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Speaker 1: We have so many Latinos throughout the country that are

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Speaker 1: living in squalor that are living under bridges, that are

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Speaker 1: living in tents, that are really afraid, and they can't

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Speaker 1: talk about it because the whole world will judge them

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Speaker 1: as failures. And we're not failures. We just don't have

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Speaker 1: access to resources. That's it.

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Speaker 2: From Futuro Media and PRX. It's Latino Usa. I'm Maria

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Speaker 2: Ino Rosa today, undocumented and unhoused. How California's housing crisis

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Speaker 2: is affecting Latino and Latina immigrants in the Bay Area.

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Speaker 2: Leova Cuevas works as a food server at an elementary

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Speaker 2: school in East Oakland, California. In December of twenty twenty,

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Speaker 2: nine months into the pandemic, she began to see how

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Speaker 2: the parking areas are around the school suddenly got more

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Speaker 2: and more crowded.

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Speaker 3: In Temple mucha Hint Mchaeno. In Elba.

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Speaker 2: Soluncaro, families with children were living in r v's and

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Speaker 2: in their cars. Within a month, the cars went all

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Speaker 2: around the block. As the school began to plan for

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Speaker 2: in person classes, Leova knew families living in their cars

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Speaker 2: couldn't stay there, so she reached out to the local

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Speaker 2: media outlet El Tinpano, which serves Latino and Mayan immigrant

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Speaker 2: communities in the Bay Area, and she reached out via

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Speaker 2: text message sharing her concerns about the families living on

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Speaker 2: the street Elio. What Leova saw more Latinos losing their

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Speaker 2: homes resonates with what eldin Pano has been hearing from

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Speaker 2: many other subscribers since the start of the pandemic. The

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Speaker 2: number one question readers of El dimpano ask is how

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Speaker 2: to obtain rent relief. More than twenty one hundred people

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Speaker 2: subscribe to El Dimpano's text messaging service to receive news

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Speaker 2: in Spanish and to share their questions and their stories.

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Speaker 2: In turn, Dimpano investigates their concerns and connects them.

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Speaker 4: With local resources.

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Speaker 2: From their messages, it's clear that housing is the reader's

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Speaker 2: biggest concern right now.

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Speaker 5: Ibividn' ilaria la vaya real mentezuluhu paramirita pienzoluu paramuchos.

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Speaker 2: Living in the Bay Area has become a luxury that

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Speaker 2: many can't afford any more. The Bay Area is home

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Speaker 2: to the biggest and rich tech companies in the world.

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Speaker 2: San Francisco, a one bedroom apartment costs more than thirty

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Speaker 2: five hundred dollars a month on average, and the city

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Speaker 2: holds the highest concentration of billionaires in the entire planet.

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Speaker 2: But at the same time, homeless encampments are growing under

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Speaker 2: the freeways, around empty lots and in parks. California has

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Speaker 2: the highest homelessness rate in the country, and half of

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Speaker 2: Latino families don't earn enough to get by. In fact,

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Speaker 2: data shows that evictions went down in California during the

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Speaker 2: pandemic thanks to an eviction moratorium that protected tenants, But

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Speaker 2: the housing struggles of undocumented communities aren't being captured by

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Speaker 2: authorities or the mainstream media. Today, in collaboration with Elpinpano,

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Speaker 2: we bring you the stories of undocumented Latinos and Latinas

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Speaker 2: who had to leave if they're homes and how COVID

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Speaker 2: nineteen has made the community more vulnerable to ending up

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Speaker 2: on the street. Latino USA editor Marta Martinez traveled to

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Speaker 2: the Bay Area in March to report this story with

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Speaker 2: Eltinbano's founder, Madelin Bear.

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Speaker 4: Here's Marta.

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Speaker 6: Ola go en yes at six am in the morning

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Speaker 6: and I meet Manuela Wills on a deserted corner in

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Speaker 6: East Oakland.

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Speaker 7: Manuel is thirty nine years old from Honduras and has

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Speaker 7: been living in Oakland for more than seven years. He

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Speaker 7: has a square face and his small eyes hid under

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Speaker 7: prominent straight eyebrows.

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Speaker 8: Tresphilenty Okay.

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Speaker 7: Manuel shows me a cream colored car parked in a

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Speaker 7: corner lot next to three others. Here's where he and

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Speaker 7: his nineteen year old son sleep every night. The car

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Speaker 7: has three rows of seats. At night, they recline them.

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Speaker 7: Manuel sleeps in the very back while his son takes

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Speaker 7: the middle seats and rests on an inflatable mattress. In

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Speaker 7: the car, they have light and a power source for

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Speaker 7: their phones. Manuel says they feel safe, they've gotten used

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Speaker 7: to it, but there are no fences, no protection from

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Speaker 7: the street. Sleeping in the car was supposed to be temporary,

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Speaker 7: just until he could get back on his feet after

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Speaker 7: losing his job, but it's been almost a year already.

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Speaker 7: Manuel used to work for a construction company, driving excavators

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Speaker 7: and operating other heavy equipment, but in the summer of

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Speaker 7: twenty twenty, he got sick with cod it and the

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Speaker 7: company he worked for didn't want him back even after

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Speaker 7: he recovered. Manuel is undocumented, so he didn't get any

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Speaker 7: sick leave or unemployment. He was making about thirty four

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Speaker 7: hundred dollars a month before the pandemic, and he was

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Speaker 7: renting a room for six hundred he was getting.

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Speaker 9: By I say pierro latmosamento pasoeto it.

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Speaker 7: Manuel says that everything fell apart when he lost his job.

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Speaker 7: He couldn't make rent anymore and bills didn't wait. On

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Speaker 7: top of covering living expenses, Manuel needs to send money

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Speaker 7: back to hondudas to his sister, who is taking care

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Speaker 7: of his two younger children. A criminal gang controls the

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Speaker 7: neighborhood where his family lives in the town of Progresso

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Speaker 7: in the northwest of the country, and they charged two

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Speaker 7: hundred and fifty dollars a month per family as a

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Speaker 7: way to quote unquote guarantee their.

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Speaker 10: Safety to dollar por casa. I can put that.

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Speaker 7: So, even though he lost his stable job, Manuel needed

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Speaker 7: to keep working. Too many people depend on him and

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Speaker 7: he's already made many sacrifices to get to the United States.

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Speaker 10: Walkonda Mavina, when are you talknd on any pays.

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Speaker 7: On his way here, he was kidnapped and had to

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Speaker 7: sell part of his property back in on Duras. Every

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Speaker 7: morning at six am, he heads to the gas station

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Speaker 7: by the Nimitz Freeway, the highway that runs along the

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Speaker 7: west side of Oakland, and it's busy with heavy trucks

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Speaker 7: heading to and back from the port. Manuel stands near

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Speaker 7: the air compressor where drivers stop by to inflate their tires,

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Speaker 7: waiting for someone to hire him for the day. He'll

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Speaker 7: take any kind of job, cleaning up a garden, building

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Speaker 7: a fence, moving heavy furniture around. Manuel is the first

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Speaker 7: one to arrive. The sun is coming up, but it's

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Speaker 7: still pretty cold early in the morning, and he's only

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Speaker 7: wearing a polo shirt and a light jacket.

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Speaker 8: But yes, Malla, wis it.

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Speaker 7: A few minutes later, a couple other men arrive. One

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Speaker 7: of them chats with Manuel. They see each other often

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Speaker 7: here at the gas station. By seven thirty am, there

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Speaker 7: are eight men standing around near the gas station waiting

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Speaker 7: for work. They're all Latinos and most of them look

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Speaker 7: younger than Manuel, but none of them have been lucky lately.

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Speaker 7: Manuel's friend says it's been fifteen days since his last gig.

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Speaker 7: The winter is particularly hard. Manuel tells me construction and

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Speaker 7: gardening work slows down a lot. He's lucky if he

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Speaker 7: can get a couple of gigs per week. He usually

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Speaker 7: made between one hundred and fifty and three hundred dollars

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Speaker 7: a day. Nothing has been easy since Manuela arrived in

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Speaker 7: the US seven years ago, after going through the painful

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Speaker 7: experience of leaving his home country to provide for his family.

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Speaker 7: Manuel says that the uncle who was supposed to host

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Speaker 7: him in Oakland told him he couldn't stay there.

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Speaker 10: Who album with Rita jes dormin no Carton.

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Speaker 7: That night, Manuel slept on cardboard under a bridge by

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Speaker 7: the highway, and that's what he did for the first

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Speaker 7: two months. He'd wake up early in the morning and

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Speaker 7: go look for work. At first, he worked livering groceries

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Speaker 7: at four in the morning, but he didn't speak English,

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Speaker 7: so people took advantage of him.

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Speaker 9: Eutrojlo's ideas he kecum and Drinka dollar alas a man, he.

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Speaker 7: Was getting paid thirty dollars per week. Manuel says he

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Speaker 7: worked six days a week for more than eight hours

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Speaker 7: a day. Still, Manuel says he was able to save

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Speaker 7: some money and when he set aside one hundred dollars,

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Speaker 7: he would send them to his family in Honduras. Being

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Speaker 7: able to afford his own room seemed very far away.

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Speaker 9: Again at Papeleesmio too.

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Speaker 7: And it wasn't only because of the money to be

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Speaker 7: able to rent a room. They asked him for references

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Speaker 7: pay stubs, utility bills, and Manuel couldn't provide any of that.

