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Western Center Roundup – May 2023

Western Center Releases 2022 Annual Report

As we close Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Heritage Month, National Women’s Health Month, and Maternal Mental Health Month, we are reflecting on the words of social justice activist Grace Lee Boggs, “We should not be waiting for singular charismatic leaders to tell us what direction to go, but instead be like midwives, supporting the birth of movements that are already emerging.” Our 2022 annual report outlines the work we do in partnership with our movement allies, legal aid service providers, coalitions, pro bono partners, funders, policy makers, and community members to advance racial and economic justice. Framed by the beautiful art of Kayla Salisbury and photography by Las Fotos Project, we tell the story of 2022 litigation, advocacy, and movement wins – and how historic investments in safety net programs, tenant protections, and health care coverage expansions reduced rates of growing poverty in the face of COVID-19’s continued economic devastation. 

 

Read the Report


Securing Transformative District Wide Changes for Black Students and Black Students with Disabilities in Black Parallel School Board v. Sacramento City Unified School District

Last week, we announced a transformational settlement agreement with co-counsel, Equal Justice Society, Disability Rights California (DRC), and National Center for Youth Law (NCYL), in Black Parallel School Board v. Sacramento City Unified School District. The suit accused the district of discriminatory segregation of students with disabilities and Black students with disabilities into highly restrictive classrooms and schools, plus other harmful practices laid bare in a 2017 report, based on a district self-audit. The suit also highlighted the District’s failure to provide these students with the educational and supportive services that the law requires. Plaintiffs alleged this failure contributed to grossly disparate rates of suspension and expulsion of Black students—among the very worst in the state for Black boys in 2018-2019 —as well as for students with disabilities.

The settlement requires the appointment of an independent monitor to review existing reports and data on the District’s special education and school discipline practices and develop and implement an Action Plan to bring SCUSD in compliance with the law to ensure all students have equal access to a quality education. “We are optimistic about the independent monitor component of the settlement; it will create accountability and help guide and direct the District as it undertakes the essential work of dismantling a discriminatory system,” said Senior Attorney Antionette Dozier of the Western Center on Law and Poverty. 

 

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Join Us for the Next Meet The Advocates on Ending Poverty Tows – June 29th at 12PM

Not being able to renew a vehicle’s registration or even having your car towed because of unpaid parking tickets happens frequently enough to low-income people that it has a name: poverty tows. Join Patrice Berry of EPIC, Rebecca Miller and Cynthia Castillo of Western Center, for our next Meet the Advocates, focused on AB1082 (Kalra), a bill to stop authorities from towing legally and safely parked vehicles due to the owner having unpaid parking citations. Public records show that although the goal of these tows is to collect debt, poverty tows actually cost cities far more than they recover. Learn about the snowballing impact of poverty tows on Californians with low incomes –  and why the time is now to pass AB1082.  

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New Staff, Awards, and Acknowledgments

Western Center continues to grow to meet the needs of Californians with low incomes. Please join us in welcoming our newest team members, Monika Lee, Senior Communications Strategist, Eduardo Lopez, Public Benefits and Access to Justice Fellow, Lori McCoy Shuler, Senior Executive and Legal Assistant, and Katie McKeon, Housing Attorney! We also invite you to join us in celebrating Crystal D. Crawford, Western Center’s Executive Director as she receives the Excellence in Advocacy Award from Black Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles Foundation on June 3rd. We also send our congratulations to Western Center Board Member Dr. Megan T. Ebor‘s on her recent recognition with the Heart-Led Leader Award given by the Associated Students at San Diego State University.

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Western Center Roundup – April 2023

NEW REPORT: Recognizing the Right to Housing

 

Last week, we released a new report, Recognizing the Right to Housing: Why We Need a Human Right to Housing in California, with our partners, ACLU California Action, ACCE Institute, and the National Homelessness Law Center. This report outlines how including the right to housing to California’s constitution could fundamentally shift housing policy in the state and address the housing and homelessness crisis at its root cause. As detailed in the report, a constitutional right to housing would establish a legal mechanism to hold local and state governments accountable for ensuring that all Californians have access to affordable and adequate housing. Modeled after international law, a constitutional amendment would establish a government obligation to:

respect the right to housing by not interfering with the right;
protect the right to housing by shielding the enjoyment of affordable and adequate housing from third-party threats; and
fulfill the right to housing by affirmatively enacting policies and budgetary allocations to ensure that all Californians have secure housing.

On April 25th, we stood with our partners and hundreds of community organizers and tenants at the Capitol for a press conference to release the report recommendations and drive support for several of our housing bills this session: ACA 10 (Haney): Housing is a Human Right; SB 460; (Wahab): Fair Chance Housing; SB 567; (Durazo): Homelessness Prevention Act. AB 920; (Bryan): Discrimination: housing status.

