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"content": "\u003cp>Seventeen \u003ca href=\"https://hcai.ca.gov/california-announces-300-million-in-financial-support-for-community-hospitals-across-the-state/\">financially distressed California hospitals\u003c/a> — including three that filed for bankruptcy earlier this year — will receive close to $300 million in interest-free loans, state officials announced Thursday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/2023/01/hospital-closure/\">Madera Community Hospital\u003c/a>, which closed its doors in January, stands to receive the biggest chunk, $52 million. The money comes from the Distressed Hospital Loan Program, which the Legislature created to support rural and independent hospitals that faced financial challenges coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Madera hospital had requested $80 million, but the money it received is expected to be enough to fund a reopening for the rural hospital about 25 miles north of Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adventist Health, which operates hospitals in four West Coast states, last month announced a proposal to take over Madera’s operations through a management agreement, contingent on it receiving the state funds. In a letter outlining its terms, Adventist \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Madera-LOI-20230727-final.pdf\">projected needing $55 million to reopen (PDF)\u003c/a> and another $30 million to sustain operations in the second year.[aside postID=news_11958245 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/033023_Hollister_Hospital_LV_CM_01-1020x680.jpg']Madera will initially receive $2 million to cover immediate operating costs. Officials at Adventist Health and Madera Community will have to submit a “comprehensive hospital turnaround plan” and, if approved, will then become eligible to receive the remaining $50 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This financial assistance is an important step in the right direction to help Madera Community Hospital reopen its doors to the community. We have more work to do, but I’m proud to have led this effort,” said Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria, a Fresno Democrat whose district includes Madera and who authored legislation that led to the loan program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adventist Health in a written statement said it is working with “community partners and stakeholders in developing a thoughtful, comprehensive hospital turnaround plan.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beverly Hospital, located east of Los Angeles, will receive $5 million to cover operations while it is in bankruptcy. The hospital applied for $35 million, but it is now set to be bought by Adventist Health White Memorial. A bankruptcy judge last week approved \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/media/bh-638.pdf\">Adventist’s $39 million purchase of Beverly (PDF)\u003c/a>.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"State Treasurer Fiona Ma\"]‘The hospitals approved for this program have shown a detailed plan for financial recovery and these funds will help them keep the doors open so they can keep serving their communities.’[/pullquote]Another bankrupt hospital, Hazel Hawkins Memorial, will receive the $10 million it requested. It’s the only source of emergency care in San Benito County, a rural community east of Monterey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The hospitals approved for this program have shown a detailed plan for financial recovery and these funds will help them keep the doors open so they can keep serving their communities,” said State Treasurer Fiona Ma, whose office is helping administer the funds. Ma said her team has already begun providing instructions and assistance to the awarded hospitals.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Biggest loans to distressed hospitals\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Department of Health Care Access and Information reviewed applications and selected hospitals for the program. Thirty hospitals applied for loans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other hospitals that will receive significant funding include the following:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.tricitymed.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/agenda-packet.Special-Meeting-7.27.23.pdf\">Tri-City Medical Center (PDF)\u003c/a> in San Diego will receive $33.2 million. The hospital recently announced plans to suspend its labor and delivery services amid “financial losses.”\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/2023/01/hospital-closure/\">Kaweah Delta Health Care District\u003c/a> in Visalia will get a $20.8 million loan. This hospital laid off 130 employees late last year.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://inewsource.org/2023/02/07/el-centro-hospital-financial-problems/\">El Centro Regional Medical Center\u003c/a> in Imperial County, which in January closed its maternity ward, will receive $28 million.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://pmhd.org/\">Pioneers Memorial Healthcare District\u003c/a>, Imperial County’s only other hospital, also is set to receive $28 million.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.dameronhospital.org/\">Dameron Hospital\u003c/a> in Stockton, now also being managed by Adventist Health, will be loaned $29 million.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>Vulnerable California hospitals\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Most California hospitals are part of large networks that can navigate turbulent financial periods. A number of community and independent hospitals have struggled for years, especially after the peak of the pandemic. Some recently reduced services or laid off staff.[aside label='More on Health Care' tag='health-care']Hospitals have pointed to a number of factors for their distressed state — increased labor costs, and inadequate reimbursement from public insurance programs, Medicare and Medi-Cal, and in \u003ca href=\"https://fresnoland.org/2023/03/01/reimbursements-rates-madera-hospital-closure/\">some cases private insurance.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some hospitals began to ask the state for help late last year, but the closure of Madera Community Hospital prompted more urgency from lawmakers. It shut its doors after Trinity Health, a large Catholic health system, pulled out of negotiations to purchase the hospital.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Madera Community Hospital in the San Joaquin Valley was the only general acute care hospital in the county of about 160,000 people. The closest emergency rooms are about \u003ca href=\"https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article272712840.html\">30 and 40 minutes drive away in Fresno and Merced\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Distressed Hospital Loan Program closes at the end of 2031. Hospitals will get an 18-month grace period and then will have to repay loans over a six-year period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"title": "Thousands of Californians Are Still Waiting for COVID Unemployment Funds",
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"headTitle": "Thousands of Californians Are Still Waiting for COVID Unemployment Funds | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>It’s been 22 months and three unemployment appeals since Nicolas Allen’s last job in Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the time it has taken the 44-year-old graphic designer to win a fraction of the benefits that he applied for, his wife has weathered a high-risk pregnancy, his youngest son was born and his family has been pushed to the financial brink.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, Allen is one of thousands of Californians who\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>say they lost jobs due to the pandemic, but are still fighting lengthy legal battles over unemployment money that state and federal relief programs were designed to provide. It’s a ripple effect of earlier \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/explainers/california-edd-unemployment-crisis-explained/\">benefit backlogs\u003c/a> that ensnared some \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4615\">5 million people\u003c/a> at the state Employment Development Department (EDD), which \u003ca href=\"https://www.auditor.ca.gov/reports/2020-128and628.1/introduction.html\">officials have said\u003c/a> was unprepared and overwhelmed by mass job losses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those caught up in payment disputes say they have struggled with debt, housing and necessities like food or health care. Meanwhile, no one is publicly tracking how much appeals cases and lawsuits might end up costing workers or taxpayers in a state that still owes the federal government \u003ca href=\"https://oui.doleta.gov/unemploy/docs/trustFundSolvReport2023.pdf\">nearly $19 billion (PDF)\u003c/a> in unemployment debt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s easier to not think the money’s there,” Allen said. “Because if I worry about it too much, it’s too painful.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EDD has paid out \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/en/newsroom/facts-and-stats/dashboard/\">$188 billion\u003c/a> in unemployment benefits since the first pandemic shutdowns. State and federal officials waived many ordinary application requirements as millions of claims flooded in, and the agency \u003ca href=\"https://abc7news.com/california-edd-unemployment-fraud-ca-scam-insurance/10011810/#:~:text=CA%20EDD%20admits%20that%20as,to%20scammers%2C%20California%20EDD%20admits.\">has acknowledged\u003c/a> that up to $31 billion was paid to scammers in the rush to distribute money quickly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Along the way, state watchdogs say \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4615\">up to 1 million workers\u003c/a> were wrongly denied benefits — many mistakenly flagged for committing fraud themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Accusing people of fraud is a big deal,” said George Warner, director of the Wage Protection Program at San Francisco’s Legal Aid at Work. “And the EDD does it very casually, very frequently.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The biggest logjam of contested unemployment cases lies in a \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/en/unemployment/appeals/\">state appeals process\u003c/a>, where more than 1 million workers have asked for a review of EDD’s decisions in their cases since March 2020. About 880,000 of those cases have already \u003ca href=\"https://cuiab.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/documents/cuiabUiAppealsFlowchart.pdf\">been transferred (PDF)\u003c/a> and heard by a lesser-known state labor agency, the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board, where the average case is still languishing for 139 days before a hearing with a judge, federal \u003ca href=\"https://oui.doleta.gov/unemploy/ui_insurance_appeal.asp\">data shows\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dozens of workers who have exhausted this state process have elevated their claims even further, to \u003ca href=\"https://cuiab.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2023/03/Historical-CourtCases-0223b.pdf\">appellate or superior courts (PDF)\u003c/a>. Finally, advocacy groups and hundreds more workers \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2021/01/bank-of-america-sued-over-edd-unemployment-debit-card-fraud/\">have joined\u003c/a> proposed class-action lawsuits against the EDD or its \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2021/02/how-edd-and-bank-of-america-make-millions-on-california-unemployment/\">debit card contractor\u003c/a>, Bank of America.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both the EDD and the Appeals Board refused requests for interviews to discuss workers’ concerns and state efforts to respond. The agencies also referred some inquiries to one another or offered conflicting answers, raising questions about how delays and associated costs are being tracked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Carole M., officer manager, Southern California\"]‘I had no money, and I kept saying: ‘How long is this going to take?”