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Speaker 7: In California, landlords aren't allowed to ask tenants about their

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Speaker 7: immigration status, but they can require proof of financial stability

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Speaker 7: like payment history or paid utility bills, and they can

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Speaker 7: ask for a credit report. With time, Manuel started to

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Speaker 7: earn more and and someone told him about a room

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Speaker 7: that was available where he didn't need to sign a lease.

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Speaker 7: Having his own room changed everything for Manuel.

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Speaker 10: So Ya conta mi quardo anypoce.

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Speaker 7: When he was in his room, Manuel says he felt

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Speaker 7: like he was back in his home country. It was

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Speaker 7: a space where he felt safe, but also a place

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Speaker 7: to rest after a long day of work where he

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Speaker 7: had privacy. In February twenty twenty one, his son arrived

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Speaker 7: in the US after joining one of the migrant caravans,

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Speaker 7: and they started sharing the space for more than six years.

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Speaker 7: Manuel not only paid rent on time, he says he

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Speaker 7: was often early after sending money to his family in Honduras.

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Speaker 7: He would take the extra money and sleep an envelope

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Speaker 7: under the building manager's door, even if it was still

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Speaker 7: more than a week before the first of the month.

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Speaker 7: Manuel was proud of that, but when he lost his

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Speaker 7: stable income, he couldn't keep up with his rent commitment

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Speaker 7: and it became too much of a burden. In February

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Speaker 7: of last year, Manuel reached out to a Timpano asking

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Speaker 7: for information about how to get rent assistance because he

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Speaker 7: had heard about a rent relief program the state of

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Speaker 7: California had launched. The program helped cover up to eighteen

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Speaker 7: months of rent and utilities, regardless of immigration status, but

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Speaker 7: the application process was long and hard to figure out

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Speaker 7: for people like Manuel who are on their own, don't

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Speaker 7: have access to a computer, and don't speak English. Even

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Speaker 7: though the application portal was available in Spanish, Chinese, and Vietnamese,

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Speaker 7: among other languages, the whole process and documentation were hard

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Speaker 7: to navigate.

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Speaker 9: Vika ma aloogadahi namentia Yeah, the rent iwayitana aplicao no

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Speaker 9: comed replican napodia.

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Speaker 7: Manuel says he tried to apply for rent relief twice,

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Speaker 7: but it didn't work out. According to California's rent relief program.

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Speaker 7: Applicants needed to prove that they had lost their job

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Speaker 7: or that their income had been reduced due to COVID nineteen.

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Speaker 7: They could also show a notice of rent or utility

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Speaker 7: bills that were passed you, but none of those were

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Speaker 7: under Manuel's name either. Over one hundred thousand people applied

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Speaker 7: for emergency rental relief in the Bay Area by March

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Speaker 7: thirty first, when the applications period closed. Latinos were the

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Speaker 7: biggest group among the applicants. Last summer, when Manuel was

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Speaker 7: two months behind on rent, he made a tough decision.

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Speaker 7: He and his son needed to vacate their room and

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Speaker 7: sleep in the car for a while. Well it wasn't

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Speaker 7: an easy decision for his son either, but he understood

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Speaker 7: they couldn't afford to stay if his dad didn't have

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Speaker 7: a job. Their landlord actually told them to stay, and

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Speaker 7: in fact, there was an eviction moratorium in place at

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Speaker 7: the time which protected tenants who couldn't pay rent. But

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Speaker 7: for Manuel, living was just the right thing to do.

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Speaker 9: Pro joma persona callo correcto the Kenotonia Napoli Mikuarto.

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Speaker 7: Manuel didn't want to be in debt. He says he

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Speaker 7: couldn't do that to his landlord either, who had always

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Speaker 7: been kind to him. He left his room with everything inside,

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Speaker 7: his TV, two twin bed for him and his son,

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Speaker 7: and they started sleeping in the car parked right across

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Speaker 7: from the pitch building where Manuel had been living for

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Speaker 7: more than six years. It was very sad, Manuel says,

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Speaker 7: to come back after a hard day of work and

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Speaker 7: instead of going into his room to slee keep having

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Speaker 7: to do it in his car.

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Speaker 10: A lesson patron de que.

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Speaker 7: While we wait by the gas station, Manuel gets a

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Speaker 7: text message from one of his more or less regular

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Speaker 7: gardening clients. He's asking him to go on Saturday to

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Speaker 7: clean up the garden. Manuel feels a bit.

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Speaker 10: Reliefs on the.

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Speaker 7: Manuel believes that the pandemic is affecting Latino immigrants more

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Speaker 7: than other communities. He knows of some eight families with

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Speaker 7: children who live in the neighborhood and are now on

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Speaker 7: the streets because they couldn't afford rent after losing their

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Speaker 7: jobs during the pandemic. It's almost nine am. We've been

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Speaker 7: standing by the gas station for almost three hours. Most

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Speaker 7: of the men have already given up and left. At

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Speaker 7: this point, it's clear that Manuel is not going to

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Speaker 7: be lucky today, so we head back to the car.

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Speaker 8: No, so yeah.

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Speaker 4: Coming up on Latino USA.

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Speaker 2: There was a moratorium in place to protect tenants and

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Speaker 2: stop evictions, but in fact they have been happening in

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Speaker 2: the Bay Area during the pandemic. It's just that many

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Speaker 2: aren't being tracked on paper. Stay with us, not yes, hey,

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Speaker 2: we're back. Before the break, we met Manuel, an immigrant

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Speaker 2: f Monduras, who doesn't have documents to live legally in

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Speaker 2: the United States. In fact, he's been living in his

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Speaker 2: car with his son for almost a year now. It's

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Speaker 2: hard to find data on how many people have really

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Speaker 2: been evicted during the pandemic in California. That's because a

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Speaker 2: lot of these evictions are happening informally. There's no official

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Speaker 2: eviction notice filed by the landlord, no lawsuit in front

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Speaker 2: of a court, and if tenants are undocumented, often there's

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Speaker 2: not even a lease to begin with. Here's Latino USA

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Speaker 2: editor Marta Martinez once again with the story.

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Speaker 11: Go Go Go.

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Speaker 7: On the other side of the Bay in San Francisco

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Speaker 7: in six care of her seven year old son on

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Speaker 7: her day off from work.

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Speaker 12: Go Sol Solre Gore Gore Gore in his prefers not

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Speaker 12: to use her full name because she's undocumented, and we're

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Speaker 12: gonna call her son Dylan.

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Speaker 7: Dylan has an intellectual and speech disability and needs special attention.

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Speaker 7: The day we spoke, they had been exercising a bit

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Speaker 7: in their new apartment. They had moved in just two

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Speaker 7: weeks earlier. In essas, the pandemic has actually helped Dylan's

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Speaker 7: development because they were able to spend more time together.

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Speaker 5: OI the Acaciones Yasu Sentimientos DNA ambre Ems Alasante.

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Speaker 7: Ines is an Afro Latina single mother from Guerrido, Mexico.

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Speaker 7: She wears bright sunflower earrings made of beads and they

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Speaker 7: matched the sunflowers embroidered on her blue shirt. She's thirty

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Speaker 7: four years old and she came to the United States

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Speaker 7: in twenty seventeen hoping to secure a better future for

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Speaker 7: her teenage daughter. We're gonna call her Diani and her

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Speaker 7: son Dylan. Back in Mexico, Innes was an educational psycholog

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Speaker 7: logist here in San Francisco. She first worked cleaning houses

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Speaker 7: and now she's a promo tora doing outreach for non

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Speaker 7: profit organizations on housing issues. Helping Latinos learn about their

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Speaker 7: rights and fill out applications for affordable housing. Ines knows

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Speaker 7: those struggles just as well as anyone. She and her

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Speaker 7: two children were evicted three months after the pandemic started.

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Speaker 7: At the time, Innes was living with her sister's family

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Speaker 7: in a three bedroom apartment in the Mission District. But

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Speaker 7: it wasn't just them. The apartment was crowded.

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Speaker 3: Us soda m.

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Speaker 5: Mirmana suzosikos familia. Yeah, I ran tresihos for chicatu melos

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Speaker 5: vivia inns.

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Speaker 7: There were eighteen people living in a rent controlled apartment

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Speaker 7: and that wasn't allowed by the city laws.

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Speaker 5: So see USA oh tra chico esos is as he

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Speaker 5: said viveki overcarding is more common among communities of color,

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Speaker 5: particularly Latinos in the Bay Area and in expensive cities

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Speaker 5: like San Francisco and Oakland, where rents have skyrocketed in

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Speaker 5: recent years.

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Speaker 7: The landlord first told them he wanted to make some

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Speaker 7: repairs in the building and they needed to leave. Then

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Speaker 7: they got a letter from him in English saying there

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Speaker 7: were too many people living in the apartment. It wasn't

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Speaker 7: an official eviction notice, but they got scared.

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Speaker 5: Pezar dee la moratoria is amos violandolos la regulas demos

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Speaker 5: miedo de del sign whois.

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Speaker 7: None of their names were in the original Leese In essays.

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Speaker 7: The apartment was subleasing to immigrant families for years, and

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Speaker 7: because they were all undocumented, Innes got scared of the

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Speaker 7: landlord taking them to court. Innes didn't want her sister

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Speaker 7: to lose the apartment where she had been living for

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Speaker 7: fourteen years, so even though there was an eviction moratorium

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Speaker 7: in place during the pandemic, and Ines knew that tenants

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Speaker 7: had the right to stay. In June of twenty twenty,

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Speaker 7: she decided to leave the apartment with her two children.

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Speaker 7: Her fear tramped her knowledge about her.