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Western Center Sounds the Alarm on Staff Shortages Facing Counties Amid Medi-Cal Changes

 

Western Center’s Senior Attorney David Kane has been making the media rounds, raising awareness of “the perfect storm” approaching Californians on Medi-Cal who registered in record numbers during the pandemic and now face a challenging benefits renewal process to ensure continued coverage. In recent articles with the Sacramento Bee and Los Angeles Times, David spoke of Western Center’s discovery through a public records request of just how woefully unprepared counties are in preparing for Medi-Cal benefits renewals – challenges such as staff shortages, an unseasoned workforce, a new computer system, and budget constraints. “None of this works if county Medi-Cal offices don’t have what they need in terms of basic resources and people in their offices to help people renew their Medi-Cal because they are the ones who determine whether somebody qualifies or should be terminated,” Kane said. “Today, with the historic level of record-high Medi-Cal enrollment, that already would be a challenge to counties and their offices, but it’s even worse. Counties have said they are understaffed and are constantly trying to fill vacancies. We’re really concerned that under these difficult circumstances, we’re not ready.”

To address these challenges, Western Center and our partners, the State, Counties, and DHCS have taken some preliminary steps to ease the process of renewals: 

  • In 2019, WCLP co-sponsored SB 260 (Hurtado) which closes coverage gaps for people no longer eligible for Medi-Cal by automatically enrolling them in the Covered California plan (if eligible) that most closely matches their previous coverage. 
  • Thanks to requests by advocates, the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) convened a monthly working group to problem solve, plan, and get ready to help people keep their coverage for when renewals resumed. 
  • Counties have responded nimbly to numerous Medi-Cal expansions, including eligibility for people who are undocumented, and have updated their notices and engaged in outreach to impacted people. 
  • DHCS, in response to extensive advocacy, has done tremendous work to protect coverage for young adults who are undocumented and those who are 65 and over or disabled. 
  • Advocates have consolidated tools and resources for people looking for additional assistance as they seek to prove eligibility. 

 

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NEW BLOG POST and Partner Spotlight on Building Generational Wealth


With one in five children living in poverty in California, we celebrate our partners whose tireless efforts have culminated in groundbreaking programs to address generational wealth building. Last year, GRACE & End Child Poverty California (ECPCA), John Burton Advocates for Youth (JBAY), End Poverty in California (EPIC), and Liberation in a Generation worked to pass the The Hope, Opportunity, Perseverance, and Empowerment (HOPE) for Children Act and successfully advocated for HOPE trust funds accounts in our State budget. HOPE Accounts will support children from low-income families who lost a primary caregiver to COVID-19, as well as children who are in long-term foster care. HOPE funds will be available when a child turns 18. They will allow children to invest in their education, start a business, or support purchasing transportation or housing. 

In this month’s blog post, Western Center Outreach and Advocacy Associate Abraham Zavala-Rodriguez lifts up the new CalKids program as another vehicle for wealth building and a tool for moving the needle on the ever expanding racial wealth gap. “Student debt and financial access to education are some of the many obstacles that communities of color face in our state. Student debt is a lifelong burden that impacts generational wealth. Last Fall, California launched a program called the California Kids Investment and Development Savings program (CalKids) that will invest in low-income students by providing an initial seed deposit for them to save for college.”

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Western Center Roundup – March 2023

Celebrating Women’s History Month and Cesar Chavez Day

Advocating, Organizing, Speaking Up and Out: Women Are Driving the Change We Need in California

This Women’s History Month was shaped by powerful testimony women provided in press conferences, legislative hearings, strikes, and listening tours. From demanding Housing as a Human Right, advocating for Affordable Health Care, preventing homelessness through expanded tenant protections, Reimagining a CalWORKs program that truly supports families, and shining a spotlight on the unique barriers faced by farmworkers braving climate change to feed our State, women shared how policies and systems of power impact their daily lives, offering both inspiration and solutions centered in their lived experiences. We stand in awe of these change makers and thank them for their dedication to improving the lives of all Californians. We would also like to extend our congratulations to Sonya Young Aadam, WCLP partner, who received a major national nod with the Unsung Hero Award from the NAACP Image Awards for her work leading the California Black Women’s Health Project and Christine Chambers Goodman, WCLP board member and Professor of Law at Caruso School of Law at Pepperdine, who was recognized with the University’s 10th Annual Award for Excellence in Leadership.