[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gregory Crettol, assistant director of the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board, told CalMatters in a statement that the Appeals Board has hired and trained 105 judges and 100 new support staffers since the onset of the pandemic. The board is also rolling out a new online system for workers to track their cases, and officials said at an April meeting that judges are now closing almost twice as many cases per month as pre-pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, “Given the historic backlog of appeals,” Crettol said in a statement, the Appeals Board “anticipates it will likely take several more years to completely resolve before workload returns to normal levels.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unemployment cases are complex and vary widely, but workers awaiting disputed funds have faced similarly dire challenges. A 33-year-old video editor in Burbank had to create a GoFundMe to restart her life during a gender transition. A security guard In L.A. County worried whether fellow workers still seeking unemployment would end up in the homeless camps he once patrolled. A 62-year-old temp worker in Sacramento spent months terrified she’d lose her car, and a legal office manager in Southern California filed for food stamps and Medi-Cal to survive an appeal with no end in sight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I really feel like I’m a hostage,” said the office manager, who asked to be identified only as Carole M. and has been awaiting an appeal hearing since November. “I had no money, and I kept saying: ‘How long is this going to take?’”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Fraud fury\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Like many of California’s COVID-era unemployment challenges, slow and unwieldy payment disputes aren’t new. But the pandemic did two things: unleash an unprecedented flood of \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/en/newsroom/facts-and-stats/dashboard/#TotalUnemploymentClaims\">29 million\u003c/a> jobless claims, and \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2020/12/who-will-pay-for-all-of-californias-unemployment-fraud/\">supercharge anxiety\u003c/a> about a new generation of online fraud.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rival politicians have seized on jobless claims filed in the name of \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-11-24/california-has-sent-jobless-benefits-to-death-row-inmates\">death row inmates\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/18/us/nuke-bizzle-fraud-youtube.html#:~:text=the%20main%20story-,Rapper%20Arrested%20After%20Bragging%20About%20Unemployment%20Fraud%20in%20Video,coronavirus%20pandemic%2C%20the%20authorities%20said.\">YouTube rappers\u003c/a> bragging about EDD-fueled spending sprees. \u003ca href=\"https://www.irs.gov/identity-theft-fraud-scams/identity-theft-and-unemployment-benefits\">Investigators attribute\u003c/a> the bulk of pandemic unemployment fraud to organized identity theft. Unemployment attorneys, meanwhile, say they’re seeing regular workers who thought they were eligible for benefits disqualified — and sometimes charged with lying — in cases that can sometimes be explained by confusion about state forms, clerical errors, language barriers or disagreements between workers and employers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s so wrong,” said Assaf Lichtash, founding attorney of Los Angeles-based Pershing Square Law Firm. “The way I see it, the EDD is punishing regular civilians that are just filing for benefits who make honest mistakes — they’re punishing them for their failure to safeguard the money from fraudsters.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State reports have also highlighted a disconnect between the EDD’s ham-fisted approach to large-scale fraud and what some say seems like a hair-trigger impulse to flag individual workers. Organized scammers evaded the agency’s automated application systems early in the pandemic, one \u003ca href=\"https://www.govops.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2020/09/Assessment.pdf\">September 2020 report (PDF)\u003c/a> by a governor-appointed EDD Strike Team found, while the vast majority of individual workers scrutinized in manual reviews appeared to be innocent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Processes intended to block fraud are slowing service delivery without catching fraud,” the Strike Team wrote, since just 0.02% of the 1.3 million cases flagged that summer appeared to be real fraud. “The cost of finding that small number of imposters is extremely high.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='More Stories on Health' tag='health']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A separate \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4615\">report last August\u003c/a> by the Legislative Analyst’s Office found that, during the pandemic, state appeals judges overturned EDD unemployment denials up to 80% of the time. That report highlighted another sample of 1.1 million unemployment claims stopped due to fraud concerns by an EDD consultant early in the pandemic, where at least 600,000 cases were later “confirmed as legitimate” and workers saw payments needlessly delayed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even before COVID upended the job market, the Analyst’s Office estimated that improper unemployment denials cost workers $500 million to $1 billion a year in unpaid benefits. The agency also noted “concerning steps” at EDD in recent years that “suggest that ensuring eligible workers get benefits is not among its top priorities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EDD refused to discuss its approach to appeals during the pandemic. Over the past three years, the agency has \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2021/04/california-unemployment-crisis-contracts/\">invested heavily\u003c/a> in new anti-fraud technology and \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/siteassets/files/about_edd/pdf/news-22-06.pdf\">sought federal waivers (PDF)\u003c/a> for some workers who may have received extra federal pandemic unemployment funds “through no fault of their own.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For workers who still want to fight an unemployment case, \u003ca href=\"https://cuiab.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/documents/cuiabUiAppealsFlowchart.pdf\">the first step (PDF)\u003c/a> is to notify the EDD in writing. The EDD then transfers the case to a local office of the Appeals Board, which schedules a hearing with an administrative judge. If a worker or business still feels that their case is unresolved, they can file another appeal with the state-level office of the Appeals Board, or eventually escalate the case to a superior or appellate court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of March, the average first-level appeals case with a judge was taking 139 days — a lag not as extreme as some other states, U.S. Department of Labor \u003ca href=\"https://oui.doleta.gov/unemploy/ui_insurance_appeal.asp\">data shows\u003c/a>, but still roughly triple the federal government’s 30- and 45-day targets for state unemployment appeals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/13621589/embed?auto=1\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This kind of surge is predictable after a recession; the Appeals Board heard about 1.6 million cases in the years around the Great Recession, Crettol said. But workers like Allen, the Fresno graphic designer, have seen first-hand how pandemic cases can be complicated by heightened focus on fraud and differing interpretations of emergency health orders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Allen’s case, he told state officials that he quit his job in July 2021, when the Delta variant of the coronavirus was raging and his wife was instructed not to be vaccinated against COVID-19 while navigating a high-risk pregnancy. Since health precautions like masking were not strictly enforced at his in-person job as a sign installer, Allen wrote in a state appeals filing, he quit “to eliminate the risk of bringing COVID-19 home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One unemployment payment arrived, but then the money stopped.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949703\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11949703\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersNicolasAllen.jpg\" alt=\"A man wearing a black shirt, gold chain and a black Bluetooth device in his ear poses inside his home next to a white door. On the white door is a homemade sign that reads, "William's and Joseph's Room" with two photos of the two boys.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersNicolasAllen.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersNicolasAllen-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersNicolasAllen-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersNicolasAllen-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nicolas Allen in his home in Fresno on April 10, 2023. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I was told that it had been reported that it was a fraudulent claim,” Allen said. “Because my former employer was claiming that I quit without cause.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So began an odyssey that involved months of arguing about pandemic protocols, clerical confusion over a brief freelance gig and paperwork ping-ponging between the EDD and the Appeals Board. After the second appeal, a state judge awarded Allen about six weeks out of the six months of benefits he applied for — securing around $3,000 of the $10,000 he sought, not counting potential federal unemployment supplements available during the pandemic — but denied the rest after questioning how actively he was seeking work while caring for two children under age 2.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across the state, some 170,000 other appeals cases are still pending, according to the most recent \u003ca href=\"https://oui.doleta.gov/unemploy/ui_insurance_appeal.asp\">data reported\u003c/a> by the U.S. Department of Labor. Crettol said the Appeals Board is encouraged that new appeals have started to decline in recent months, and cited a lower state count of 154,000 backlogged cases through the end of March — a discrepancy that he said stems from differences in how state and federal numbers are reported due to funding sources and EDD processing times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/13621625/embed?auto=1\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorneys like Lichtash add that for those stuck waiting, one challenge is a lack of information about if and when a case has been transferred to the Appeals Board from the EDD, the latter of which he called a “black hole.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EDD said in a statement to CalMatters that it sends cases to the Appeals Board in an average of three days. The Appeals Board offered a conflicting number: that it receives about two-thirds of appeals within a week after an appeal is filed, which Crettol said could differ due to how the two agencies track processing times. Neither agency regularly tracks the “monetary value” of appeals cases, or how much the state is being awarded or ordered to pay, spokespeople said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For workers like Allen caught in the fray, the price of being caught up in the confusion has been high.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His family slashed expenses like cable TV and was able to refinance their house, which they credit with avoiding falling behind on the mortgage. But Allen said they were still forced to borrow money from family and take on credit card debt, putting everyday luxuries like a dinner at a restaurant with their kids out of reach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s horrible. I mean, we’re living off my paycheck,” said Allen’s wife, Sharon, who works in human resources. “We’ve almost divorced a few times because of it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A path for reform?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In many ways, unemployment advocates like Jenna Gerry say the pandemic has shone “a spotlight” on chronic problems with the state’s job safety net, from worker confusion over benefit denials to delays at EDD to inconsistent anti-fraud efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The question she and others are asking now is whether state officials will act to change the system that has once again gone haywire, or whether workers caught up in pandemic disputes will be left to bear the brunt of the confusion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was a perfect storm,” said Gerry, a senior staff attorney with the National Employment Law Project. “Instead of being like, ‘Wow, that was really bad. How do we make reforms now?’ … all people want to lift up is fraud, and not actually look at the systemic issues.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The biggest underlying issue, Gerry said, is that millions of California workers — such as gig workers, undocumented workers and others in tenuous hourly positions — aren’t eligible for normal unemployment benefits. That was why the federal government started \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/explainers/california-edd-unemployment-crisis-explained/\">emergency jobless programs\u003c/a> like Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. But subsequent high rates of fraud in the emergency program have complicated conversations at the federal and state levels about whether to make elements of the program permanent to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2022/04/california-undocumented-immigrants/\">cover more workers\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Jenna Gerry, staff attorney, National Employment Law Project\"]‘All people want to lift up is fraud, and not actually look at the systemic issues.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One potential change that advocates are watching closely in California is a plan to finally upgrade the state’s unemployment technology. The Appeals Board says it is rolling out a new system now, and the EDD is \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2022/12/unemployment-benefits-california-edd/\">preparing to launch\u003c/a> an effort called EDDNext. The challenge will be ensuring that such projects are more effective than other \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2021/04/california-unemployment-crisis-contracts/\">costly upgrades\u003c/a> after the Great Recession, which audits said \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2021/04/california-unemployment-crisis-contracts/\">buckled at the EDD during the pandemic\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the more targeted reforms that state agencies \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4615\">have recommended\u003c/a>, but which legislators have yet to act on: removing the EDD from the appeals process, expanding the role of the Appeals Board or adding a new surcharge for businesses that frivolously appeal unemployment insurance (UI) claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To correct state practices that have the effect of limiting UI payments,” the Legislative Analyst’s Office wrote last summer, “the state should give the appeals board the authority and responsibility to set UI policy and practices.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As these debates drag on, some unemployment advocates and workers are taking matters into their own hands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one Alameda County \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/siteassets/files/about_edd/notice-of-class-action-settlement.pdf\">lawsuit against the EDD (PDF)\u003c/a>, the Sacramento-based Center for Workers’ Rights negotiated a February settlement to head off more payment disputes. The EDD \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/california/article/edd-won-t-require-refunds-unemployment-17789516.php\">agreed to cancel\u003c/a> around 5,000 notices of overpayment sent to workers already past a year-long statute of limitations, and to refrain from sending other similar notices past the allowed timeframe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agreement applies only to workers not flagged for potential fraud, leaving attorneys to worry that others still caught up in disputes or unsure how to contest their cases will slip through the cracks. Workers marked for making false statements to EDD face severe penalties — they could be forced to repay the money at high interest, have their wages garnished or be disqualified from collecting benefits if they lose a future job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The burden is generally put on the claimant to appeal,” said Daniela Urban, executive director of the Center for Workers’ Rights. “But these notices never should have been issued.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949702\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11949702\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersMadelineMaye.jpg\" alt=\"A woman with reddish, shoulder-length hair, cateye glasses and a yellow and black floral blouse poses with a serious face in front of her apartment complex.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersMadelineMaye.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersMadelineMaye-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersMadelineMaye-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersMadelineMaye-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Madeline Maye, a video editor based in Burbank on Feb. 12, 2023. Maye lost $5000 to the Bank of America EDD debit card fraud of 2020. She had been laid off from her job just months earlier and was struggling to find freelance video editing work in the pandemic. The situation was compounded for Maye by the fact that she had just come out as transgender, was navigating hormone therapy, and trying to pay for essentials like rent and feminine-presenting clothes and products. \u003ccite>(Alisha Jucevic/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Farther south, in Burbank, Madeline Maye is still seeking some form of closure two years into another proposed class action lawsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The timing couldn’t have been worse in mid-2020, when, in the midst of hormone therapy and a gender transition, the video editor became \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2020/11/how-bank-of-america-helped-fuel-californias-unemployment-meltdown/\">one of thousands of California workers\u003c/a> who noticed money draining from their unemployment debit cards in alleged fraudulent charges. The next year, she joined a class action claim against the state’s debit card contractor, Bank of America, which is now awaiting a hearing date before a federal judge in San Diego.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bank of America has filed to dismiss the suit and declined to comment on ongoing litigation. It was separately \u003ca href=\"https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/federal-regulators-fine-bank-of-america-225-million-over-botched-disbursement-of-state-unemployment-benefits-at-height-of-pandemic/\">fined $225 million\u003c/a> last year by federal regulators for what they deemed “botched disbursement of state unemployment benefits.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Maye’s case, it took about six months to get her unemployment money back from the bank, forcing her to start a GoFundMe account to pay rent and buy essentials like new clothes to restart her life. Her lawsuit is one of several that will test what justice might look like after the state’s job safety net failed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I got my money back, but it was one of the worst times in my life,” Maye said. “It felt like I was alone — that no one gave a shit about me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Californians who lost their jobs due to the pandemic, are still fighting lengthy legal battles over unemployment money that state and federal relief programs were designed to provide.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>It’s been 22 months and three unemployment appeals since Nicolas Allen’s last job in Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the time it has taken the 44-year-old graphic designer to win a fraction of the benefits that he applied for, his wife has weathered a high-risk pregnancy, his youngest son was born and his family has been pushed to the financial brink.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, Allen is one of thousands of Californians who\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>say they lost jobs due to the pandemic, but are still fighting lengthy legal battles over unemployment money that state and federal relief programs were designed to provide. It’s a ripple effect of earlier \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/explainers/california-edd-unemployment-crisis-explained/\">benefit backlogs\u003c/a> that ensnared some \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4615\">5 million people\u003c/a> at the state Employment Development Department (EDD), which \u003ca href=\"https://www.auditor.ca.gov/reports/2020-128and628.1/introduction.html\">officials have said\u003c/a> was unprepared and overwhelmed by mass job losses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those caught up in payment disputes say they have struggled with debt, housing and necessities like food or health care. Meanwhile, no one is publicly tracking how much appeals cases and lawsuits might end up costing workers or taxpayers in a state that still owes the federal government \u003ca href=\"https://oui.doleta.gov/unemploy/docs/trustFundSolvReport2023.pdf\">nearly $19 billion (PDF)\u003c/a> in unemployment debt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s easier to not think the money’s there,” Allen said. “Because if I worry about it too much, it’s too painful.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EDD has paid out \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/en/newsroom/facts-and-stats/dashboard/\">$188 billion\u003c/a> in unemployment benefits since the first pandemic shutdowns. State and federal officials waived many ordinary application requirements as millions of claims flooded in, and the agency \u003ca href=\"https://abc7news.com/california-edd-unemployment-fraud-ca-scam-insurance/10011810/#:~:text=CA%20EDD%20admits%20that%20as,to%20scammers%2C%20California%20EDD%20admits.\">has acknowledged\u003c/a> that up to $31 billion was paid to scammers in the rush to distribute money quickly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Along the way, state watchdogs say \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4615\">up to 1 million workers\u003c/a> were wrongly denied benefits — many mistakenly flagged for committing fraud themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Accusing people of fraud is a big deal,” said George Warner, director of the Wage Protection Program at San Francisco’s Legal Aid at Work. “And the EDD does it very casually, very frequently.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The biggest logjam of contested unemployment cases lies in a \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/en/unemployment/appeals/\">state appeals process\u003c/a>, where more than 1 million workers have asked for a review of EDD’s decisions in their cases since March 2020. About 880,000 of those cases have already \u003ca href=\"https://cuiab.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/documents/cuiabUiAppealsFlowchart.pdf\">been transferred (PDF)\u003c/a> and heard by a lesser-known state labor agency, the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board, where the average case is still languishing for 139 days before a hearing with a judge, federal \u003ca href=\"https://oui.doleta.gov/unemploy/ui_insurance_appeal.asp\">data shows\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dozens of workers who have exhausted this state process have elevated their claims even further, to \u003ca href=\"https://cuiab.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2023/03/Historical-CourtCases-0223b.pdf\">appellate or superior courts (PDF)\u003c/a>. Finally, advocacy groups and hundreds more workers \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2021/01/bank-of-america-sued-over-edd-unemployment-debit-card-fraud/\">have joined\u003c/a> proposed class-action lawsuits against the EDD or its \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2021/02/how-edd-and-bank-of-america-make-millions-on-california-unemployment/\">debit card contractor\u003c/a>, Bank of America.