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Speaker 5: Rights genopuslo in Nolos Quierropon Andriesco.

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Speaker 7: Studies show that black and Latina women are more likely

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Speaker 7: to get evicted than any other group, and nearly half

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Speaker 7: of adults experiencing homelessness in San Francisco say it's due

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Speaker 7: to an eviction or being asked to leave by their landlords.

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Speaker 7: After leaving her sister's apartment, in his biggest fear was

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Speaker 7: ending up in a homeless shelter, but she found a

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Speaker 7: studio apartment where two women lived, and they rented her

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Speaker 7: two closets, one for her and her son, another one

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Speaker 7: for her teenage daughter. The closets were about two by

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Speaker 7: six feet each. Ines had to get help from a

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Speaker 7: nonprofit organization to get tailor made beds that could feed

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Speaker 7: inside the closets. They kept some essential clothes inside a box,

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Speaker 7: and the rest of their belongings she put them in

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Speaker 7: a storage space. At night, it would get really hot

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Speaker 7: inside the closet, so they set up a portable fan.

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Speaker 7: In Es paid eleven hundred a month for the closets,

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Speaker 7: with bills included, she was only making about fifteen hundred

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Speaker 7: a month.

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Speaker 3: La mar riez Pullagar.

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Speaker 7: At the time, the closet felt like a wonderful option

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Speaker 7: for Innes. It was something she could afford and a

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Speaker 7: way to avoid the shelter, even though she didn't have

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Speaker 7: a lease. At least she felt safe there. But twenty

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Speaker 7: days later, the women she was sharing the apartment with

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Speaker 7: told her that they all needed to leave because they

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Speaker 7: couldn't afford rent anymore. In ended up sharing a room again,

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Speaker 7: this time with another single mother and her children. The

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Speaker 7: woman had just moved out of her home fleeing an

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Speaker 7: abusive partner and that triggered all kinds of feelings.

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Speaker 3: For Iniaa.

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Speaker 7: Veo Inesa escaped an abusive relationship with Dylan's father. That's

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Speaker 7: why she ended up living with her sister and many

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Speaker 7: other people. Inesa she actually endured the abuse for much

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Speaker 7: longer than she would have liked to, but she felt

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Speaker 7: she didn't have another place to go to since both

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Speaker 7: her sisters were living in overcrowded apartments.

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Speaker 8: Do you know.

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Speaker 3: Snarez is.

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Speaker 7: Ines hadn't gone to therapy, so her wounds were still

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Speaker 7: open and she couldn't let herself fall because she had

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Speaker 7: to take care of her children. She in a room

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Speaker 7: with another victim of domestic violence made her relieve all

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Speaker 7: the pain. She knew she needed to leave, and this

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Speaker 7: was in a new relationship at the time, and without

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Speaker 7: many options left, she moved out of San Francisco with

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Speaker 7: her new boyfriend in August of twenty They rented a

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Speaker 7: beautiful house in Bajejo, farther north in the Bay.

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Speaker 5: Jero Nogarasijosmi does Kumo Mama the Paraos.

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Speaker 7: The house was everything a mother could dream of. It

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Speaker 7: had a big yard, a room for her kids, even

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Speaker 7: a small office space. But the dream didn't last long. First,

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Speaker 7: In still had to commute to San Francisco for work.

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Speaker 7: She'd wake up at five am to take the ferry.

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Speaker 7: It was a long and expensive commute inessa She spent

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Speaker 7: more than forty dollars a day on transportation. But the

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Speaker 7: worst part was that she wasn't seeing her children because

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Speaker 7: she wouldn't get home until past eight pm, when they

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Speaker 7: were already asleep.

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Speaker 5: This is crolo or being to Sijo's nuasia riva sin

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Speaker 5: malo lago Porpilo's best kara not.

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Speaker 7: Then, in November of twenty twenty, some affordable apartments in

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Speaker 7: a newly constructed building became available in San Francisco through

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Speaker 7: a housing program called Dahlia Duo not.

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Speaker 3: Any ellingreso pero you applicate.

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Speaker 7: Innis quickly applied. She knew it was a long shot

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Speaker 7: because she wasn't earning enough to qualify, but her boyfriend

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Speaker 7: wasn't on board with her plan. He wasn't going back

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Speaker 7: to San Francisco.

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Speaker 3: Joso metal on application okay for sce lore.

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Speaker 5: Yo ca monsiempre call monsiempres dadoc missi josillo.

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Speaker 7: Things quickly deteriorated with her boyfriend. By March of twenty

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Speaker 7: twenty one, in essays she had to leave Viejho unexpectedly.

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Speaker 7: She can't talk about what happened specifically, but she says

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Speaker 7: her family's stability was in danger. She had no place

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Speaker 7: to go except for the one place she had been

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Speaker 7: trying to avoid since twenty seventeen, when she first left

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Speaker 7: her abusive partner.

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Speaker 5: Yes, id on the emimlole tantosanos, so we'll be really

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Speaker 5: there then, okay, it on shelter. Emi had assios comlydsiz

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Speaker 5: Bamonos alcelter.

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Speaker 7: In April of twenty twenty one, Ines moved into a

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Speaker 7: shelter with her two children. Homelessness can be difficult to

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Speaker 7: track or gather data about, but everyone we talked to

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Speaker 7: in the Bay Area says that since the pandemic, there

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Speaker 7: are more people on the streets who are struggling to

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Speaker 7: cover their most basic needs. They see it with their

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Speaker 7: own eyes every day. In California, before the pandemic, one

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Speaker 7: in three undocumented immigrants lived in poverty. One of the

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Speaker 7: places where these increasing needs are quite visible is that

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Speaker 7: the community based organization Homies Empowerment in East Oakland or

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Speaker 7: Homies for short Every Tuesday, a dozen Homies staff and

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Speaker 7: volunteers take the sidewalk on MacArthur Boulevard and set up

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Speaker 7: metal shelves and tables full of first necessity products. They

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Speaker 7: call it the Freedom Store, and even though products are

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Speaker 7: set up as if it were a super they're all

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Speaker 7: free for people in need.

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Speaker 13: See a lot of beans, tuna, cheek beas.

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Speaker 11: Rice, quick oats. We have grape fruits. Today we have lettuce, carrots,

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Speaker 11: red apples.

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Speaker 7: This is Diego Rodriguez, the Freedom Store caretaker. There are

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Speaker 7: lots of groceries, but also baby diapers and basic hygien products.

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Speaker 7: People start lining up as early as eight am.

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Speaker 11: We have a line already. This is all our elders.

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Speaker 11: This is a senior line. We have the grandmas, the grandpas,

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Speaker 11: and some of the folks right here are parents.

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Speaker 7: Those in line need to check in before they use

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Speaker 7: the store. This allows Homies to gather valuable data on

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Speaker 7: the immigrant community. They say that over four hundred people

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Speaker 7: come to get food every week and the lines are

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Speaker 7: getting longer. The store opened in the summer of twenty nineteen.

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Speaker 7: First they mostly provided clothes and toiletries. About one hundred

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Speaker 7: and fifty people came per day on average, but when

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00:30:07,800 --> 00:30:10,720
Speaker 7: the pandemic hit, they saw the urgent need for food,

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00:30:10,960 --> 00:30:15,000
Speaker 7: so they shifted their supply. Once the elders are done

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Speaker 7: with their shopping, it's time for everyone else, mostly women.

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Speaker 7: Many of them belong to the Mayamam community from western Guatemala.

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Speaker 13: You look.

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Speaker 7: She According to Homies, eighty percent of the people they

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00:30:33,320 --> 00:30:37,640
Speaker 7: serve are Latino and Mayamam immigrants, and eleven percent are

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Speaker 7: African American.

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Speaker 11: You know, there's a lot of black and brown folk

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Speaker 11: out here in the community in need. So that's enough

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Speaker 11: for me to say we got do some about it.

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Speaker 7: That connection between the Latino and black community is not

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Speaker 7: a coincidence at Homi's empowerment.

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Speaker 13: Okay, so where are we No.

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Speaker 1: No, I'm so glad that you're here. So part of

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Speaker 1: Homie's empowerment is we have this bigger vision of what

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Speaker 1: is freedom mean to us.

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Speaker 7: When I meet the organization's founder, doctor Ceesarcruz, instead of

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Speaker 7: a regular mask, he wears a scarf with a big

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Speaker 7: black panther across his mouth. He's part of the legacy

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00:31:17,320 --> 00:31:20,719
Speaker 7: of the civil rights revolutionary movement, which was founded here

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Speaker 7: in Oakland in nineteen sixty six when I.

437
00:31:23,880 --> 00:31:26,959
Speaker 1: First came up to the Bay Area. I found myself

438
00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:29,600
Speaker 1: at a period of my life homeless as a college student,

439
00:31:30,360 --> 00:31:32,920
Speaker 1: and I was taken in by a gentleman named Melvin Dixon,

440
00:31:33,160 --> 00:31:36,560
Speaker 1: who started a newspaper following the legacy of the Black

441
00:31:36,600 --> 00:31:37,240
Speaker 1: Panther Party.

442
00:31:38,160 --> 00:31:40,960
Speaker 7: Melvin was a journalist and a former member of the

443
00:31:41,080 --> 00:31:44,680
Speaker 7: Black Panther Party. Cesar, who was born in Mexico and

444
00:31:44,800 --> 00:31:47,640
Speaker 7: migrated to the US as a kid, was studying at

445
00:31:47,720 --> 00:31:48,800
Speaker 7: UC Berkeley. At the time.

