Law Foundation's Favorites of 2018 — Housing

Whether it's by reading, listening, or watching, there are many ways to stay informed and engaged with the issues that shape our society. Each week in December, we will be sharing our "Favorites of 2018" with you about each of our focus areas - it's a gift from us to you, for everything you've done to support the Law Foundation this year. These favorites, from our board, attorneys, staff, and volunteers will include podcasts, books, articles, and documentaries, that contextualize the issues our clients and community are facing and highlight why our work is critical in creating a stronger Silicon Valley.  

This holiday season, we're helping families facing eviction, displacement, and uninhabitable housing conditions so they too can enjoy the holidays in a safe and stable home. Learn more about the housing issues affecting our clients and community by checking out the list below.

Our hope is that this list is a starting point that sparks larger conversations with your friends, family, and colleagues, and that it inspires you to be more involved in our community (and with us!).

You can help us by making a gift to the Law Foundation today. All gifts are tax-deductible and greatly appreciated. We can't do our work without you. Thank you for your commitment to justice.

---

"The Color of Law" by Richard Rothstein

The history of residential segregation in the United States is long and disturbing, and the government, at all levels, has created and perpetuated this ongoing segregation that still defines our neighborhoods and communities. As Rothstein writes: "We have created a caste system in this country, with African-Americans kept exploited and geographically separate by racially explicit government policies. Although most of these policies are now off the books, they have never been remedied and their effects endure." Through a historical analysis, Rothstein makes a case for the United States and its government having a constitutional obligation to remedy segregation in housing. Read the New York Times Review.

Who Belongs? Podcast - Rent Control

This episode of a podcast by the Haas Institute for Fair and Inclusive Society at UC Berkeley examines aspects of the housing crisis - skyrocketing rent prices, stagnant wages, housing shortages - and how they connect to homelessness and increased social costs, such as sense of belonging, sense of community and social support, children's academic performance, physical and mental health, environmental health, and air quality. Listen here.

"Struggle for Black and Latino Mortgage Applicants Suggests Modern-Day Redlining" - PBS

Discrimination based on race has been illegal for 50 years since the passing of the Fair Housing Act. Yet problems like redlining (a discriminatory practice by which banks and insurance companies refuse or limit loans, mortgages, insurance, etc., within specific geographic areas, especially inner-city neighborhoods) persist - in 61 metro areas, people of color are more likely to be denied a conventional mortgage. Watch here.

RACE EQUITY SPOTLIGHT

As social justice lawyers and advocates, it is critical that we work to understand the complex challenges our clients experience every day. This includes working to understand structural racism and systemic inequalities that pervade through policies, practices, and cultural messages. At the Law Foundation, we challenge these systems and assist clients in navigating them daily. With the adoption of a strategic Race Equity Initiative, we examine these systems with a more critical eye to better meet the needs of our clients and the communities we serve.

"Seeing White" by Scene on Radio

This podcast takes a critical look at American social and government systems and structures, focusing on the way that whiteness is assumed to be the norm and therefore positioned to benefit. The historical context of the creation of whiteness is critical to understanding how our systems embody and perpetuate racism and discrimination. Listen here.

---

Keep an eye out for these weekly December emails (in the following weeks, we will focus on children & youth and health!) and make a commitment to be engaged by staying informed! Click here to subscribe to our newsletter!

Opinion: Visit with migrant children reveals extent of outrage

By Andrew Cain

Originally published in the Mercury News on July 31, 2018. 

As leaders in legal advocacy for youth and immigrant children, my colleagues and I at the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley recently joined fellow lawyers, interpreters, social workers and other volunteers in visiting federal detention centers across the country where migrant children are being detained.

The primary purpose of our visits was to determine whether children being held by the U.S. government after crossing the border had access to the most basic provisions as outlined in the Flores Settlement Agreement, on which the Law Foundation serve as co-counsel.

The decades-old agreement governs the length of time and conditions under which children may be detained, and among other things requires they have access to clean water, are not kept in extreme temperatures, are fed healthy food and have a reasonably comfortable place to sleep.

The basics.

All together volunteers from across the country visited with and interviewed more than 200 migrant parents and their children.

What we found was shameful.

One 5-year-old girl who was covered in dirt and dust following a long walk through the desert wasn’t allowed to shower for six days.

A 15-year-old girl apprehended in late June said that there were 18 women and three mattresses in the overcrowded room were she was held at a center in Imperial, Calif.

At a facility in Tucson, each person was allotted one aluminum blanket. Children and their parents reported that they were often too cold to sleep at night.

And others reported being forced to use dirty toilets that were overflowing with waste.

Children seek refuge in the United States for many reasons. Some are fleeing from war. Others are trying to avoid gangs and violence. And others are escaping from abuse.

Whatever the circumstances, can you imagine coming to the United States for the first time as a child, expecting to finally arrive in a safe place, a place your parents or other trusted adults promised you wouldn’t be scared anymore, only to be thrown in a cold, hard cell and deprived of water and food?

Is this how we now treat children in the United States?

We say no.

And on Friday, U.S. Judge District Judge Dolly Gee honored our request for the appointment of an independent monitor to provide an objective assessment of the conditions at federal detention centers.

Until now, the Flores agreement allowed for a government-appointed monitor to inspect the facilities and file a report with the court to ensure the conditions are being met.

However, we questioned how we could trust a monitor appointed by the very same government that has demonstrated through its policies and practices that it does not care about the basic human rights of migrant children.

In order to ensure that children are treated with “dignity, respect and special concern for their particular vulnerability as minors” as the Flores agreement states, we appealed to the court to appoint someone who is independent.

Someone who won’t close their ears to the cries of a child who is hungry.

Someone who understands that children need baths.

Someone who knows that every child deserves a warm blanket and a safe and comfortable place to lay their head.

We are grateful to Judge Gee for her decision, and we will remain vigilant in fighting injustices against migrant children and their families in the court of law.

Because this is not how we treat children in the United States. Because we say no.

Andrew Cain is the directing attorney of Legal Advocates for Children and Youth, a program of the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley.

Andrew's original piece can be found here. 

Law Foundation Gives Low-income Residents Voice in Google Development

Last year San Jose City entered into an exclusive negotiating agreement with Google to build a new campus in the city's downtown corridor. The development is expected to create 6 million to 8 million square feet of office space that will house at least 20,000 workers. 

For low-income people living in and around San Jose, displacement is all but guaranteed unless preventive measures are put into place. 

Earlier this year, San Jose City Council organized the Station Area Advisory Group, comprised of nearly 40 companies, neighborhood associations, individuals and non-profit organizations tasked with gathering and processing community input on the project, as well as other development in the Diridon Station Area.

As the only legal services provider invited to join the group, the Law Foundation is advocating for measures aimed at protecting low-income residents.

"After learning of Google's plans, we knew how important it was for the Law Foundation to advocate for equitable development in the Diridon corridor, meaning development where everyone has access to this incredible opportunity and no one is displaced," said Supervising Attorney Nadia Aziz.

"Most clients arrive at our office after they've received an eviction notice because their landlord is looking to cash-in on the housing boom. We are advocating to prevent the notice from being issued in the first place."

As part of the SAAG, the Law Foundation has advocated for solutions to the displacement crisis including advocating for affordable housing funding, a set-aside for affordable housing units, stronger tenant protections, and funding for relocation, emergency assistance and legal assistance for people who are displaced.