Western Center’s Executive Director, Crystal Crawford Receives NYU School of Law Woman of Distinction Award

Our very own Crystal Crawford, Western Center Executive Director was honored by the New York School of Law with the 2022 Woman of Color Collective Woman of Distinction Award, recognizing alumnae who have made outstanding achievements in the field of law. Crystal’s acceptance speech spoke to the theme of the awards event, Building Bridges, Fostering Wellbeing. A Hays Fellow and Chairperson of Black Allied Law Students Association at NYU Law, Crystal paid homage to several of her classmates who were in attendance, as well as NYU Law professors Paulette Caldwell, Derrick Bell, Bryan Stevenson, and Leon Higginbotham for providing encouragement and inspiration throughout her career. In her closing remarks, Crystal noted that a guiding mantra for her has been the Kwanzaa principle of kujichagulia, or self-determination. “This notion of defining who we are and not letting other people define us, that’s how you foster your own wellbeing.”

Congratulations and thank you for your leadership, Crystal!


NEW REPORT: Return to Sender: How an Unreliable Mail System Harms Californians Living in Poverty

Shaped by interviews throughout the state with public benefits advocates, legal aid attorneys, food bank employees, shelter operators, and nonprofit leaders, as well as individuals struggling to access their mail, and Public Records Act responses from counties concerning their mail holding practices and methods for ensuring unhoused people can access mail, this new report outlines the challenges facing Californians without permanent addresses and/or access to reliable mail services. Special thanks to Liv Williams, who spent a year working at Western Center as a Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP Social Impact Pro Bono Fellow, for her extensive research and authorship of this report. This fellowship project has become a powerful advocacy tool to garner support for SB 491 (Durazo), co-sponsored by Western Center and the Coalition of California Welfare Rights Organizations. This bill would create an option for unhoused Californians to pick up government related mail from a county department of social services such as Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards, election ballots, public housing waiting list notifications, student report cards, and much more. You can track this bill HERE.

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Community Centric Fundraising Hub Highlights Western Center Team’s Journey into Fundraising from a Place of Empowerment and Awareness

Western Center’s development department is as bold as they come. The team, composed of four women from different racial and ethnic backgrounds, is fertile ground to try things differently. The team, Heather Masterton, Xochi Flores, Cinthya Martinez, and April Walker recently documented their experience of reimagining development work by implementing community centric fundraising principles in a new Women’s History Month publication on the CCF hub; we invite you to learn more. “We are not just grant seekers, grant writers, foundation relationship stewards, and event planners. We are also parents, students, and professors. We are sisters and siblings in family and in community. We are connectors of all of the spaces we occupy and engage in. And just like social justice work is transformative and process based, so are the humans who use their creativity, their wordsmithing, their love of language and communication, and their acquired-by-living skillset to propel the work forward…” 

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NEW Blog Post: CalFresh Hunger Games

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress increased Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit levels through Emergency Allotments to address America’s deepening hunger crisis. On March 1, 2023, those increased SNAP benefits, known as CalFresh in California, expired for approximately three million recipients, bringing food benefits down to an average of $6 per day per person. Western Center’s Outreach and Advocacy Associate, Abraham Zavala-Rodriguez connects with recipients to learn more about the impact of losing those life sustaining increases as inflation rises and the cost of food soars. Jesus and Alicia are getting by with a tight budget. They budget in the face of rising inflation where prices on milk, eggs, and bread skyrocket. For them community driven food banks have been a blessing. Alicia shared, “this is the reality for many Californians. We are doing our best to get by. Our neighbors who are also retired are in a similar situation. Others we know live in houses or apartments where multiple families are living under one roof – it is the only way to survive, but we are running out of time.”

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Western Center Roundup – February 2022

Lifting Black Voices, Centering Black Lives

Honoring Black History Month and the Urgent Work Ahead of Us

We began this Black History Month honoring Derrick Bell, one of Western Center’s founding members, past executive director, and a leading voice in the school of that thought that would become critical race theory. We honor our rich history, standing on the shoulders of giants as we continue the critical work of eliminating anti-Blackness in Housing, Health, Public Benefits, and Access to Justice. The urgency of this work was reinforced by this month’s release of research documenting persistent racism with the systems we work to transform: the largest study on birth outcomes in the state of California revealed that Black birthing folks, regardless of income level, continue to face the most adverse maternal and infant mortality rates; more than half of Black Californians (55%) said there was a time in the last few years when they thought they would have gotten better care if they had belonged to a different racial or ethnic group; and the housing and homelessness crisis continues to disproportionately impact Black Californians. This year, we are expanding our team to tackle the racism Black and Brown birthing folks experience, alleviate the burden of medical debt, and take on housing voucher discrimination and environmental racism. We look forward to sharing more about this expanded work.