446
00:31:49,520 --> 00:31:52,560
Speaker 1: I had a place to stay, and he didn't charge

447
00:31:52,600 --> 00:31:54,640
Speaker 1: me for housing. He just said, I want you to

448
00:31:54,720 --> 00:31:57,920
Speaker 1: read this book, and it was the autobiography of Asada Shakur.

449
00:31:58,400 --> 00:32:02,200
Speaker 7: Asata Shakur was Amber of the Black Liberation Army, another

450
00:32:02,280 --> 00:32:06,120
Speaker 7: civil rights group from the nineteen seventies. Sisar started reading

451
00:32:06,200 --> 00:32:09,680
Speaker 7: more and more about black and Latino history. But Melvin

452
00:32:09,760 --> 00:32:11,840
Speaker 7: didn't only give sus our books to read.

453
00:32:12,680 --> 00:32:15,680
Speaker 1: He would take me to liquor stores that appeared like

454
00:32:15,840 --> 00:32:18,440
Speaker 1: your typical liquor store, and in the back of the

455
00:32:18,520 --> 00:32:21,640
Speaker 1: liquor store, the Black Panther Party was still alive in

456
00:32:21,720 --> 00:32:26,240
Speaker 1: the nineteen nineties here in Oakland. They still had food drives,

457
00:32:26,520 --> 00:32:29,120
Speaker 1: clothing drives, they had newspapers.

458
00:32:29,720 --> 00:32:33,680
Speaker 7: Cisar was inspired by their organizing and their community programs,

459
00:32:33,760 --> 00:32:37,360
Speaker 7: from free breakfast for children to free health clinics. He

460
00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:41,400
Speaker 7: doesn't see what Homie's empowerment does today as something radical

461
00:32:41,800 --> 00:32:42,400
Speaker 7: or new.

462
00:32:43,080 --> 00:32:46,880
Speaker 1: We thought, what an amazing model of community led transformation

463
00:32:47,320 --> 00:32:49,200
Speaker 1: that we want to be a part of that. But

464
00:32:49,320 --> 00:32:51,640
Speaker 1: we have that in the Latino community as well. We

465
00:32:51,760 --> 00:32:53,680
Speaker 1: have that in the work of the Young Lords in

466
00:32:53,800 --> 00:32:57,160
Speaker 1: Chicago and New York who did similar things, and here

467
00:32:57,280 --> 00:32:59,880
Speaker 1: in California and in the Southwest with the Brown Berets.

468
00:33:00,480 --> 00:33:04,400
Speaker 7: Sisar holds a doctorate in educational leadership from Harvard University.

469
00:33:05,160 --> 00:33:08,440
Speaker 7: For most of his life, he was undocumented. He left

470
00:33:08,520 --> 00:33:11,239
Speaker 7: his hometown of wall A, Lajada with his grandmother when

471
00:33:11,280 --> 00:33:14,320
Speaker 7: he was nine years old to reunite with his single mother,

472
00:33:14,600 --> 00:33:15,960
Speaker 7: who was in the US at the time.

473
00:33:16,600 --> 00:33:19,760
Speaker 1: My mother was reported on three different occasions, but I

474
00:33:19,880 --> 00:33:22,200
Speaker 1: had a constant and that was my abuelita.

475
00:33:22,680 --> 00:33:25,960
Speaker 7: He even has his grandmother's name, Sokoro, tattooed on his

476
00:33:26,080 --> 00:33:29,360
Speaker 7: left arm. They went through really hard times, the two

477
00:33:29,400 --> 00:33:32,360
Speaker 7: of them. They had to dumpster dive and look for

478
00:33:32,440 --> 00:33:35,400
Speaker 7: aluminum cans and cardboard that they could later sell.

479
00:33:35,960 --> 00:33:39,280
Speaker 1: And when you jump into a trash can, sometimes you're

480
00:33:39,320 --> 00:33:41,960
Speaker 1: going to get rats, sometimes you're going to get feces.

481
00:33:42,000 --> 00:33:43,800
Speaker 1: And I was a kid, I didn't like it.

482
00:33:43,920 --> 00:33:44,640
Speaker 4: I was scared.

483
00:33:44,960 --> 00:33:48,840
Speaker 1: But my grandma always made it okay. She would whistle,

484
00:33:49,280 --> 00:33:52,760
Speaker 1: she would turn an odia frijoles to feed everybody in

485
00:33:52,840 --> 00:33:55,560
Speaker 1: the community. And so she was for me that role

486
00:33:55,680 --> 00:33:58,400
Speaker 1: model of why can't we do that now?

487
00:33:59,160 --> 00:34:03,880
Speaker 7: On Fridays, Homies also distributes food across homeless encampments in Oakland.

488
00:34:04,600 --> 00:34:07,600
Speaker 7: In recent years, Oakland has seen the highest increase in

489
00:34:07,640 --> 00:34:13,120
Speaker 7: the homeless population in the Bay Area. On the day

490
00:34:13,160 --> 00:34:15,800
Speaker 7: I visited, they had some one hundred and thirty plastic

491
00:34:15,920 --> 00:34:20,279
Speaker 7: bags ready to distribute. Lola, the main cook, shows me

492
00:34:20,360 --> 00:34:21,319
Speaker 7: what's inside.

493
00:34:23,920 --> 00:34:30,480
Speaker 3: Augoetti.

494
00:34:34,719 --> 00:34:37,239
Speaker 4: She was working on this all night and it's delicious.

495
00:34:37,840 --> 00:34:40,240
Speaker 1: We never serve people, thinks that we would need ourselves

496
00:34:40,600 --> 00:34:41,200
Speaker 1: and she's.

497
00:34:41,200 --> 00:34:44,239
Speaker 7: This is Reverend Harry Williams, a big man with a

498
00:34:44,320 --> 00:34:47,360
Speaker 7: light blue Yankees cap and a black sweatshirt who seems

499
00:34:47,400 --> 00:34:50,960
Speaker 7: to always be in a good mood. He's originally from Harlem,

500
00:34:51,200 --> 00:34:53,640
Speaker 7: New York, and he moonlights as a hip hop artist

501
00:34:53,719 --> 00:35:00,279
Speaker 7: as well. We jump on the Homie van.

502
00:35:01,120 --> 00:35:01,880
Speaker 8: We got everybody.

503
00:35:02,400 --> 00:35:08,600
Speaker 7: Yeah, two men and seven women, most of them Latinas,

504
00:35:11,960 --> 00:35:21,839
Speaker 7: and we head to the first homeless incampment. Our first

505
00:35:21,880 --> 00:35:24,760
Speaker 7: stop is an incampment near the Freeway and Twelfth Street

506
00:35:24,880 --> 00:35:29,839
Speaker 7: in East Oakland. It was one of the biggest ones

507
00:35:29,880 --> 00:35:33,080
Speaker 7: in Oakland, but then the city removed it. Something that

508
00:35:33,200 --> 00:35:37,719
Speaker 7: happens relatively often and people move to other incampments. So

509
00:35:37,800 --> 00:35:39,920
Speaker 7: who will be our first to say your word for

510
00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:41,960
Speaker 7: today or what they feel in their heart for the

511
00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:45,840
Speaker 7: folk today. The group creates a circle to say a prayer,

512
00:35:46,800 --> 00:35:49,040
Speaker 7: and then they grabbed the plastic bags and head towards

513
00:35:49,080 --> 00:35:55,520
Speaker 7: the encampment when it's a big parking area that's been

514
00:35:55,600 --> 00:35:59,400
Speaker 7: taken over by makeshift homes made of plywood and discarded

515
00:35:59,480 --> 00:36:01,440
Speaker 7: furniture up.

516
00:36:06,080 --> 00:36:07,280
Speaker 8: Water. We bought water.

517
00:36:08,560 --> 00:36:11,120
Speaker 7: At first, no one comes out to pick up the food.

518
00:36:12,800 --> 00:36:20,200
Speaker 7: Then a couple of men approached them get a ticket. Yolanda,

519
00:36:20,440 --> 00:36:23,320
Speaker 7: the woman shouting in Spanish, wears a red T shirt

520
00:36:23,480 --> 00:36:26,080
Speaker 7: and on the back, in big white letters, it reads

521
00:36:26,600 --> 00:36:34,960
Speaker 7: it takes about homie stuff. Drag a big bag full

522
00:36:34,960 --> 00:36:38,640
Speaker 7: of donated clothes as well. It's still winter, so there's

523
00:36:38,680 --> 00:36:40,160
Speaker 7: a lot of demand for sweaters.

524
00:36:42,760 --> 00:36:45,759
Speaker 13: So yeah, this man he was shirtless. He was just

525
00:36:45,840 --> 00:36:49,920
Speaker 13: wearing these navy blue pajama pants and he was picking

526
00:36:49,960 --> 00:36:53,560
Speaker 13: up some clothes and he chose a T shirt that

527
00:36:53,719 --> 00:36:56,719
Speaker 13: actually had a Facebook logo on it.

528
00:36:58,120 --> 00:37:02,120
Speaker 7: We stop at another encampment near Home Depot. A lot

529
00:37:02,200 --> 00:37:05,040
Speaker 7: of people have pets in this incampment. You can hear

530
00:37:05,120 --> 00:37:08,960
Speaker 7: dogs barking amid. Alejandra one of the few Latinas I

531
00:37:09,000 --> 00:37:09,919
Speaker 7: saw around.

532
00:37:11,480 --> 00:37:12,120
Speaker 3: Super Frio.

533
00:37:14,480 --> 00:37:18,759
Speaker 7: Yeah, Latinos don't often live in homeless encampments like this one.

