing Xi’s hearing to hold the U.S. government accountable for its discriminatory investigation and prosecution of baseless charges, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports that “community members [are emphasizing] that there is an intersectionality between Xi’s experience (and Asian Americans as a whole) and that of other marginalized communities,”  a call to action echoed by Stop AAPI Hate’s latest report on anti-Asian political rhetoric. 

 

Embracing California’s full diversity at the ballot box. In a state where over residents speak almost half of residents speak a language other than English at home, voting rights advocates have helped the Secretary of State’s office issue guidance on language access at the polls to county clerks and registrars. Meanwhile, a recent summary of ALC’s June 2022 poll monitoring program shares findings from across 247 voting locations and 15 counties and identifies top recommendations for municipalities to improve language and disability access. 

 

In the Bay Area, residents are mobilizing for a stronger democracy that prioritizes the needs of residents, no matter how much money they have or what language they use. In Oakland, a recent poll found that 74% of voters support Measure W,  the Oakland Fair Elections Act, which would create a Democracy Dollars program and increase campaign finance and ad transparency. In San Francisco, support is growing for Prop H, which would move elections to even years, boost voter turnout, and help local elections be more fully representative of the city’s diverse population. In its endorsement, the SF Chronicle editorial board wrote: “The likelihood of more San Franciscans paying attention to key local races makes the measure good for democracy and worthy of your vote.” 

 

Rideshare drivers: Prop 22 depresses wages, deepens inequality. In a first-of-its-kind study, the National Equity Atlas, Rideshare Drivers United, and 55 rideshare drivers conducted a survey across California’s major rideshare markets to assess compensation under Prop 22 vs. compensation if drivers were classified as employees. 

 

The survey found:

• Drivers’ media net take-home earnings are just $6.20 per hour under Prop 22, and the wage floor under Prop 22 is $4.10 per hour.

• Drivers would be paid nearly $11 more per hour if they were classified as employees. 

 

CalOSHA recently cited Lyft and Uber for COVID safety violations, in response to complaints filed by rideshare drivers. The citations mark the first time the state safety agency has extended workplace protections to gig workers, reports the SF Chronicle. This week the Biden administration released a new proposal to address the misclassification of rideshare drivers, app delivery workers, and many others. 

 

Hundreds gather to stop ICE transfers, deportations Despite some CA Senators failing to pass the VISION Act (AB 937), hundreds of community members have gathered in the past couple of weeks to take action for families separated by ICE and keep growing the multiracial, intergenerational movement for immigrant justice. 

 

One month after ICE deported beloved community member Phoeun You to Cambodia, he organized a community conversation to share what happened and how the fight to come home continues. Days later, Phoeun joined other impacted community members, including Gabby Solano, Salesh Prasad, and Carlos Munoz, to share reactions to politicians’ failure to pass the VISION Act and what comes next. 

 

In DC, legislators recently introduced the Southeast Asian Deportation Relief Act, supported by community members like Sophea Phea, who came home to Long Beach after she was deported to Cambodia 11 years ago. Josie Huang at LAist met Sophea in a local park and reported on her cross-country advocacy for people harmed by ICE detention and deportation, noting “she and other advocates see the need to make more sweeping changes at a national level.”