3/14: Join Us for Meet The Advocates: Western Center’s 2023 Legislative Agenda

Join us on March 14th at 12PM PST as our Policy Team rolls out our 2023 legislative agenda to secure housing, healthcare, and a strong safety net for Californians with low incomes. We’ll be diving into the work of the Consent and Reproductive Equity (CARE) for Families Act, establishing the first statewide Fair Chance Housing Ordinance, eliminating housing voucher discrimination, the restoration of stolen CalFresh benefits, CalWORKs expansions, eliminating poverty tows and much, much more! You don’t want to miss this powerful conversation by the folks on the frontlines of California’s anti-poverty policy movement. You can read about the bills we are co-sponsoring and track the status of our bills’ activities on our legislative tracker page.

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NEW Blog Post: Why We Sued to End CARE Court

Senior Attorney, Helen Tran and Director of Litigation, Richard Rothschild discuss why Western Center joined Disability Rights California and Public Interest Law Project to sue the State in this latest blog post: Contrary to some strong opinions that CARE Court is “California’s only real plan for helping our most vulnerable and seriously mentally ill,” Governor Newsom never planned to truly provide behavioral health treatment and housing through this bill. The CARE Act does not mandate counties to provide behavioral health treatment or housing; it creates no new rights or benefits for people with schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders who are summoned to court to join the CARE process. Rather, all CARE Court-ordered services are “subject to available funding… In other words, services will only be provided as they are available.

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Western Center Attorneys Weigh In On Medical Debt and Housing Voucher Discrimination in Los Angeles Times and New York Times Features

Hospitals run by Los Angeles County could make free care available to more of their financially strapped patients under a new proposal aimed at expanding relief from medical bills — the result of a class-action lawsuit brought by Western Center on behalf of people who had sought medical care from the county. Under the proposed rules, free care would be available to eligible L.A. County residents with incomes under 200% of the federal poverty level. David Kane, Senior Attorney, spoke to the impact of these rules in last week’s Los Angeles Times’ article. People earning under 200% of the federal poverty level “certainly cannot afford high medical costs — or even what other people consider to be modest medical costs.” Making care available to them at no cost “is definitely the right thing to do, because those are the people who need this the most.”

Despite Western Center’s work to pass SB329 to prevent discrimination in the use of housing vouchers, voucher holders continue to face a series of obstacles in securing affordable housing as documented in the New York Times’ recent feature tracking one young woman’s journey to use her Section 8 voucher in Los Angeles County. Landing an apartment in Los Angeles County can be an arduous journey in a region struggling with a housing shortage and homelessness crisis, where even those with steady middle-class salaries have found themselves in a rat race for a home. For the impoverished, the search can feel ultimately impossible.“ Are you going to interrupt your search to fight every landlord who says, ‘I’m not going to rent to you because you have Section 8?’” said Nisha Vyas, Senior Attorney with the Western Center on Law and Poverty. “It’s more likely you’re going to keep trying to find someone who’s going to say yes.”


TOMORROW! Join Western Center and National Health Law Program for a Medi-Cal Renewal Webinar

Over 15 million Californians will need to renew their Medi-Cal starting in June. To learn the latest on how Medi-Cal renewals will work, join Western Center and National Health Law Program (NHeLP) TOMORROW, March 1st at 2PM PT/5 PM ET for a webinar tailored for advocates, application assisters, and community-based organizations. The federal COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) implemented flexibilities that help people get on, and stay on, Medi-Cal. This continuous Medi-Cal coverage requirement will end on March 31, 2023. Beginning April 1, 2023 counties across the state will begin annual Medi-Cal renewals for all beneficiaries.

Public education, outreach and advocacy will be critical to ensuring that individuals and families do not lose their Medi-Cal coverage in error. This webinar will provide an overview of the federal and state guidance on Medi-Cal renewals, what to expect, and advocacy efforts protect Californians’ access to health coverage.

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Western Center Roundup – January 2022

A Summer of Advocacy: Protecting Tenants & Securing Budget Wins

New Blog Post: Voices From the Holiday Strike Line

In our ongoing work to address unjust fines and fees, today we announce a court granted preliminary approval of a settlement that returns over half a million dollars to low-income, system-impacted families in Riverside County. Western Center and co-counsel brought Freeman v. County of Riverside to suit in 2020 to seek reimbursement for families from whom the County illegally collected millions of dollars in daily “costs of support” for each day a youth spent in a juvenile institution. In 2018, we successfully sponsored California (SB 190), which prohibits counties from continuing to assess parents for the costs related to their children’s detention in juvenile facilities – but SB 190 did not address debt collection for previously imposed fees and Riverside County continued to collect them. Our lawsuit challenged this ongoing collection, claiming that the County disregarded its statutory and constitutional duties to assess a family’s ability to pay and secure necessary court orders before charging them. With this victory, Riverside County families who were subjected for many years to illegal collection of juvenile fees move a step closer toward justice — in the form of cash reimbursements.