534
00:37:19,480 --> 00:37:22,880
Speaker 7: They tend to be more invisible, staying in their cars

535
00:37:23,160 --> 00:37:27,520
Speaker 7: on less carted streets. Alejandra was born and raised in

536
00:37:27,600 --> 00:37:30,600
Speaker 7: Oakland and she's been living in this encampment for three years.

537
00:37:31,320 --> 00:37:34,040
Speaker 7: She worked as a medical assistant for fifteen years and

538
00:37:34,120 --> 00:37:35,399
Speaker 7: then she got fired.

539
00:37:37,520 --> 00:37:42,200
Speaker 3: Down here Vero Forte.

540
00:37:43,200 --> 00:37:45,200
Speaker 7: Yes Alejandra why it's important to.

541
00:37:45,239 --> 00:37:55,280
Speaker 3: Have a home salianta or Yes skis.

542
00:37:57,760 --> 00:38:01,400
Speaker 7: Having a home makes you feel like you're so Alexandra says,

543
00:38:02,120 --> 00:38:03,719
Speaker 7: it means that you're back in a community.

544
00:38:05,200 --> 00:38:08,400
Speaker 13: Yes, thank you.

545
00:38:08,520 --> 00:38:08,759
Speaker 1: Ali.

546
00:38:10,960 --> 00:38:14,560
Speaker 7: Through their work at Homies, Saysar, the organization's founder, has

547
00:38:14,640 --> 00:38:18,880
Speaker 7: witnessed firsthand how the pandemic has particularly affected his community

548
00:38:19,160 --> 00:38:22,160
Speaker 7: when it comes to housing. But He stresses that the

549
00:38:22,280 --> 00:38:27,040
Speaker 7: causes of this problem run much deeper. Inequality has gotten

550
00:38:27,160 --> 00:38:30,360
Speaker 7: worse over the years as the tech bubble grew and

551
00:38:30,440 --> 00:38:31,800
Speaker 7: took over the Bay Area.

552
00:38:32,200 --> 00:38:35,480
Speaker 1: And as they were able to afford more, and they said, sure,

553
00:38:35,600 --> 00:38:39,000
Speaker 1: I could pay three thousand dollars for a one bedroom apartment,

554
00:38:39,320 --> 00:38:41,920
Speaker 1: so they raised it to that price and higher, and

555
00:38:42,120 --> 00:38:44,759
Speaker 1: the rest of us who don't have tech jobs, who

556
00:38:44,840 --> 00:38:47,880
Speaker 1: are not connected to that economy, all of a sudden,

557
00:38:47,960 --> 00:38:50,879
Speaker 1: we couldn't afford it. And the fancy word they use

558
00:38:51,120 --> 00:38:54,960
Speaker 1: is gentrification, but it's really a form of displacement, of

559
00:38:55,440 --> 00:38:58,440
Speaker 1: moving people away from particular communities.

560
00:38:59,160 --> 00:39:02,760
Speaker 7: Many Latinos like Nis were forced to share their homes

561
00:39:03,160 --> 00:39:05,440
Speaker 7: and the rooms with more people.

562
00:39:06,360 --> 00:39:08,959
Speaker 1: It takes us one or two families to be able

563
00:39:09,040 --> 00:39:13,080
Speaker 1: to afford one lease, or we're subleasing just to be

564
00:39:13,200 --> 00:39:16,640
Speaker 1: able to afford a stay. If some of us are undocumented,

565
00:39:16,960 --> 00:39:19,400
Speaker 1: we have this fear that we can't say anything about

566
00:39:19,400 --> 00:39:22,560
Speaker 1: the rent or the fact that the apartment is dilapidated,

567
00:39:23,080 --> 00:39:26,000
Speaker 1: that the water is not working well, that the toilet's

568
00:39:26,040 --> 00:39:28,840
Speaker 1: not working well, that the ceiling is falling apart.

569
00:39:29,360 --> 00:39:32,000
Speaker 7: And then when the pandemic started and a lot of

570
00:39:32,080 --> 00:39:35,920
Speaker 7: Latinos lost their jobs. This domino effect started.

571
00:39:36,760 --> 00:39:39,960
Speaker 1: Now we were one paycheck away from homelessness, and then

572
00:39:40,040 --> 00:39:43,200
Speaker 1: eventually we did become homeless. And so we went from

573
00:39:43,239 --> 00:39:47,239
Speaker 1: an apartment to a car, to evict it, to under

574
00:39:47,320 --> 00:39:50,680
Speaker 1: a bridge, to being invisible. And it was hard account

575
00:39:50,800 --> 00:39:52,040
Speaker 1: us and it's hard account us.

576
00:39:52,560 --> 00:39:57,480
Speaker 7: And then of course there's the additional fear of being undocumented, so.

577
00:39:57,560 --> 00:40:00,480
Speaker 1: You don't oftentimes see Latino faces or other faces that

578
00:40:00,560 --> 00:40:03,920
Speaker 1: are there because we don't know if you're police, we

579
00:40:03,960 --> 00:40:06,439
Speaker 1: don't know if you're immigration, we don't know what you want.

580
00:40:06,960 --> 00:40:10,520
Speaker 7: At some point, homelessness becomes impossible to get out of.

581
00:40:10,920 --> 00:40:11,360
Speaker 10: He says.

582
00:40:12,360 --> 00:40:14,400
Speaker 1: If you don't have access to ever be able to

583
00:40:14,520 --> 00:40:17,880
Speaker 1: shower or access to running water, then you don't have

584
00:40:18,080 --> 00:40:20,520
Speaker 1: really access to be able to wash your clothes or

585
00:40:20,600 --> 00:40:23,160
Speaker 1: to take a bath. Now, all of a sudden, you

586
00:40:23,320 --> 00:40:26,080
Speaker 1: become a public nuisance and nobody even wants to be

587
00:40:26,160 --> 00:40:26,640
Speaker 1: around you.

588
00:40:27,160 --> 00:40:30,280
Speaker 7: Since that brings up an important point that several housing

589
00:40:30,440 --> 00:40:35,239
Speaker 7: organizers and legal advocates mentioned during our reporting that in

590
00:40:35,320 --> 00:40:39,800
Speaker 7: the Latino community there's more shame about seeing you're homeless.

591
00:40:40,360 --> 00:40:44,640
Speaker 1: You come here pursuing the so called American dream, but

592
00:40:45,200 --> 00:40:48,200
Speaker 1: you're living in squalor and you're paying thousands of dollars

593
00:40:48,280 --> 00:40:51,279
Speaker 1: for that squalor in New York City, in Chicago, or

594
00:40:51,360 --> 00:40:54,719
Speaker 1: in Oakland, but you have to write back home, and

595
00:40:54,960 --> 00:40:58,120
Speaker 1: you're the hope of folks back home, and they're asking

596
00:40:58,200 --> 00:41:01,600
Speaker 1: you how are things going. Oftentimes it's almost like we

597
00:41:01,760 --> 00:41:05,279
Speaker 1: have to pretend or make up a lie because we

598
00:41:05,440 --> 00:41:08,799
Speaker 1: become embarrassed by society that we don't have that two

599
00:41:08,880 --> 00:41:11,920
Speaker 1: bedroom house or the white picket fence, because to reach

600
00:41:12,000 --> 00:41:14,560
Speaker 1: out for help to other family members is to almost

601
00:41:15,000 --> 00:41:16,520
Speaker 1: admit societal defeat.

602
00:41:17,040 --> 00:41:21,120
Speaker 7: But society is optimistic and proactive. He doesn't want to

603
00:41:21,160 --> 00:41:23,400
Speaker 7: sit down and wait for the government to do something

604
00:41:23,440 --> 00:41:26,919
Speaker 7: about it. Homie's recently bought half an acre of land

605
00:41:27,040 --> 00:41:30,239
Speaker 7: so that the community can grow its own food. Since

606
00:41:30,320 --> 00:41:34,600
Speaker 7: our dreams of building free housing someday too, he wants

607
00:41:34,640 --> 00:41:37,400
Speaker 7: Homies programs to serve as an example.

608
00:41:38,719 --> 00:41:41,280
Speaker 1: That can see sept with it, that we as a community,

609
00:41:41,480 --> 00:41:45,680
Speaker 1: that Latinos can come together with other communities and really

610
00:41:45,800 --> 00:41:48,239
Speaker 1: take care of ourselves. And these are lessons that are

611
00:41:48,280 --> 00:41:51,320
Speaker 1: taught to us by our mothers, by our grandmothers about

612
00:41:51,840 --> 00:41:54,440
Speaker 1: I get without it Lessino. Let's take care of our neighbor.

613
00:41:54,560 --> 00:41:55,520
Speaker 1: Let's take care of each other.

614
00:42:01,480 --> 00:42:04,960
Speaker 2: Coming up on Latino USA, we find out what happened

615
00:42:04,960 --> 00:42:08,480
Speaker 2: to Nis after moving into a homeless shelter with her kids,

616
00:42:09,160 --> 00:42:14,800
Speaker 2: and j Manuel found safety despite living in his car. First,

617
00:42:15,320 --> 00:42:18,680
Speaker 2: we try to find answers to a difficult question, what

618
00:42:19,080 --> 00:42:21,560
Speaker 2: can be done about the housing crisis?

619
00:42:22,640 --> 00:43:07,919
Speaker 4: Stay with us not by yes, Hey, We're back.