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both the EDD and the Appeals Board refused requests for interviews to discuss workers’ concerns and state efforts to respond. The agencies also referred some inquiries to one another or offered conflicting answers, raising questions about how delays and associated costs are being tracked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gregory Crettol, assistant director of the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board, told CalMatters in a statement that the Appeals Board has hired and trained 105 judges and 100 new support staffers since the onset of the pandemic. The board is also rolling out a new online system for workers to track their cases, and officials said at an April meeting that judges are now closing almost twice as many cases per month as pre-pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, “Given the historic backlog of appeals,” Crettol said in a statement, the Appeals Board “anticipates it will likely take several more years to completely resolve before workload returns to normal levels.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unemployment cases are complex and vary widely, but workers awaiting disputed funds have faced similarly dire challenges. A 33-year-old video editor in Burbank had to create a GoFundMe to restart her life during a gender transition. A security guard In L.A. County worried whether fellow workers still seeking unemployment would end up in the homeless camps he once patrolled. A 62-year-old temp worker in Sacramento spent months terrified she’d lose her car, and a legal office manager in Southern California filed for food stamps and Medi-Cal to survive an appeal with no end in sight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I really feel like I’m a hostage,” said the office manager, who asked to be identified only as Carole M. and has been awaiting an appeal hearing since November. “I had no money, and I kept saying: ‘How long is this going to take?’”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Fraud fury\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Like many of California’s COVID-era unemployment challenges, slow and unwieldy payment disputes aren’t new. But the pandemic did two things: unleash an unprecedented flood of \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/en/newsroom/facts-and-stats/dashboard/#TotalUnemploymentClaims\">29 million\u003c/a> jobless claims, and \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2020/12/who-will-pay-for-all-of-californias-unemployment-fraud/\">supercharge anxiety\u003c/a> about a new generation of online fraud.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rival politicians have seized on jobless claims filed in the name of \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-11-24/california-has-sent-jobless-benefits-to-death-row-inmates\">death row inmates\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/18/us/nuke-bizzle-fraud-youtube.html#:~:text=the%20main%20story-,Rapper%20Arrested%20After%20Bragging%20About%20Unemployment%20Fraud%20in%20Video,coronavirus%20pandemic%2C%20the%20authorities%20said.\">YouTube rappers\u003c/a> bragging about EDD-fueled spending sprees. \u003ca href=\"https://www.irs.gov/identity-theft-fraud-scams/identity-theft-and-unemployment-benefits\">Investigators attribute\u003c/a> the bulk of pandemic unemployment fraud to organized identity theft. Unemployment attorneys, meanwhile, say they’re seeing regular workers who thought they were eligible for benefits disqualified — and sometimes charged with lying — in cases that can sometimes be explained by confusion about state forms, clerical errors, language barriers or disagreements between workers and employers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s so wrong,” said Assaf Lichtash, founding attorney of Los Angeles-based Pershing Square Law Firm. “The way I see it, the EDD is punishing regular civilians that are just filing for benefits who make honest mistakes — they’re punishing them for their failure to safeguard the money from fraudsters.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State reports have also highlighted a disconnect between the EDD’s ham-fisted approach to large-scale fraud and what some say seems like a hair-trigger impulse to flag individual workers. Organized scammers evaded the agency’s automated application systems early in the pandemic, one \u003ca href=\"https://www.govops.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2020/09/Assessment.pdf\">September 2020 report (PDF)\u003c/a> by a governor-appointed EDD Strike Team found, while the vast majority of individual workers scrutinized in manual reviews appeared to be innocent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Processes intended to block fraud are slowing service delivery without catching fraud,” the Strike Team wrote, since just 0.02% of the 1.3 million cases flagged that summer appeared to be real fraud. “The cost of finding that small number of imposters is extremely high.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A separate \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4615\">report last August\u003c/a> by the Legislative Analyst’s Office found that, during the pandemic, state appeals judges overturned EDD unemployment denials up to 80% of the time. That report highlighted another sample of 1.1 million unemployment claims stopped due to fraud concerns by an EDD consultant early in the pandemic, where at least 600,000 cases were later “confirmed as legitimate” and workers saw payments needlessly delayed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even before COVID upended the job market, the Analyst’s Office estimated that improper unemployment denials cost workers $500 million to $1 billion a year in unpaid benefits. The agency also noted “concerning steps” at EDD in recent years that “suggest that ensuring eligible workers get benefits is not among its top priorities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EDD refused to discuss its approach to appeals during the pandemic. Over the past three years, the agency has \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2021/04/california-unemployment-crisis-contracts/\">invested heavily\u003c/a> in new anti-fraud technology and \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/siteassets/files/about_edd/pdf/news-22-06.pdf\">sought federal waivers (PDF)\u003c/a> for some workers who may have received extra federal pandemic unemployment funds “through no fault of their own.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For workers who still want to fight an unemployment case, \u003ca href=\"https://cuiab.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/documents/cuiabUiAppealsFlowchart.pdf\">the first step (PDF)\u003c/a> is to notify the EDD in writing. The EDD then transfers the case to a local office of the Appeals Board, which schedules a hearing with an administrative judge. If a worker or business still feels that their case is unresolved, they can file another appeal with the state-level office of the Appeals Board, or eventually escalate the case to a superior or appellate court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of March, the average first-level appeals case with a judge was taking 139 days — a lag not as extreme as some other states, U.S. Department of Labor \u003ca href=\"https://oui.doleta.gov/unemploy/ui_insurance_appeal.asp\">data shows\u003c/a>, but still roughly triple the federal government’s 30- and 45-day targets for state unemployment appeals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/13621589/embed?auto=1\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This kind of surge is predictable after a recession; the Appeals Board heard about 1.6 million cases in the years around the Great Recession, Crettol said. But workers like Allen, the Fresno graphic designer, have seen first-hand how pandemic cases can be complicated by heightened focus on fraud and differing interpretations of emergency health orders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Allen’s case, he told state officials that he quit his job in July 2021, when the Delta variant of the coronavirus was raging and his wife was instructed not to be vaccinated against COVID-19 while navigating a high-risk pregnancy. Since health precautions like masking were not strictly enforced at his in-person job as a sign installer, Allen wrote in a state appeals filing, he quit “to eliminate the risk of bringing COVID-19 home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One unemployment payment arrived, but then the money stopped.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949703\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11949703\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersNicolasAllen.jpg\" alt=\"A man wearing a black shirt, gold chain and a black Bluetooth device in his ear poses inside his home next to a white door. On the white door is a homemade sign that reads, "William's and Joseph's Room" with two photos of the two boys.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersNicolasAllen.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersNicolasAllen-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersNicolasAllen-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersNicolasAllen-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nicolas Allen in his home in Fresno on April 10, 2023. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I was told that it had been reported that it was a fraudulent claim,” Allen said. “Because my former employer was claiming that I quit without cause.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So began an odyssey that involved months of arguing about pandemic protocols, clerical confusion over a brief freelance gig and paperwork ping-ponging between the EDD and the Appeals Board. After the second appeal, a state judge awarded Allen about six weeks out of the six months of benefits he applied for — securing around $3,000 of the $10,000 he sought, not counting potential federal unemployment supplements available during the pandemic — but denied the rest after questioning how actively he was seeking work while caring for two children under age 2.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across the state, some 170,000 other appeals cases are still pending, according to the most recent \u003ca href=\"https://oui.doleta.gov/unemploy/ui_insurance_appeal.asp\">data reported\u003c/a> by the U.S. Department of Labor. Crettol said the Appeals Board is encouraged that new appeals have started to decline in recent months, and cited a lower state count of 154,000 backlogged cases through the end of March — a discrepancy that he said stems from differences in how state and federal numbers are reported due to funding sources and EDD processing times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://flo.uri.sh/visualisation/13621625/embed?auto=1\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorneys like Lichtash add that for those stuck waiting, one challenge is a lack of information about if and when a case has been transferred to the Appeals Board from the EDD, the latter of which he called a “black hole.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The EDD said in a statement to CalMatters that it sends cases to the Appeals Board in an average of three days. The Appeals Board offered a conflicting number: that it receives about two-thirds of appeals within a week after an appeal is filed, which Crettol said could differ due to how the two agencies track processing times. Neither agency regularly tracks the “monetary value” of appeals cases, or how much the state is being awarded or ordered to pay, spokespeople said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For workers like Allen caught in the fray, the price of being caught up in the confusion has been high.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His family slashed expenses like cable TV and was able to refinance their house, which they credit with avoiding falling behind on the mortgage. But Allen said they were still forced to borrow money from family and take on credit card debt, putting everyday luxuries like a dinner at a restaurant with their kids out of reach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s horrible. I mean, we’re living off my paycheck,” said Allen’s wife, Sharon, who works in human resources. “We’ve almost divorced a few times because of it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A path for reform?