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Western Center Joins Disability Rights California in Fight Against CARE Court Implementation

Last week, we joined Disability Rights California and the Public Interest Law Project to file Disability Rights California v. Newsom in the California Supreme Court, challenging the constitutionality of the statute creating CARE Courts. The statute singles out unhoused people diagnosed with schizophrenia, and subjects them to court orders imposing involuntary treatment. While the legislation was billed as a solution for homelessness, it does not appropriate any money to build or preserve affordable housing or for increased mental health services. Instead, it threatens to take away the liberty of unhoused people based on a judge’s speculation that they are “likely” to become a danger to themselves or others. The petition argues that this violates the due process and equal protection clauses of the California Constitution. We are honored to support DRC, the sole petitioner and lead counsel, with Western Center alums and primary attorneys for DRC, Melinda Bird and Lynn Martinez.

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California Says Emergency Rental Assistance Program Will Likely Run Out of Funds With Over 140,000 Applicants Still in Limbo

In our ongoing case against California’s Housing and Community Development for failure to meet due process standards in informing applicants why their application for emergency rental assistance was denied, a lawyer for the State of California argued that the state’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program would need to spend its remaining $177 million on administrative costs if forced to comply with the court’s order to provide basic constitutional due process, leaving no money for tenants. The state claims it will pay its private contractor most – if not all – of its remaining funds just to fix its flawed application process and provide basic information to tenants it believes are ineligible for assistance – information that should have been provided at the time of denial, so applicants have an opportunity to appeal. It’s extremely frustrating that the state has been fighting so hard to avoid giving tenants this basic information that should have been provided from the start. We are alarmed by the state’s threat to use the program’s remaining funds to pay an out-of-state contractor $177 million just to tell tenants the reason they are being denied. This threat raises very serious concerns about how the Department of Housing and Community Development has managed this funding,” – Madeline Howard, senior attorney with Western Center on Law & Poverty.

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Western Center’s Analysis of the 2023-2024 CA State Budget

On January 10th, Governor Newsom released his January proposal for the 2023-24 California state budget. To address a projected budget deficit of $22.5 billion in 2023-24, the Governor proposes to delay funding for new programs, and in some cases ties new program implementation to future year revenue. The Governor’s proposal avoids major cuts, retains significant budget reserves, and maintains investments from previous budgets, including Medi-Cal expansion to all income-eligible adults regardless of immigration status effective January 2024, grant adjustments for CalWORKs and SSI/SSP, and many housing and homelessness investments. While not austere, the Governor’s budget is conservative in its ambition to meet the needs of low-income Californians.

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Western Center Welcomes New Staff: Xochi Flores and Sandra Poole

As Western Center continues to expand in 2023 to have greater reach and impact, we are thrilled to announce the addition of two new members to our team: Xochi Flores as Associate Director of Foundation Relations and Sandra Poole, as Health Policy Advocate. You can read more about their decades of transformational work in resource development, health justice, public benefits, and arts activism and check out our current open positions at the link below.

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Western Center Roundup – November 2022

New Blog Post: Voices From the Holiday Strike Line

Western Center’s Outreach and Advocacy Associate, Abraham Zavala-Rodriguez centers the voices and testimonios of workers on the frontlines of current labor strikes, as he joins their picket lines and bears witness to the organizing work of Starbucks and University of California employees in this latest blog post.

READ THE BLOG

Tomorrow Is Giving Tuesday: How You Can Support Our Work  

GIVING TUESDAY TOOLKIT


12/13 Meet the Advocates: Mike Herald Career Retrospective Conversation

Join us at noon on 12/13 for a special Meet the Advocates, featuring a career retrospective conversation with retiring Policy Director, Mike Herald and Western Center Policy Advocates: Linda Nguy, Christopher Sanchez, Cynthia Castillo, and Tina Rosales. You won’t want to miss out on this conversation exploring the major milestones of Mike’s advocacy career in Sacramento, the biggest wins, the bills that “got away,” the future of advocacy work to end poverty, and much, much more. Join us as we send Mike off to retirement with this special event to honor his transformational impact on California’s policy landscape.

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12/6 You’re Invited: Celebrate Mike Herald’s Retirement with Us!

Join Western Center on Law and Poverty as we celebrate the upcoming retirement of Policy Advocacy Director, Mike Herald! We will be toasting to Mike’s 19 years of service at Western Center and his decades of trailblazing work to transform California’s policy landscape.