620
00:43:08,800 --> 00:43:12,160
Speaker 2: Before the break, we learned about the Domino effect that's

621
00:43:12,280 --> 00:43:16,320
Speaker 2: leading more Latino immigrants to lose their homes, and what

622
00:43:16,520 --> 00:43:18,840
Speaker 2: some community organizations are.

623
00:43:18,800 --> 00:43:19,839
Speaker 4: Doing to help.

624
00:43:20,600 --> 00:43:24,480
Speaker 2: But the root causes of the housing crisis run much

625
00:43:24,680 --> 00:43:29,200
Speaker 2: deeper than the pandemic. Latino USA editor Martin Martinez picks

626
00:43:29,280 --> 00:43:30,279
Speaker 2: up this story from here.

627
00:43:31,600 --> 00:43:36,160
Speaker 7: What can be done about the housing crisis? Tim Thomas

628
00:43:36,200 --> 00:43:40,840
Speaker 7: wrestles with these difficult, overwhelming questions all the time. He

629
00:43:41,000 --> 00:43:44,520
Speaker 7: is the research director at UC Berkeley's Urban Displacement Project

630
00:43:44,880 --> 00:43:47,200
Speaker 7: and one of the leading experts in the country on

631
00:43:47,360 --> 00:43:53,480
Speaker 7: this issue. Team studies what drives evictions and how gentrification unfolds,

632
00:43:53,920 --> 00:43:58,480
Speaker 7: especially through a race and gender lens. His quantitative research

633
00:43:58,600 --> 00:44:02,120
Speaker 7: shows that evictions don't happen to everyone equally.

634
00:44:02,960 --> 00:44:06,000
Speaker 14: There are definitely particular groups that see higher rates of eviction.

635
00:44:06,360 --> 00:44:12,239
Speaker 14: Black households have the highest rates overall, and LATINX populations

636
00:44:12,280 --> 00:44:13,200
Speaker 14: have the second highest.

637
00:44:13,719 --> 00:44:16,560
Speaker 7: But in his research, team found that the gap between

638
00:44:16,680 --> 00:44:24,400
Speaker 7: black and Latino populations is too wide. Evictions for Black

639
00:44:24,520 --> 00:44:28,600
Speaker 7: people are ten times higher than evictions for Latinos and

640
00:44:28,960 --> 00:44:32,640
Speaker 7: that puzzles team. He says it's because there isn't good

641
00:44:32,760 --> 00:44:36,560
Speaker 7: data on evictions where a landlord doesn't give an official

642
00:44:36,680 --> 00:44:40,960
Speaker 7: notice or where lawsuits aren't being filed, and these are

643
00:44:41,040 --> 00:44:43,160
Speaker 7: more common among undocumented communities.

644
00:44:43,960 --> 00:44:47,279
Speaker 14: It's an unknown, huge issue of how many people are

645
00:44:47,320 --> 00:44:50,640
Speaker 14: getting victed. I would not be surprised if pre notice

646
00:44:50,760 --> 00:44:55,600
Speaker 14: or notice evictions are up to twice as high as

647
00:44:55,640 --> 00:44:56,640
Speaker 14: the number of filings.

648
00:44:56,680 --> 00:45:00,560
Speaker 7: We have another big problem across the board, and for

649
00:45:00,680 --> 00:45:04,720
Speaker 7: immigrant communities even more so is a misunderstanding of tenant

650
00:45:04,840 --> 00:45:06,920
Speaker 7: rights and the eviction process.

651
00:45:07,239 --> 00:45:11,120
Speaker 14: Team says, especially if English is not their first language,

652
00:45:11,680 --> 00:45:15,719
Speaker 14: they could really be misled or misunderstand what's going on.

653
00:45:16,080 --> 00:45:18,759
Speaker 14: I mean, I have a PhD. And if I had

654
00:45:18,760 --> 00:45:21,399
Speaker 14: an eviction, I would know where to start. I would

655
00:45:21,440 --> 00:45:24,120
Speaker 14: definitely need an attorney to go through that process.

656
00:45:26,080 --> 00:45:30,080
Speaker 7: Eighty one percent of landlords have lawyers. Well, only three

657
00:45:30,120 --> 00:45:35,239
Speaker 7: percent of tenants do and that needs to change. Team says, I.

658
00:45:35,280 --> 00:45:37,920
Speaker 14: Think evictions is a civil rights issue and like, I'll

659
00:45:38,000 --> 00:45:40,799
Speaker 14: die happy when I can go to the Supreme Court

660
00:45:40,920 --> 00:45:44,360
Speaker 14: and help amend the Affordable Fair Housing Act to say.

661
00:45:44,239 --> 00:45:49,279
Speaker 7: That during the pandemic, Team's research informed the CDC's eviction moratorium.

662
00:45:50,239 --> 00:45:53,680
Speaker 7: Those measures kept more people under a roof during a

663
00:45:53,840 --> 00:46:01,280
Speaker 7: top flugdown and economic recession. But it also made something

664
00:46:01,320 --> 00:46:01,920
Speaker 7: else clear.

665
00:46:02,600 --> 00:46:07,520
Speaker 14: The pandemic highlighted how unstable the housing situation is. It

666
00:46:07,680 --> 00:46:12,480
Speaker 14: really highlighted the inequality that many, many, many Americans face,

667
00:46:12,600 --> 00:46:16,560
Speaker 14: especially Bay Area citizens. And we're going to come to

668
00:46:16,640 --> 00:46:18,640
Speaker 14: a point where there's going to have to be some

669
00:46:18,840 --> 00:46:23,919
Speaker 14: fundamental considerations and changes in how housing has done.

670
00:46:24,800 --> 00:46:28,400
Speaker 7: Even Tim himself, an expert in this field, is struggling

671
00:46:28,440 --> 00:46:30,880
Speaker 7: with the housing market on a modest academic income.

672
00:46:31,640 --> 00:46:33,680
Speaker 14: Fewer and fewer and fewer people are going to be

673
00:46:33,719 --> 00:46:37,160
Speaker 14: able to buy a home. You know, housing has turned

674
00:46:37,200 --> 00:46:40,520
Speaker 14: into a subscription where we don't own anything anymore. We

675
00:46:40,640 --> 00:46:43,920
Speaker 14: just have to pay a monthly price to have a

676
00:46:44,040 --> 00:46:44,919
Speaker 14: roof over a head.

677
00:46:46,040 --> 00:46:48,680
Speaker 7: And that's the core of the housing problem. Team says,

678
00:46:49,320 --> 00:46:54,000
Speaker 7: it's about income inequality, but gentrification is what people talk about.

679
00:46:54,040 --> 00:46:54,440
Speaker 4: Instead.

680
00:46:55,239 --> 00:46:58,160
Speaker 14: It allows people to say, hey, let's just develop more housing.

681
00:46:58,800 --> 00:47:02,320
Speaker 14: And in reality, the response to wage inequality, which is

682
00:47:02,360 --> 00:47:06,520
Speaker 14: a labor issue by and large, is being addressed through development,

683
00:47:06,880 --> 00:47:10,440
Speaker 14: which is developing much more expensive housing.

684
00:47:15,320 --> 00:47:18,040
Speaker 7: So what can really be done to fix the problem?

685
00:47:18,719 --> 00:47:23,160
Speaker 7: Team says, It's all about the three piece production, protections

686
00:47:23,640 --> 00:47:24,440
Speaker 7: and preservation.

687
00:47:25,200 --> 00:47:28,960
Speaker 14: You need tenant protections, you need production of affordable housing,

688
00:47:29,480 --> 00:47:32,920
Speaker 14: and you also need preservation of affordable housing. You have

689
00:47:33,080 --> 00:47:36,200
Speaker 14: to include the protection of tenants in the preservation of

690
00:47:36,239 --> 00:47:38,919
Speaker 14: affordable housing as you produce as well.

691
00:47:39,640 --> 00:47:43,239
Speaker 7: The pandemic has exposed these open wounds of inequality in

692
00:47:43,320 --> 00:47:47,080
Speaker 7: the United States, Team says, and more people are feeling them.

693
00:47:47,960 --> 00:47:50,880
Speaker 14: I just hope that we can strike while the iron's

694
00:47:50,920 --> 00:47:55,560
Speaker 14: hot right now and pass some long term legislation and

695
00:47:56,640 --> 00:47:59,400
Speaker 14: just try to rebalance things just a little bit, because

696
00:47:59,800 --> 00:48:03,840
Speaker 14: it is just absolutely absurd how inequality. It's just lasted

697
00:48:03,920 --> 00:48:06,880
Speaker 14: for so long, and we have to have housing as

698
00:48:06,920 --> 00:48:09,880
Speaker 14: a human right. It's just paramount for our society just

699
00:48:09,960 --> 00:48:10,520
Speaker 14: to survive.

700
00:48:18,239 --> 00:48:31,680
Speaker 5: So Lamentello Famil Shelter compartises. Yes Toyaqui, if he.

701
00:48:31,719 --> 00:48:34,360
Speaker 1: Had and.

702
00:48:38,200 --> 00:48:41,120
Speaker 7: Life of the shelter wasn't easy for Inness In her children,

703
00:48:41,920 --> 00:48:45,480
Speaker 7: but it wasn't what she expected either. For example, at

704
00:48:45,520 --> 00:48:48,200
Speaker 7: the shelter, she got the biggest room she had ever

705
00:48:48,320 --> 00:48:58,839
Speaker 7: had since arriving in the US. Con The shelter had

706
00:48:58,880 --> 00:49:02,920
Speaker 7: strict schedules and rules, but it also helped them establish

707
00:49:03,000 --> 00:49:06,320
Speaker 7: some routines and strengthen their relationship as a family. In

708
00:49:06,560 --> 00:49:09,840
Speaker 7: esces in Es kept working as a promo toa on

709
00:49:09,960 --> 00:49:13,400
Speaker 7: housing issues while living at the shelter. In fact, she

710
00:49:13,600 --> 00:49:17,200
Speaker 7: was helping people with their housing applications. Ines felt like

711
00:49:17,280 --> 00:49:19,080
Speaker 7: crying and laughing at the same time.

