Immigrant Housing Campaign Victory!!!
A residential rent assistance program that will spare many immigrant families from potential homelessness has been approved by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and awaits Mayor Willie Brown’s signature.
In a San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ Health and Human Services Committee meeting held on July 3, three Supervisors unanimously approved the Residential Rent Assistance Pilot Program. The legislation was then sent to the full Board, where it was finally approved on July 15 by a vote of 10-1. Supervisor Tony Hall, notorious for accepting campaign money from the European American Forum, was the only “no” vote.
This program will give $349,000 in rental assistance to San Francisco Housing Authority and Section 8 tenants whose federal rent subsidy in has been eliminated because they or members of their family are undocumented immigrants. Although this is a relatively small amount of money to help many families, the pilot program will document the number of people affected so that the program can be renewed if necessary.
This program is a result of the Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act of 1998 (QHWRA), which required recipients of Housing Authority and Section 8 housing subsidies to verify their immigration status and forbid cities to offer subsidies to undocumented immigrants.
Previously, San Francisco had never asked their tenants their legal status, and therefore it is unclear how many families will be affected overall, but the estimates are in the hundreds. The fear of being reported to the INS has also made immigrant families reluctant to report their status, and therefore give up their right to public housing, even if they’ve been on the waiting list for years.
This legislation was a cooperative endeavor between the immigrant community, homeless organizations, Supervisor Ammiano’s office (which sponsored the legislation), and the San Francisco Housing Authority. The community organizations will play an advisory role to the SFHA to make sure they administer the money correctly, and that outreach is being done in the immigrant communities.
Krea Gomez, a family advocate for the Homeless Prenatal Program, which helps homeless parents and pregnant women support their families, spoke at the meeting, saying that many of the immigrants in danger of losing funding don’t even understand the cut.
“When they are told that their subsidy will be cut in half, it becomes an even bigger problem as they cannot get money for the bus to come to the agency to get food,” Gomez said.
Outside the meeting, Gomez said that she and the Homeless Prenatal Program have been working on getting this residential assistance program for immigrants passed for over two years. The legislation follows in a tradition of San Francisco finding innovative ways of protecting its residents when the federal government passes policies that are unacceptable.
At the hearing, James Tracy, a member of Right to a Roof, the housing work group of the Coalition on Homelessness, and who was an active member in getting this program passed, said that this program “directly prevents homelessness,” and that “it carries wide support and political coverage to support immigrants.”
A man who is directly benefited by this program simply said “thank you,” with a heavy Spanish accent. He will now be eligible for assistance to pay his rent.
Supervisor Sophie Maxwell said at the end of the meeting, “This becomes a safety net. These people now have a chance to become the next middle class.” It might be a long time before these immigrants will become the next middle class, but this program will help keep them out of homelessness.
Lesley