December 6th 5:30-7PM at
Mix Downtown
1525 L St, Sacramento, CA 95814

RSVP TODAY

Join Our Growing Team

As Western Center expands to position itself for greater reach and impact in 2023, we have several new positions open: Director of Policy Advocacy; Public Benefits Advocate; Health & Public Benefits Policy Advocate or Senior Advocate; Housing Staff or Senior Attorney; & Senior Communications Specialist.

We encourage you to explore these opportunities and share them widely with your networks!

Western Center Roundup – October 2022

55 Years of Building a More Just California 

Western Center Kicks Off 55th Anniversary Year at Garden Party 2022 
On October 11th, Executive Director Crystal Crawford and event emcee Michael Tubbs kicked off Western Center’s 55th anniversary year of building a more just California at our annual Garden Party fundraiser. Paying homage to the Founders and past Executive Directors of Western Center (including the late Professor Derrick Bell) – the trailblazers upon whose shoulders we stand, Crystal shared, “We take very seriously our responsibility to challenge and transform broken systems. We are leaders and leaders challenge systems to say: ‘we can do better.'” In light of the Los Angeles City Council controversy, Crystal and Michael both addressed the need to stengthen alliances to address and root out racism.

We stand in solidarity with many of our partners, including Community Coalition in the call to do better in building the power and partnerships necessary to disrupt anti-Blackness in policies, laws, and institutions. In our milestone anniversary year, we will be spotlighting the ways in which we and our partners have transformed and dismantled oppressive systems and the accomplishments we have secured together to build a California where health care and housing are affordable, food is secure, and systemic racism is addressed. We invite you to follow us on social media to learn more about our history and mission to ensure all Californians have access to secure housing, quality affordable health care, and a strong safety net. 

As our team continues to grow, please share our open positions as we look for new folks to join us in this critical work. Also – we need your help to reach our Garden Party fundraising goal – click here to donate!

2022 Legislative Wins for Californians 
Western Center had an outstanding end to the 2022 legislative session, with 13 of our co-sponsored bills signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom. Among the highlights were (SB972), a bill modernizing street vending licensing (SB 972) and (SB 923), a first in nation bill on gender affirming health care. We also passed bills to repeal failure to appear (FTA) license suspensions and repeal the use of license suspension for low-income parents in arrears on child support. Other wins included mandating counties waive work requirements for domestic violence survivors and expanded protections for low-income debtors from wage garnishments. READ MORE about these WCLP co-sponsored bills, two additional bills we provided support on: AB 2594 and AB 2746, what bills we opposed, and what bills we’ll be bringing back next session.

2022 Housing Summit: Keeping Californians Housed 
On October 20th and 21st, Western Center and California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation hosted our biannual Housing Summit, bringing together housing advocates from legal services, organizing, and policy groups for the first time since the start of the pandemic to discuss regional housing issues, strategize on our collective work to keep Californians housed, and to build policy ideas and solutions to address our State’s housing crisis. Brandon Greene from ACLU Northern California provided a special address on California’s history of redlining and how the State’s Reparations Task Force is working to repair the harms of this history through housing policy advocacy.

Western Center Executive Director Crystal Crawford Joins CalNonprofit Board of Directors 
We are honored to announce that our very own Crystal D. Crawford was elected to serve on the board of directors of the California Association of Nonprofits – the leading voice of California’s nonprofit community. Two thirds of board members are elected by members, providing a statewide endorsement of leaders equipped to skillfully and thoughtfully advance our sectors’ needs. Crystal is joined by incoming board members: Le Ondra Clark Harvey, CEO, California Council of Community Behavioral Health Agencies (CBHA) (Sacramento) and Malcolm Yeung, Executive Director, Chinatown Community Development Corporation (Chinatown CDC), San Francisco.

Organizing for Vendor Justice in California: New Blog Post 
Abraham Zavala, Western Center’s Outreach and Advocacy Associate shares about the history of community organizing for street vendor justice that led to the recent passage of SB972. “On the last Friday night of September, Mariachi Plaza was bursting with beautiful music and enticing aromas. It’s always bustling on a weekend, but this night was different. Hundreds of cheerful street vendors, advocates, and supporters were gathered to celebrate the signing of SB 972 by Governor Gavin Newsom, which modernized the California Retail Food Code to be inclusive of street vendors. This moment was special for street vendors in California. They made history by organizing, mobilizing, and fighting for their rights. This is a victory that will be retold alongside other stories of social justice movements, like the Justice for Janitors campaign and the United Farm Workers movement.” READ MORE.
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Western Center Roundup –September 2022

Ending Poverty and Advancing Healing and Justice 

2021-2022 Legislative Session Wins 
With just 2 days left for Governor Gavin Newsom to sign hundreds of bills on his desk, we are buoyed by the recent signing of several of our co-sponsored bills and the budget and administrative advocacy wins secured for Californians with low incomes. These latest advances move Californians closer to new, viable pathways to higher education and entrepreneurship, increased safety in their homes and places of work, and more economic security through an expanded safety net and reduction of oppressive fines and fees. Below are a few highlights –

SB972 (Gonzalez) – this bill modernizes California’s Retail Food code to be more inclusive of small scale sidewalk vending operations, making the permitting process more accessible for food-specific street vendors.This bill was shaped by street vendors, community leaders, and policy advocates, aligning the work of economic, racial, and food justice movements. Come celebrate this win with those who made it possible, this Friday from 5-9PM at Mariachi Plaza in Boyle Heights.