712
00:49:22,560 --> 00:49:24,279
Speaker 3: The shelter yaya.

713
00:49:26,960 --> 00:49:29,200
Speaker 11: Yo is.

714
00:49:37,320 --> 00:49:39,759
Speaker 7: The worst part was that the fire alarm would go

715
00:49:39,920 --> 00:49:42,000
Speaker 7: off in the middle of the night several times a.

716
00:49:42,040 --> 00:49:55,400
Speaker 5: Week yas the Mergente salima coel frio.

717
00:49:56,440 --> 00:49:59,360
Speaker 7: The firefighters would come and they would have to go

718
00:49:59,440 --> 00:50:02,959
Speaker 7: outside and stand in the cold. Her son Diland became

719
00:50:03,040 --> 00:50:04,560
Speaker 7: friends with firefighters.

720
00:50:05,600 --> 00:50:09,719
Speaker 3: Let us yeah good, jad good, jad let us jo

721
00:50:09,840 --> 00:50:12,360
Speaker 3: a mono reja modi peri.

722
00:50:14,000 --> 00:50:16,480
Speaker 7: About a month later, in May of twenty twenty one,

723
00:50:16,960 --> 00:50:19,320
Speaker 7: her daughter Diani moved out of the shelter to go

724
00:50:19,440 --> 00:50:23,520
Speaker 7: to college. She had been accepted at California State University

725
00:50:23,719 --> 00:50:27,719
Speaker 7: in Fresno. In Esfield's very proud. She gave birth to

726
00:50:27,800 --> 00:50:30,439
Speaker 7: Diani two weeks before turning sixteen years old.

727
00:50:36,360 --> 00:50:44,239
Speaker 3: Niha lad Miro much madrees In grave in Estos.

728
00:50:48,480 --> 00:50:59,840
Speaker 5: And Iraqi Prosa Conto lists it was past in.

729
00:51:00,080 --> 00:51:03,560
Speaker 7: It says Diani is very mature and has supported her

730
00:51:04,320 --> 00:51:07,960
Speaker 7: even with all the bad decisions. She says she took

731
00:51:08,000 --> 00:51:08,239
Speaker 7: as a.

732
00:51:08,280 --> 00:51:12,960
Speaker 3: Mother pimp.

733
00:51:15,560 --> 00:51:23,719
Speaker 7: A m but as a mother, you're just trying to

734
00:51:24,120 --> 00:51:30,960
Speaker 7: do your best. Inesces. Eventually, Ines and Dilan moved out

735
00:51:31,000 --> 00:51:33,920
Speaker 7: of the shelter a few months after Yani. Through an

736
00:51:33,920 --> 00:51:36,840
Speaker 7: affordable housing program, she was able to rent a small

737
00:51:36,920 --> 00:51:40,480
Speaker 7: studio apartment. It was the first time her name was

738
00:51:40,600 --> 00:51:43,960
Speaker 7: on the lease and it was something stable that made

739
00:51:44,000 --> 00:51:48,279
Speaker 7: her so happy. But on her way to work in

740
00:51:48,440 --> 00:51:52,000
Speaker 7: is With passed by the newly constructed affordable housing apartments

741
00:51:52,360 --> 00:51:55,440
Speaker 7: she had applied for a year earlier. It's a big

742
00:51:55,520 --> 00:51:58,920
Speaker 7: building of condo apartments two blocks away from the salesforce

743
00:51:59,040 --> 00:52:03,080
Speaker 7: tour the top building in San Francisco. A city program

744
00:52:03,239 --> 00:52:06,880
Speaker 7: requires new residential projects of more than ten units to

745
00:52:07,000 --> 00:52:11,400
Speaker 7: make a percentage of apartments, usually around ten percent available

746
00:52:11,480 --> 00:52:12,960
Speaker 7: for low and middle income families.

747
00:52:16,120 --> 00:52:22,120
Speaker 3: It is yea Yo quanqua mad it is new.

748
00:52:22,200 --> 00:52:26,040
Speaker 7: There were twenty three apartments available for affordable housing, and

749
00:52:26,160 --> 00:52:31,680
Speaker 7: she was number twenty four on the list. If someone

750
00:52:31,719 --> 00:52:35,239
Speaker 7: didn't fulfill all the requirements, maybe they would call her.

751
00:52:36,280 --> 00:52:56,080
Speaker 15: Yoyoa la yois yeah and yas l's one minute, it's

752
00:52:56,120 --> 00:52:56,840
Speaker 15: a luga.

753
00:52:56,760 --> 00:52:57,480
Speaker 3: Is on the crank.

754
00:52:57,560 --> 00:53:05,120
Speaker 7: And in March, over a year after she had applied,

755
00:53:05,480 --> 00:53:07,960
Speaker 7: she got an email she had been selected for a

756
00:53:08,040 --> 00:53:09,960
Speaker 7: one bedroom apartment in the building.

757
00:53:25,239 --> 00:53:28,320
Speaker 3: Yes, it's at Stress Squadros.

758
00:53:34,600 --> 00:53:36,920
Speaker 7: When we talked, Ines had been living there for just

759
00:53:37,000 --> 00:53:39,640
Speaker 7: two weeks and she still couldn't believe it.

760
00:53:40,719 --> 00:53:44,759
Speaker 3: You know, it's case can see at the quenta that

761
00:53:45,000 --> 00:53:47,279
Speaker 3: was the key in a.

762
00:53:51,080 --> 00:53:59,920
Speaker 5: Friend Albert and the insist then gom Vistas cancer.

763
00:54:00,840 --> 00:54:03,239
Speaker 7: She can see the Bay Bridge from her window, the

764
00:54:03,280 --> 00:54:06,360
Speaker 7: bridge that connects San Francisco and Oakland, and now she

765
00:54:06,480 --> 00:54:08,400
Speaker 7: can see and relax looking at it.

766
00:54:12,320 --> 00:54:12,960
Speaker 3: Coarto.

767
00:54:23,200 --> 00:54:26,080
Speaker 7: The apartment also has a big bathroom with a bathtub

768
00:54:26,480 --> 00:54:29,680
Speaker 7: where her son Dylan says he can swim. She pays

769
00:54:29,800 --> 00:54:33,600
Speaker 7: a little over thirteen hundred dollars a month plus electricity bills.

770
00:54:34,400 --> 00:54:38,080
Speaker 3: See it's nice story, pro no.

771
00:54:39,760 --> 00:54:41,919
Speaker 11: Real It all.

772
00:54:41,880 --> 00:54:45,000
Speaker 7: Sounds like a story out of a telenovela in Esces,

773
00:54:45,600 --> 00:54:49,600
Speaker 7: but it's not even now. It doesn't believe in the

774
00:54:49,640 --> 00:54:50,399
Speaker 7: American dream.

775
00:54:51,719 --> 00:55:00,600
Speaker 5: America its steamiestabra vajo aquina.

776
00:55:01,480 --> 00:55:04,200
Speaker 3: Croc in.

777
00:55:04,320 --> 00:55:07,200
Speaker 7: It says that everything can change in a second. In

778
00:55:07,320 --> 00:55:11,120
Speaker 7: this country, work is unstable, and the pandemic showed us

779
00:55:11,200 --> 00:55:15,800
Speaker 7: that in this country you're a number inces and you

780
00:55:15,880 --> 00:55:17,480
Speaker 7: can be replaced anytime.

781
00:55:24,400 --> 00:55:33,360
Speaker 5: Yaa Novis closes it. Wassouel.

782
00:55:34,280 --> 00:55:38,160
Speaker 7: This country is beautiful, but it's also cruel in Esces,

783
00:55:47,440 --> 00:55:50,920
Speaker 7: and she wonders whether all the sacrifices immigrants make to

784
00:55:51,040 --> 00:55:53,200
Speaker 7: come to this country are really worth it.

785
00:55:54,960 --> 00:56:01,719
Speaker 3: Ikejamos and says.

786
00:56:28,160 --> 00:56:35,000
Speaker 8: Yeah, you know, Nato.

787
00:56:41,360 --> 00:56:43,880
Speaker 7: And shows me the backyard of the house where he

788
00:56:44,040 --> 00:56:46,960
Speaker 7: used to live. He can still park one of his

789
00:56:47,120 --> 00:56:49,680
Speaker 7: cars there, the one he uses as storage for his

790
00:56:49,840 --> 00:56:54,560
Speaker 7: construction equipment. In exchange for that, Manuel cleans the backyard

791
00:56:54,680 --> 00:56:57,480
Speaker 7: two or three times a month and takes out the garbage.

792
00:57:06,840 --> 00:57:09,320
Speaker 7: The lannlord Pie seemed one hundred dollars a month for it,

793
00:57:09,920 --> 00:57:12,640
Speaker 7: and he also allows Manuel and his son to use

794
00:57:12,719 --> 00:57:16,400
Speaker 7: the bathroom and the kitchen whenever they meet. Manuel tries

795
00:57:16,440 --> 00:57:19,320
Speaker 7: to help with the utility bills when he can. Manuel

796
00:57:19,360 --> 00:57:21,720
Speaker 7: has a similar arrangement with the owner of the house

797
00:57:21,760 --> 00:57:24,840
Speaker 7: across the street where he parks the car where they sleeping.