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In many ways, unemployment advocates like Jenna Gerry say the pandemic has shone “a spotlight” on chronic problems with the state’s job safety net, from worker confusion over benefit denials to delays at EDD to inconsistent anti-fraud efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The question she and others are asking now is whether state officials will act to change the system that has once again gone haywire, or whether workers caught up in pandemic disputes will be left to bear the brunt of the confusion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was a perfect storm,” said Gerry, a senior staff attorney with the National Employment Law Project. “Instead of being like, ‘Wow, that was really bad. How do we make reforms now?’ … all people want to lift up is fraud, and not actually look at the systemic issues.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The biggest underlying issue, Gerry said, is that millions of California workers — such as gig workers, undocumented workers and others in tenuous hourly positions — aren’t eligible for normal unemployment benefits. That was why the federal government started \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/explainers/california-edd-unemployment-crisis-explained/\">emergency jobless programs\u003c/a> like Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. But subsequent high rates of fraud in the emergency program have complicated conversations at the federal and state levels about whether to make elements of the program permanent to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2022/04/california-undocumented-immigrants/\">cover more workers\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One potential change that advocates are watching closely in California is a plan to finally upgrade the state’s unemployment technology. The Appeals Board says it is rolling out a new system now, and the EDD is \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2022/12/unemployment-benefits-california-edd/\">preparing to launch\u003c/a> an effort called EDDNext. The challenge will be ensuring that such projects are more effective than other \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2021/04/california-unemployment-crisis-contracts/\">costly upgrades\u003c/a> after the Great Recession, which audits said \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2021/04/california-unemployment-crisis-contracts/\">buckled at the EDD during the pandemic\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the more targeted reforms that state agencies \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4615\">have recommended\u003c/a>, but which legislators have yet to act on: removing the EDD from the appeals process, expanding the role of the Appeals Board or adding a new surcharge for businesses that frivolously appeal unemployment insurance (UI) claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To correct state practices that have the effect of limiting UI payments,” the Legislative Analyst’s Office wrote last summer, “the state should give the appeals board the authority and responsibility to set UI policy and practices.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As these debates drag on, some unemployment advocates and workers are taking matters into their own hands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one Alameda County \u003ca href=\"https://edd.ca.gov/siteassets/files/about_edd/notice-of-class-action-settlement.pdf\">lawsuit against the EDD (PDF)\u003c/a>, the Sacramento-based Center for Workers’ Rights negotiated a February settlement to head off more payment disputes. The EDD \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/california/article/edd-won-t-require-refunds-unemployment-17789516.php\">agreed to cancel\u003c/a> around 5,000 notices of overpayment sent to workers already past a year-long statute of limitations, and to refrain from sending other similar notices past the allowed timeframe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agreement applies only to workers not flagged for potential fraud, leaving attorneys to worry that others still caught up in disputes or unsure how to contest their cases will slip through the cracks. Workers marked for making false statements to EDD face severe penalties — they could be forced to repay the money at high interest, have their wages garnished or be disqualified from collecting benefits if they lose a future job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The burden is generally put on the claimant to appeal,” said Daniela Urban, executive director of the Center for Workers’ Rights. “But these notices never should have been issued.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949702\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11949702\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersMadelineMaye.jpg\" alt=\"A woman with reddish, shoulder-length hair, cateye glasses and a yellow and black floral blouse poses with a serious face in front of her apartment complex.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersMadelineMaye.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersMadelineMaye-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersMadelineMaye-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/CalMattersMadelineMaye-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Madeline Maye, a video editor based in Burbank on Feb. 12, 2023. Maye lost $5000 to the Bank of America EDD debit card fraud of 2020. She had been laid off from her job just months earlier and was struggling to find freelance video editing work in the pandemic. The situation was compounded for Maye by the fact that she had just come out as transgender, was navigating hormone therapy, and trying to pay for essentials like rent and feminine-presenting clothes and products. \u003ccite>(Alisha Jucevic/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Farther south, in Burbank, Madeline Maye is still seeking some form of closure two years into another proposed class action lawsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The timing couldn’t have been worse in mid-2020, when, in the midst of hormone therapy and a gender transition, the video editor became \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2020/11/how-bank-of-america-helped-fuel-californias-unemployment-meltdown/\">one of thousands of California workers\u003c/a> who noticed money draining from their unemployment debit cards in alleged fraudulent charges. The next year, she joined a class action claim against the state’s debit card contractor, Bank of America, which is now awaiting a hearing date before a federal judge in San Diego.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bank of America has filed to dismiss the suit and declined to comment on ongoing litigation. It was separately \u003ca href=\"https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/federal-regulators-fine-bank-of-america-225-million-over-botched-disbursement-of-state-unemployment-benefits-at-height-of-pandemic/\">fined $225 million\u003c/a> last year by federal regulators for what they deemed “botched disbursement of state unemployment benefits.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Maye’s case, it took about six months to get her unemployment money back from the bank, forcing her to start a GoFundMe account to pay rent and buy essentials like new clothes to restart her life. Her lawsuit is one of several that will test what justice might look like after the state’s job safety net failed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I got my money back, but it was one of the worst times in my life,” Maye said. “It felt like I was alone — that no one gave a shit about me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>At first glance, the 60 trees that border Tehipite Middle School in Fresno may not look like much. Only a few years old, they are still short and thin, some supported by wooden poles on each side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But their potential is large, especially for the health of students and staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the trees grow in the coming years, the people who planted them hope to find they provide a barrier from what lies just over the fence: the tangle of busy and noisy freeways at the Highway 41 and 180 interchange.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tehipite is nestled right up against the two highways, leaving the more than 500 students and employees vulnerable to \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/mobile-source-pollution/how-mobile-source-pollution-affects-your-health#content1\">vehicle pollution, which has been known to cause health problems\u003c/a>, including cardiovascular disease and decreased lung function.[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Steven Brown, senior atmospheric scientist, Sonoma Tech\"]'It's been known for a long time that there’s a lot of health disparities for anybody who lives next to a roadway.'[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trees were planted in 2020 in hopes that air quality measurements in the future will show they helped mitigate pollution that drifts into the school grounds. If that proves true, the practice could be used more widely at California schools and other freeway-adjacent places where people live and work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The planting is jointly run by \u003ca href=\"https://treefresno.org/\">Tree Fresno\u003c/a>, a nonprofit dedicated to increasing green space in the Central Valley, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.sonomatech.com/services/airquality\">Sonoma Technology\u003c/a>, a private consulting firm that specializes in studying air quality. The \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2018-06/fresno_trees_sep.pdf\">Fresno TREES (PDF)\u003c/a> project is funded by the California Air Resources Board.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The impact of air pollution in the Central Valley\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“It’s been known for a long time that there’s a lot of health disparities for anybody who lives next to a roadway,” said Steven Brown, senior atmospheric scientist at Sonoma Tech, who is working on the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We really see that, in particular for people who live or work or go to school or have a lot of time being exposed to pollution next to roadways,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=200320040SB352\">building new schools within 500 feet of freeways was banned in 2003\u003c/a>, unless space is limited or the pollution can be diminished. But many students, especially in dense urban areas such as Los Angeles, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15143656\">still attend older schools right next to freeways\u003c/a>. Some schools were there before the roads were built.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About \u003ca href=\"https://publicintegrity.org/environment/the-invisible-hazard-afflicting-thousands-of-schools/\">4.4 million students in the U.S. attend a school that lies within 500 feet of highways\u003c/a>, truck routes and other roads with significant traffic, according to a 2017 investigation from the Center for Public Integrity, and Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting. That’s nearly 8,000 public schools, or about 1 in every 11.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown said even people exposed to “major pollution events in utero” are affected as they grow. Children in particular are more sensitive to the effects of pollution on their lungs because they’re still growing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11934063\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11934063\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/20221117_121735-1-1200x750-1.jpeg\" alt=\"A view of security guard and small family standing next to trees lining a school sports field.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"750\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/20221117_121735-1-1200x750-1.jpeg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/20221117_121735-1-1200x750-1-800x500.jpeg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/20221117_121735-1-1200x750-1-1020x638.jpeg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/20221117_121735-1-1200x750-1-160x100.jpeg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The 60 trees that were planted at Tehipite Middle School are still growing, but researchers say it’s possible that up to 50% of particulate matter could be reduced after the trees grow to maturity. \u003ccite>(Ashleigh Panoo/EdSource)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There’s just a little bit different lung functions, a little bit different heart outcomes,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The San Joaquin Valley is known for its poor air quality. The surrounding \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/sanjoaquinvalley/epa-activities-cleaner-air\">mountain ranges trap pollutants on the valley floor\u003c/a>, leaving cities such as Fresno, Bakersfield and Visalia the most polluted in the nation, according to the American Lung Association. In 2022, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.lung.org/research/sota/city-rankings/most-polluted-cities\">Fresno region ranked first in short-term particle pollution\u003c/a>, and second in year-round particle pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vehicle exhaust is a major producer of PM 2.5, or particulate matter that is two-and-a-half microns or less in width.