AB 2004 (Garcia) – this bill strengthens the California Dream Loan program ensuring undocumented students receive the same financial education and loan assistance options that federal loan programs offer every other student to help achieve their higher education goals.

SB1017 (Eggman) – this bill closes a housing loophole that allowed survivors of domestic violence to be evicted due to incidents of violence in their homes. Two years in the making, this bill ensures survivors can stay in their homes while healing from trauma.

AB 2300 (Kalra) – this bill that allows CalWORKs recipients to leave their workplace and not lose their benefits if their employer violates state labor laws including the Crown Act, sexual harassment, and many other labor provisions.

Health4All Medi-Cal coverage for people ages 26 to 49: As a result of a groundbreaking advocacy campaign, Medi-Cal will begin covering undocumented adults ages 26 to 49 starting January 1, 2024. This is the final immigrant group that Medi-Cal will cover, as children, young adults (19-25), and adults older than 50 were included in prior Medi-Cal expansions.

Implementing AB 199: In our work to address Civil Assessments: The Hidden Court Fee that Penalizes Poverty, this year, our budget advocacy resulted in several important victories: (1) discharging all unpaid civil assessment debt from prior to July 1, 2022 (which is hundreds of millions of dollars); (2) reducing the maximum civil assessment that can be imposed from $300 to $100; and (3) restructuring the use of civil assessment funds so that they go directly into the general fund.

Inspired by what we are working on? With the upcoming retirement of Mike Herald, our legendary Director of Policy Advocacy, we’ve opened the search for his successor. View the Director of Policy job description and please share widely with your networks. More Western Center employment opportunities can be viewed HERE.

Housing Justice and Trauma Informed Lawyering
As the housing crisis continues, eviction protections sunset, and the pool of available rental assistance winds down, housing attorneys and advocates are facing a historic demand for eviction defense and related services. In order to address the vicarious trauma the field experiences in representing tenants faced with the prospect of losing their homes, we developed a new partnership with Trauma Informed LA to provide a series of trainings focused on trauma informed lawyering, vicarious trauma and the impact of frontline housing work, and the tools available to promote regulation and self-care. The first session offered this month set the foundation for understanding trauma informed approaches to our work, how we hold trauma in our bodies, and the ways we can care for ourselves so we can care for others through our legal and advocacy practice. Future sessions will focus on vicarious trauma, integrating tools for regulation into daily work, and working with clients with trauma responses.
 

Garden Party 2022 is Just Two Weeks Away – Ticket Sales Close Next Week!
Join us on October 11th at the Wilshire Ebell for an indoor/outdoor event format as we celebrate our 55th Anniversary and our work to build a more just California. We are honored to recognize this year’s honorees: Maya Wiley, Tatyana Ali, Mayra Jimenez, Sarah Steinheimer, Richard Rothschild, and Robert Newman and toast Mike Herald’s upcoming retirement at a pre-event reception. It’s not too late to purchase a tribute ad or ticket! Ad sales close on September 30th and ticket sales close on October 6th. 

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Western Center Roundup – August 2022

Making History, Meeting the Advocates, Mike’s Milestones & The Search for His Successor

Opening the Search for Western Center’s Next Policy Advocacy Director

After 19 years of leading Western Center’s trailblazing policy work, Mike Herald is preparing for his retirement at the close of this year. We are in awe of what Mike has accomplished during his tenure – from tackling unjust fees and fines that place a high price on being poor – to securing historic budget and policy wins to expand public benefits for families – Mike has advanced some of the most pivotal policies to end poverty in CA.

“We are so grateful for Mike’s impact and legacy after nearly 20 years of faithful service to Western Center and those we serve. As we prepare for Mike’s well-deserved retirement, we look forward to celebrating him and our policy team’s accomplishments under his leadership.” – Crystal Crawford, Executive Director, Western Center on Law and Poverty

We invite you to learn more about Mike’s Milestones and the many accomplishments made by the Policy Team during his tenure. Stay tuned for more information on Mike’s retirement celebrations to be held in October in Los Angeles and December in Sacramento.