798
00:57:25,840 --> 00:57:28,200
Speaker 7: He takes care of the yard and the garbage in

799
00:57:28,320 --> 00:57:31,200
Speaker 7: exchange for parking, and the house owner allows them to

800
00:57:31,280 --> 00:57:34,840
Speaker 7: keep their clothes and belongings inside the home. If they

801
00:57:34,920 --> 00:57:37,320
Speaker 7: leave them in the car, someone could break the windows

802
00:57:37,520 --> 00:57:39,760
Speaker 7: and take them. It's happened before.

803
00:57:52,240 --> 00:57:52,880
Speaker 10: You do not help.

804
00:57:57,440 --> 00:58:00,320
Speaker 7: The night before, after they washed the car, Manuel son

805
00:58:00,440 --> 00:58:03,680
Speaker 7: forgot the key inside the car and it locked. The

806
00:58:03,720 --> 00:58:06,440
Speaker 7: building manager of the apartment where they used to live

807
00:58:06,720 --> 00:58:10,360
Speaker 7: allow them to stay on the couch. His son spends

808
00:58:10,440 --> 00:58:13,280
Speaker 7: most of his time in that home. In the evenings,

809
00:58:13,440 --> 00:58:15,960
Speaker 7: when he comes back from school, he plays with the

810
00:58:16,000 --> 00:58:21,200
Speaker 7: manager's children and eats dinner there. Manuel considers himself lucky,

811
00:58:21,440 --> 00:58:24,720
Speaker 7: and he's grateful to his landlord and the building manager.

812
00:58:25,640 --> 00:58:27,400
Speaker 10: Somewhere excellent personas.

813
00:58:34,960 --> 00:58:38,560
Speaker 7: They're like his new family. Manuel says, the children even

814
00:58:38,600 --> 00:58:42,560
Speaker 7: call him uncle. His nineteen year old son is inside

815
00:58:42,600 --> 00:58:44,840
Speaker 7: the house, but he doesn't want to speak with me.

816
00:58:45,200 --> 00:58:48,560
Speaker 7: Manuel tells me he's ashamed of their situation.

817
00:58:59,720 --> 00:59:00,920
Speaker 10: Join had.

818
00:59:08,000 --> 00:59:11,320
Speaker 7: Sometimes his son breaks into tears about how back in

819
00:59:11,400 --> 00:59:14,920
Speaker 7: on Duras they had a comfortable life. Everyone had their

820
00:59:14,960 --> 00:59:17,480
Speaker 7: own room, no one needed to share a tiny space,

821
00:59:18,520 --> 00:59:22,360
Speaker 7: and now they sleep in a car. But it was

822
00:59:22,440 --> 00:59:25,040
Speaker 7: Manuel's son who made the decision to live on Duras.

823
00:59:25,160 --> 00:59:28,720
Speaker 7: In twenty twenty one, he joined a migrant caravan, and

824
00:59:29,000 --> 00:59:31,800
Speaker 7: by the time Manuel found out his son was already

825
00:59:31,840 --> 00:59:37,280
Speaker 7: in Mexico. Manuel isn't ashamed of speaking out about their situation.

826
00:59:38,320 --> 00:59:39,560
Speaker 7: Quite the opposite, but.

827
00:59:40,560 --> 00:59:48,280
Speaker 10: More the Assar Kenna.

828
00:59:52,120 --> 00:59:54,640
Speaker 7: He'd grown too disappointed in the opportunities he had found

829
00:59:54,680 --> 00:59:55,440
Speaker 7: in the US.

830
00:59:59,160 --> 01:00:01,680
Speaker 8: A and.

831
01:00:05,360 --> 01:00:09,040
Speaker 7: Manuel says that back home people get misled by what

832
01:00:09,280 --> 01:00:12,680
Speaker 7: others say about the US, but then once you arrive,

833
01:00:13,400 --> 01:00:16,920
Speaker 7: there's a harsh reality. He'll try to warn others.

834
01:00:17,040 --> 01:00:21,680
Speaker 10: Now, lohy, you got ano.

835
01:00:24,680 --> 01:00:27,800
Speaker 8: Get and.

836
01:00:29,480 --> 01:00:29,880
Speaker 10: Compral.

837
01:00:30,960 --> 01:00:35,640
Speaker 7: In this country, everything is about money, Manuel says, even

838
01:00:35,640 --> 01:00:38,960
Speaker 7: if you're living on the street, you have to buy everything.

839
01:00:40,800 --> 01:00:43,920
Speaker 7: His son is the only thing keeping Manuel here, and

840
01:00:44,280 --> 01:00:47,280
Speaker 7: it might not be for much longer. His son was

841
01:00:47,320 --> 01:00:50,200
Speaker 7: detained as he entered the US, and now he might

842
01:00:50,280 --> 01:00:53,840
Speaker 7: get deported. Manuel has already told his son that they

843
01:00:53,880 --> 01:00:59,760
Speaker 7: can go back any time if he wants to. But

844
01:01:00,120 --> 01:01:03,320
Speaker 7: the kid is doing good in school. He's getting good grades,

845
01:01:03,480 --> 01:01:08,040
Speaker 7: and he wants to keep learning so Manuel wakes up

846
01:01:08,320 --> 01:01:11,680
Speaker 7: every day earlier than the sun even and he stands

847
01:01:11,720 --> 01:01:15,720
Speaker 7: by the gas station waiting for another lucky day. If

848
01:01:15,760 --> 01:01:18,440
Speaker 7: he gets enough work, he says, he'll be able to

849
01:01:18,480 --> 01:01:21,280
Speaker 7: rent a room again, perhaps even in the same building

850
01:01:21,480 --> 01:01:25,520
Speaker 7: he used to live in. Manuel would very much like that.

851
01:01:48,800 --> 01:01:52,320
Speaker 2: This episode was produced by Marta Martinez and Madeline Bear

852
01:01:52,560 --> 01:01:54,440
Speaker 2: and edited by Daisy Contreras.

853
01:01:54,920 --> 01:01:58,320
Speaker 4: It was mixed by Stephanie le Beau and Julia Caruso.

854
01:01:58,920 --> 01:02:02,600
Speaker 2: Fact checking for this episode by Monica Morales Garcia. The

855
01:02:02,760 --> 01:02:07,560
Speaker 2: Latino USA team includes Andre Lopez, Grussado, Mike Sargent, Julieta Martinelli,

856
01:02:07,960 --> 01:02:13,480
Speaker 2: Victoria Estrada, Prinaldo, Leanos Junior, Alejandra Salazar, Patricia Sulbaran and

857
01:02:13,600 --> 01:02:15,800
Speaker 2: Julia Rocha, with help from ra Upes.

858
01:02:16,080 --> 01:02:18,440
Speaker 4: Our editorial director is Julio Ricardo Barella.

859
01:02:18,720 --> 01:02:24,800
Speaker 2: Special thanks to Barbara Lafite, Olule Valeria Ochoa, Jack Lorrainzar,

860
01:02:25,240 --> 01:02:30,880
Speaker 2: Fuan Pablo Garnum, Monica Campbell, Emma Paulino and Renaissance Journalism.

861
01:02:31,560 --> 01:02:35,200
Speaker 4: Our associate engineers are Gabriel A. Bias and j J. Carubin.

862
01:02:35,680 --> 01:02:38,840
Speaker 2: Our marketing manager is Luis Luna. Our theme music was

863
01:02:38,920 --> 01:02:42,080
Speaker 2: composed by Zeena Rubinos. I'm your host and executive producer

864
01:02:42,160 --> 01:02:44,520
Speaker 2: Marghino Posa. Join us again on our next episode, and

865
01:02:44,640 --> 01:02:46,960
Speaker 2: remember you can find us on all of your social

866
01:02:47,040 --> 01:02:48,160
Speaker 2: media not Teva.

867
01:02:48,240 --> 01:02:49,800
Speaker 4: Yes, and we'll see you next time.

868
01:02:50,120 --> 01:02:50,360
Speaker 8: Ciao.

869
01:02:52,720 --> 01:02:57,080
Speaker 16: Latino USA is made possible in part by funding is

870
01:02:57,160 --> 01:03:01,280
Speaker 16: provided by California Endowment. Building a strong state by improving

871
01:03:01,320 --> 01:03:05,240
Speaker 16: the health of all Californians. The Annie E. Casey Foundation

872
01:03:05,560 --> 01:03:09,640
Speaker 16: creates a brighter future for the nation's children by strengthening families,

873
01:03:09,880 --> 01:03:15,760
Speaker 16: building greater economic opportunity, and transforming communities. And funding for

874
01:03:15,880 --> 01:03:19,000
Speaker 16: Latino USA is Coverage of a culture of health is

875
01:03:19,080 --> 01:03:21,440
Speaker 16: made possible in part by a grant from the Robert

876
01:03:21,520 --> 01:03:22,720
Speaker 16: Wood Johnson Foundation.

877
01:03:27,840 --> 01:03:29,200
Speaker 11: Well, you're the one who's turning.

878
01:03:29,240 --> 01:03:30,160
Speaker 3: You're not supposed to be.

879
01:03:33,960 --> 01:03:37,840
Speaker 7: Yeah, and you should not have your trunk completely open either,

880
01:03:39,600 --> 01:03:40,040
Speaker 7: Probably

881
01:03:44,880 --> 01:03:45,200
Speaker 10: Okay.