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you breathe it in, it can stay and go deep into your lungs and then really impact your cells,” Brown said. “It can impact how different pieces of your lung are able to function.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>'The trees are important'\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At Tehipite Middle School, students coming out of their classrooms looked on as a car loudly peeled out one afternoon in the neighborhood that surrounds the other sides of the school, leaving a thick cloud of smoke drifting toward the campus and its border of young trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers say vegetative barriers can act in two ways against pollution, such as car exhaust: directly blocking it, and also absorbing it. It’s possible that up to 50% of particulate matter could be reduced after the trees grow to maturity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7092696/#:~:text=Solid%20sound%20walls%20and%20vegetation,mitigate%20near%2Droad%20air%20pollution.\">studies\u003c/a> have shown that \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41612-020-0115-3\">it depends on how thick the vegetation is\u003c/a>, how the wind blows and whether the barrier is working alongside a concrete sound barrier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trees planted at Tehipite are a mix of Aleppo pine, Deodar cedar, Chinese elm and other evergreen trees, according to Mona Cummings, CEO of Tree Fresno. Trees whose leaves don’t fall are best used for barriers because they stay thick year-round.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marilyn Lopez-Cuevas has been the principal at Tehipite Middle School for three years, and she grew up in the neighborhood. She says it’s how she understands the challenges her seventh and eighth graders face living in the community near downtown Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Lopez-Cuevas rushed back onto the Tehipite campus one recent afternoon, she held bags of candy for students who reached their academic goals, and she was also thinking about a birthday party she was planning for a student who wouldn’t get any celebration at home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Part of her job, she says, is connecting with students in small ways that feel big, such as with the candy and the birthday party. She sees the trees as just one more solution to the myriad problems the community faces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People in \u003ca href=\"https://www.lung.org/clean-air/outdoors/who-is-at-risk/disparities\">lower-socioeconomic neighborhoods tend to fare the worst\u003c/a> when it comes to being exposed to pollution, many researchers have found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2018, \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/community-air-protection-program/communities/south-central-fresno\">south central Fresno, where Tehipite is located, was selected to be monitored\u003c/a> by the California Air Resources Board because of its proximity to major freeways and industrial plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11934064\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11934064\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/20221129_150639-5-scaled-1.jpeg\" alt=\"A view of a highway with a line of trees and a fence along the side.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/20221129_150639-5-scaled-1.jpeg 2560w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/20221129_150639-5-scaled-1-800x600.jpeg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/20221129_150639-5-scaled-1-1020x765.jpeg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/20221129_150639-5-scaled-1-160x120.jpeg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/20221129_150639-5-scaled-1-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/20221129_150639-5-scaled-1-2048x1536.jpeg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/20221129_150639-5-scaled-1-1920x1440.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tehipite Middle School's row of new trees separating the school from Highway 41. \u003ccite>(Ashleigh Panoo/EdSource)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://community.valleyair.org/media/1308/fresno_camp_v1_2019_july-1.pdf\">Residents in the area are likely the most heavily burdened (PDF)\u003c/a> in the state by health and environmental challenges, a 2019 report from the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District indicated. People are more likely to be burdened by housing costs, to live in poverty or to be unemployed, according to census tract data, and less likely to have graduated from high school or college. Low birth weights, asthma and cardiovascular diseases are also higher than state averages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As part of the project, the air quality at Tehipite was measured before the trees were planted. Average black carbon measurements were at \u003ca href=\"https://oehha.ca.gov/media/downloads/crnr/appendixa.pdf\">a level that can cause an elevated cancer risk after a lifetime of exposure\u003c/a>, according to the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (PDF).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lopez-Cuevas said she did not know for sure whether students at her school suffered from asthma or other lung conditions more often than in other places.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s hard to answer that question, because obviously it’s very scientific, I would have to have data,” she said. “But we know the impact that better air quality has on our lives. So having said that, you can infer that this has an impact on our community. The trees are important.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Monitoring in the future\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The planting at Tehipite cost about $41,000 for the three-year-old, 15-gallon trees, including irrigation, Cummings said. Air quality monitoring is not included in that total.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Great strides have been made in the last decade in air pollution measuring technology, Brown said, making it easier to get a good idea whether projects such as these can really help mitigate pollution near roadways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/sciencematters/researchers-assess-roadside-vegetation-barriers-suite-air-monitors\">ongoing pilot study at an elementary school in Oakland\u003c/a> also seeks to understand which sort of vegetative barriers work best, using air quality monitoring, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leaders on the Fresno project hope to come away with a similar understanding of whether pollution at Tehipite (and the several other sites they’ve planted) has been reduced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The project gets funded in increments, Brown said, when money is available from the California Air Resources Board. There is not yet funding to return to Tehipite to measure air quality after the trees have grown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“However, it will take one to five years for the trees to grow sufficiently to have a measured impact,” Brown said, “and we continue to work with CARB to secure funding for future air monitoring, so we are hopeful that funding will be in place in future years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2022/can-trees-reduce-pollution-at-schools-next-to-freeways-a-fresno-campus-tries-plantings/681826\">\u003cem>This story originally appeared in EdSource.\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The trees were planted in 2020 in hopes that air quality measurements in the future will show they helped mitigate pollution that drifts into the school grounds. Other schools may follow if tree experiment improves air quality.",
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"description": "The trees were planted in 2020 in hopes that air quality measurements in the future will show they helped mitigate pollution that drifts into the school grounds. Other schools may follow if tree experiment improves air quality.",
"title": "Fresno School Plants Trees to Reduce Highway Pollution, Others May Follow | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>At first glance, the 60 trees that border Tehipite Middle School in Fresno may not look like much. Only a few years old, they are still short and thin, some supported by wooden poles on each side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But their potential is large, especially for the health of students and staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the trees grow in the coming years, the people who planted them hope to find they provide a barrier from what lies just over the fence: the tangle of busy and noisy freeways at the Highway 41 and 180 interchange.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tehipite is nestled right up against the two highways, leaving the more than 500 students and employees vulnerable to \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/mobile-source-pollution/how-mobile-source-pollution-affects-your-health#content1\">vehicle pollution, which has been known to cause health problems\u003c/a>, including cardiovascular disease and decreased lung function.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "'It's been known for a long time that there’s a lot of health disparities for anybody who lives next to a roadway.'",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trees were planted in 2020 in hopes that air quality measurements in the future will show they helped mitigate pollution that drifts into the school grounds. If that proves true, the practice could be used more widely at California schools and other freeway-adjacent places where people live and work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The planting is jointly run by \u003ca href=\"https://treefresno.org/\">Tree Fresno\u003c/a>, a nonprofit dedicated to increasing green space in the Central Valley, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.sonomatech.com/services/airquality\">Sonoma Technology\u003c/a>, a private consulting firm that specializes in studying air quality. The \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2018-06/fresno_trees_sep.pdf\">Fresno TREES (PDF)\u003c/a> project is funded by the California Air Resources Board.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The impact of air pollution in the Central Valley\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“It’s been known for a long time that there’s a lot of health disparities for anybody who lives next to a roadway,” said Steven Brown, senior atmospheric scientist at Sonoma Tech, who is working on the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We really see that, in particular for people who live or work or go to school or have a lot of time being exposed to pollution next to roadways,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In California, \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=200320040SB352\">building new schools within 500 feet of freeways was banned in 2003\u003c/a>, unless space is limited or the pollution can be diminished. But many students, especially in dense urban areas such as Los Angeles, \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15143656\">still attend older schools right next to freeways\u003c/a>. Some schools were there before the roads were built.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About \u003ca href=\"https://publicintegrity.org/environment/the-invisible-hazard-afflicting-thousands-of-schools/\">4.4 million students in the U.S. attend a school that lies within 500 feet of highways\u003c/a>, truck routes and other roads with significant traffic, according to a 2017 investigation from the Center for Public Integrity, and Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting. That’s nearly 8,000 public schools, or about 1 in every 11.