We’ve opened the search for Mike’s successor. View the Director of Policy job description and please share widely with your networks. More Western Center employment opportunities can be viewed HERE.

Meet The Advocates: CA Street Vendors and Access to Healthy Food 

Did you miss Monday’s Meet the Advocates webinar? Don’t worry, you can watch the recording HERE!  The webinar featured a conversation with Rudy Espinoza, Executive Director of Inclusive Action for the City and Western Center Policy Advocate Christopher Sanchez, facilitated by Abraham Zavala, Western Center Outreach & Advocacy Associate. Panelists shared about the decade long history of organizing to expand rights for street vendors and how SB 972 can eliminate barriers to licensing by updating CA’s retail food code. The bill provides a clear pathway for food entrepreneurs to grow their businesses, which is key to expanding access to healthy food and produce to communities across the state. Learn more about how you can support CA Street Vendors and see SB972 to the finish line.

The evening before standing with street vendors to testify at the Capitol, Christopher Sanchez was recognized with the California Latinx Capitol Association Foundation’s Advocate Champion Award. You can watch his inspiring acceptance speech HERE.

Monkeypox: Your Rights to Testing, Vaccines, and Treatment

The federal government declared a public health emergency for Monkeypox on August 4, 2022. California declared a state of emergency for Monkeypox on August 1, 2022. These declarations allow the federal and state governments to work quickly to provide testing, vaccines, and treatment. Senior Attorney David Kane provides critical information in Western Center’s August Health Care Tip: Monkeypox: Your Rights to Testing, Vaccines, and Treatment. 

The Inflation Reduction Act Passes, Expanding Healthcare Access and Affordability

We applaud the passage of The Inflation Reduction Act, which includes the most historic health reforms since the passage of the Affordable Care Act, providing California families with much needed relief from skyrocketing prescription drug prices, capping costs in Medicare, and preventing major health premium spikes in Covered California. Western Center Senior Policy Advocate Linga Nguy weighs in on how the Act’s passage will translate into expanded health access and affordability for individuals, seniors, and families with low incomes.⁠

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Western Center Roundup – July 2022

A Summer of Advocacy: Protecting Tenants & Securing Budget Wins

Judge orders CA HCD to stop denying Emergency Rental Assistance until further review

Last month, we told you about our second lawsuit against California’s Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) on behalf of tenant groups over the lack of transparency and due process for applicants to the state’s COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP). This month brought good news for California tenants in need of assistance in the form of a court injunction ordering HCD to stop denials for rental assistance applications until the court can determine if HCD’s process meets constitutional due process standards.

In the meantime, HCD can continue to approve applications to get assistance to those who need it, but they cannot deny pending applications. Tenants with pending ERAP applications or applications the court decision might make eligible for appeal should continue to contact HCD and fight eviction attempts. We will keep you posted as the process continues, but for now, we are celebrating with a sigh of relief.

Protecting Californians from housing price-gouging after disaster 

The Sacramento team is gearing up for the end of the legislative session in August, which includes pushing for the passage of this year’s Western Center sponsored bills as well as making sure harmful bills don’t pass. Western Center housing policy advocate Tina Rosales has her eye on a problematic bill, SB 1133, that would undo decades of price-gouging protections during disasters and green light landlords who would capitalize on emergencies by hiking rents.

Tina wrote a blog post outlining the spate of problems with the bill and calls on readers to help stop price gouging after disaster by contacting state legislators to urge their NO vote on SB 1133.

California Assembly Holds Inaugural Select Committee on Poverty & Economic Inclusion Hearing  

Western Center and community groups were honored to join conveners Assemblymember Isaac Bryan and EPIC (Ending Poverty in California) for a powerful event centered on shaping California’s roadmap to ending poverty. Western Center’s Director of Policy, Mike Herald provided committee testimony addressing the high costs of being poor, tackling the State’s burdensome CalWORKs requirements and unjust interception of child support that should be benefitting low-income families on CalWORKs. You can read more from EPIC’s Executive Director, Former Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs on the organizing and policy work to secure this year’s historic antipoverty investments in the State budget and watch a video of the hearing and rally.

Save the Date: 8/15 at 12PM Meet the Advocates Webinar 

Join us for a free webinar focused on Senate Bill 972 and the advocacy efforts to support California’s street food vendors by removing barriers to accessing food vending permits. Community organizers and policy advocates will lead a discussion on food justice, highlighting street vendors’ role in expanding access to healthy food in California’s food deserts and beyond. REGISTER HERE.

Final 2022-23 California Budget 

Finally, in case you missed it, we published Western Center’s overview of the final 2022-23 California Budget at the tail end of June. You can read it here!

 

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