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown said even people exposed to “major pollution events in utero” are affected as they grow. Children in particular are more sensitive to the effects of pollution on their lungs because they’re still growing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11934063\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11934063\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/20221117_121735-1-1200x750-1.jpeg\" alt=\"A view of security guard and small family standing next to trees lining a school sports field.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"750\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/20221117_121735-1-1200x750-1.jpeg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/20221117_121735-1-1200x750-1-800x500.jpeg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/20221117_121735-1-1200x750-1-1020x638.jpeg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/20221117_121735-1-1200x750-1-160x100.jpeg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The 60 trees that were planted at Tehipite Middle School are still growing, but researchers say it’s possible that up to 50% of particulate matter could be reduced after the trees grow to maturity. \u003ccite>(Ashleigh Panoo/EdSource)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There’s just a little bit different lung functions, a little bit different heart outcomes,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The San Joaquin Valley is known for its poor air quality. The surrounding \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/sanjoaquinvalley/epa-activities-cleaner-air\">mountain ranges trap pollutants on the valley floor\u003c/a>, leaving cities such as Fresno, Bakersfield and Visalia the most polluted in the nation, according to the American Lung Association. In 2022, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.lung.org/research/sota/city-rankings/most-polluted-cities\">Fresno region ranked first in short-term particle pollution\u003c/a>, and second in year-round particle pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vehicle exhaust is a major producer of PM 2.5, or particulate matter that is two-and-a-half microns or less in width.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you breathe it in, it can stay and go deep into your lungs and then really impact your cells,” Brown said. “It can impact how different pieces of your lung are able to function.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>'The trees are important'\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At Tehipite Middle School, students coming out of their classrooms looked on as a car loudly peeled out one afternoon in the neighborhood that surrounds the other sides of the school, leaving a thick cloud of smoke drifting toward the campus and its border of young trees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers say vegetative barriers can act in two ways against pollution, such as car exhaust: directly blocking it, and also absorbing it. It’s possible that up to 50% of particulate matter could be reduced after the trees grow to maturity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7092696/#:~:text=Solid%20sound%20walls%20and%20vegetation,mitigate%20near%2Droad%20air%20pollution.\">studies\u003c/a> have shown that \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41612-020-0115-3\">it depends on how thick the vegetation is\u003c/a>, how the wind blows and whether the barrier is working alongside a concrete sound barrier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The trees planted at Tehipite are a mix of Aleppo pine, Deodar cedar, Chinese elm and other evergreen trees, according to Mona Cummings, CEO of Tree Fresno. Trees whose leaves don’t fall are best used for barriers because they stay thick year-round.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marilyn Lopez-Cuevas has been the principal at Tehipite Middle School for three years, and she grew up in the neighborhood. She says it’s how she understands the challenges her seventh and eighth graders face living in the community near downtown Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Lopez-Cuevas rushed back onto the Tehipite campus one recent afternoon, she held bags of candy for students who reached their academic goals, and she was also thinking about a birthday party she was planning for a student who wouldn’t get any celebration at home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Part of her job, she says, is connecting with students in small ways that feel big, such as with the candy and the birthday party. She sees the trees as just one more solution to the myriad problems the community faces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People in \u003ca href=\"https://www.lung.org/clean-air/outdoors/who-is-at-risk/disparities\">lower-socioeconomic neighborhoods tend to fare the worst\u003c/a> when it comes to being exposed to pollution, many researchers have found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2018, \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/community-air-protection-program/communities/south-central-fresno\">south central Fresno, where Tehipite is located, was selected to be monitored\u003c/a> by the California Air Resources Board because of its proximity to major freeways and industrial plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11934064\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-11934064\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/20221129_150639-5-scaled-1.jpeg\" alt=\"A view of a highway with a line of trees and a fence along the side.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/20221129_150639-5-scaled-1.jpeg 2560w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/20221129_150639-5-scaled-1-800x600.jpeg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/20221129_150639-5-scaled-1-1020x765.jpeg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/20221129_150639-5-scaled-1-160x120.jpeg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/20221129_150639-5-scaled-1-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/20221129_150639-5-scaled-1-2048x1536.jpeg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/20221129_150639-5-scaled-1-1920x1440.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tehipite Middle School's row of new trees separating the school from Highway 41. \u003ccite>(Ashleigh Panoo/EdSource)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://community.valleyair.org/media/1308/fresno_camp_v1_2019_july-1.pdf\">Residents in the area are likely the most heavily burdened (PDF)\u003c/a> in the state by health and environmental challenges, a 2019 report from the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District indicated. People are more likely to be burdened by housing costs, to live in poverty or to be unemployed, according to census tract data, and less likely to have graduated from high school or college. Low birth weights, asthma and cardiovascular diseases are also higher than state averages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As part of the project, the air quality at Tehipite was measured before the trees were planted. Average black carbon measurements were at \u003ca href=\"https://oehha.ca.gov/media/downloads/crnr/appendixa.pdf\">a level that can cause an elevated cancer risk after a lifetime of exposure\u003c/a>, according to the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (PDF).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lopez-Cuevas said she did not know for sure whether students at her school suffered from asthma or other lung conditions more often than in other places.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s hard to answer that question, because obviously it’s very scientific, I would have to have data,” she said. “But we know the impact that better air quality has on our lives. So having said that, you can infer that this has an impact on our community. The trees are important.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Monitoring in the future\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The planting at Tehipite cost about $41,000 for the three-year-old, 15-gallon trees, including irrigation, Cummings said. Air quality monitoring is not included in that total.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Great strides have been made in the last decade in air pollution measuring technology, Brown said, making it easier to get a good idea whether projects such as these can really help mitigate pollution near roadways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/sciencematters/researchers-assess-roadside-vegetation-barriers-suite-air-monitors\">ongoing pilot study at an elementary school in Oakland\u003c/a> also seeks to understand which sort of vegetative barriers work best, using air quality monitoring, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leaders on the Fresno project hope to come away with a similar understanding of whether pollution at Tehipite (and the several other sites they’ve planted) has been reduced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The project gets funded in increments, Brown said, when money is available from the California Air Resources Board. There is not yet funding to return to Tehipite to measure air quality after the trees have grown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“However, it will take one to five years for the trees to grow sufficiently to have a measured impact,” Brown said, “and we continue to work with CARB to secure funding for future air monitoring, so we are hopeful that funding will be in place in future years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://edsource.org/2022/can-trees-reduce-pollution-at-schools-next-to-freeways-a-fresno-campus-tries-plantings/681826\">\u003cem>This story originally appeared in EdSource.\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/program/the-california-report-magazine\">The California Report Magazine\u003c/a> rebroadcast this story this week after it won a national Edward R. Murrow award, among the most prestigious honors in journalism. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11892838/there-is-anger-he-should-be-alive-an-investigation-into-deadly-covid-19-outbreaks-at-foster-farms\">KQED’s investigation of COVID-19 outbreaks at Foster Farms\u003c/a>, originally broadcast last fall, won best news documentary in the large market radio category. \u003ca href=\"https://www.rtdna.org/content/2022_rtdna_edward_r_murrow_awards_national_honorees\">Here’s a full list of the 2022 winners.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2020, California’s Foster Farms became the site of one of the nation’s deadliest COVID-19 outbreaks at a meat or poultry plant. The California Report’s Central Valley reporter, Alex Hall, spent a year and a half talking to spouses and family members of workers who spent decades at the company’s chicken-processing plants. She found that hundreds of Foster Farms workers tested positive for the virus in 2020. Sixteen people died, and at least 20 others were hospitalized.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hall’s investigation showed that as plants stayed open to maintain the food supply, and workers got sick from COVID-19, or even died, Foster Farms didn’t always give a complete picture of the problem to health officials, state regulators or their own employees. She introduced listeners to families who lost loved ones who worked at Foster Farms — families who are grieving, struggling financially and trying to make sense of what happened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11892838 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2027/10/50872_transform-1020x679.jpg']This encore rebroadcast includes some updates since the story first aired in October 2021. This summer, Foster Farms was sold to a Connecticut-based private equity firm, Atlas Holdings. The company’s new chair and CEO, Donnie Smith, is the former head of Tyson Foods, one of the world’s biggest meat and poultry producers and processors. The California Report reached out to Atlas Holdings with questions, including whether there were any lessons learned from how the company’s previous owners handled the COVID-19 outbreaks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Smith responded: “There are many lessons to be learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, for federal and state government, public health officials, and the private sector. The delivery of timely data to public health officials was and remains essential to efforts to combat disease and is something that Foster Farms is irrevocably committed to ensuring. More broadly, since June, my team and I have focused squarely on creating a workplace culture that is second to none — a culture that nobody wants to walk away from.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smith also noted that the company recently increased pay for workers at Foster Farms’ processing facility in Livingston, Merced County, by 25%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the challenges the families of workers who died face is the complicated and slow process of receiving death benefits. Since this story first aired, some family members have finally begun to receive financial compensation. Rosa Velasquez, for example, whose husband, Gregorio Velasquez, died in January of 2021 after working at a Foster Farms plant in Fresno for about 20 years, began receiving benefits in May, about a year after she first applied for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Velasquez is still waiting to find out what amount her children and grandchildren will receive. Alma Ruth Hernández Núñez, the widow of another employee, Eufracio Caballero, also began receiving benefits earlier this year, according to her attorney. The amount their children will receive is also still being determined.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to a spokesperson from California’s Department of Industrial Relations, Foster Farms is still appealing \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/DOSH/covid19citations.asp\">multiple citations Cal/OSHA issued against the company in 2021\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/program/the-california-report-magazine\">The California Report Magazine\u003c/a> rebroadcast this story this week after it won a national Edward R. Murrow award, among the most prestigious honors in journalism. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11892838/there-is-anger-he-should-be-alive-an-investigation-into-deadly-covid-19-outbreaks-at-foster-farms\">KQED’s investigation of COVID-19 outbreaks at Foster Farms\u003c/a>, originally broadcast last fall, won best news documentary in the large market radio category. \u003ca href=\"https://www.rtdna.org/content/2022_rtdna_edward_r_murrow_awards_national_honorees\">Here’s a full list of the 2022 winners.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2020, California’s Foster Farms became the site of one of the nation’s deadliest COVID-19 outbreaks at a meat or poultry plant. The California Report’s Central Valley reporter, Alex Hall, spent a year and a half talking to spouses and family members of workers who spent decades at the company’s chicken-processing plants. She found that hundreds of Foster Farms workers tested positive for the virus in 2020. Sixteen people died, and at least 20 others were hospitalized.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hall’s investigation showed that as plants stayed open to maintain the food supply, and workers got sick from COVID-19, or even died, Foster Farms didn’t always give a complete picture of the problem to health officials, state regulators or their own employees. She introduced listeners to families who lost loved ones who worked at Foster Farms — families who are grieving, struggling financially and trying to make sense of what happened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>This encore rebroadcast includes some updates since the story first aired in October 2021. This summer, Foster Farms was sold to a Connecticut-based private equity firm, Atlas Holdings. The company’s new chair and CEO, Donnie Smith, is the former head of Tyson Foods, one of the world’s biggest meat and poultry producers and processors. The California Report reached out to Atlas Holdings with questions, including whether there were any lessons learned from how the company’s previous owners handled the COVID-19 outbreaks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Smith responded: “There are many lessons to be learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, for federal and state government, public health officials, and the private sector. The delivery of timely data to public health officials was and remains essential to efforts to combat disease and is something that Foster Farms is irrevocably committed to ensuring. More broadly, since June, my team and I have focused squarely on creating a workplace culture that is second to none — a culture that nobody wants to walk away from.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smith also noted that the company recently increased pay for workers at Foster Farms’ processing facility in Livingston, Merced County, by 25%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the challenges the families of workers who died face is the complicated and slow process of receiving death benefits. Since this story first aired, some family members have finally begun to receive financial compensation. Rosa Velasquez, for example, whose husband, Gregorio Velasquez, died in January of 2021 after working at a Foster Farms plant in Fresno for about 20 years, began receiving benefits in May, about a year after she first applied for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Velasquez is still waiting to find out what amount her children and grandchildren will receive. Alma Ruth Hernández Núñez, the widow of another employee, Eufracio Caballero, also began receiving benefits earlier this year, according to her attorney. The amount their children will receive is also still being determined.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to a spokesperson from California’s Department of Industrial Relations, Foster Farms is still appealing \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/DOSH/covid19citations.asp\">multiple citations Cal/OSHA issued against the company in 2021\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Regulators are investigating a hepatitis A outbreak across the U.S. and Canada that may be linked to fresh organic strawberries, with more than a dozen cases reported in California so far.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a joint weekend statement, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Public Health Agency of Canada said \u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/food/outbreaks-foodborne-illness/outbreak-investigation-hepatitis-virus-strawberries-may-2022#:~:text=The%20FDA%2C%20along%20with%20CDC,as%20FreshKampo%20and%20HEB%2C%20purchased\">people fell ill after consuming FreshKampo and H-E-B brand strawberries\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There have been 17 illnesses and 12 hospitalizations reported in the U.S., the FDA said, with 15 of those cases occurring in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agencies said the strawberries were purchased between March 5 and April 25. They were sold at various U.S. retailers, including Aldi, Kroger, Safeway, Walmart and Trader Joe’s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mexico-based FreshKampo, which grew the strawberries, said in a statement Sunday that it is working with regulators to determine how the problem occurred. FreshKampo said the label on the containers of potentially affected strawberries would have said “Product of Mexico” or “Distributed by Meridian Foods.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meridian Fine Foods, a FreshKampo subsidiary, is based in Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The potentially affected strawberries are past their shelf life, but health officials say consumers who purchased them and froze them to eat later should throw them away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hepatitis A is a virus that can cause liver disease and, in rare cases, liver failure and death. Illness usually occurs within 15 to 50 days after eating or drinking contaminated food or water. Symptoms include fatigue, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and jaundice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Consumers who ate the potentially affected berries in the last two weeks and have not been vaccinated against hepatitis A should immediately consult with a physician, the FDA said.\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Regulators are investigating a hepatitis A outbreak across the U.S. and Canada that may be linked to fresh organic strawberries, with more than a dozen cases reported in California so far.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a joint weekend statement, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Public Health Agency of Canada said \u003ca href=\"https://www.fda.gov/food/outbreaks-foodborne-illness/outbreak-investigation-hepatitis-virus-strawberries-may-2022#:~:text=The%20FDA%2C%20along%20with%20CDC,as%20FreshKampo%20and%20HEB%2C%20purchased\">people fell ill after consuming FreshKampo and H-E-B brand strawberries\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There have been 17 illnesses and 12 hospitalizations reported in the U.S., the FDA said, with 15 of those cases occurring in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agencies said the strawberries were purchased between March 5 and April 25. They were sold at various U.S. retailers, including Aldi, Kroger, Safeway, Walmart and Trader Joe’s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mexico-based FreshKampo, which grew the strawberries, said in a statement Sunday that it is working with regulators to determine how the problem occurred. FreshKampo said the label on the containers of potentially affected strawberries would have said “Product of Mexico” or “Distributed by Meridian Foods.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meridian Fine Foods, a FreshKampo subsidiary, is based in Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The potentially affected strawberries are past their shelf life, but health officials say consumers who purchased them and froze them to eat later should throw them away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hepatitis A is a virus that can cause liver disease and, in rare cases, liver failure and death. Illness usually occurs within 15 to 50 days after eating or drinking contaminated food or water. Symptoms include fatigue, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and jaundice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Consumers who ate the potentially affected berries in the last two weeks and have not been vaccinated against hepatitis A should immediately consult with a physician, the FDA said.\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "ENCORE BROADCAST: 'There Is Anger. He Should Be Alive': An Investigation Into Deadly COVID-19 Outbreaks at Foster Farms",
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"content": "\u003cp>In 2020, California’s Foster Farms became the site of one of the nation’s deadliest COVID-19 outbreaks at a meat or poultry plant. The California Report’s Central Valley reporter, Alex Hall, spent a year and a half talking to spouses and family members of workers who spent decades at the company’s chicken-processing plants. She found that hundreds of Foster Farms workers tested positive for the virus in 2020. Sixteen people died, and at least 20 others were hospitalized.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11892838/there-is-anger-he-should-be-alive-an-investigation-into-deadly-covid-19-outbreaks-at-foster-farms\">Hall’s investigation\u003c/a> shows that as plants stayed open to maintain the food supply, and workers got sick from COVID-19, or even died, Foster Farms didn’t always give a complete picture of the problem to health officials, state regulators and their own employees. We meet families who lost loved ones who worked at Foster Farms — families who are grieving, struggling financially, and trying to make sense of what happened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since this episode originally aired in October 2021, some of the families Hall spoke with are still waiting to hear whether they will receive death benefits — nearly a year and a half after their loved ones died. Meanwhile, three of the temp agencies Foster Farms used to hire workers have successfully argued to get their Cal/OSHA penalties reduced. Foster Farms is still appealing the state’s citations against them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In 2020, California’s Foster Farms became the site of one of the nation’s deadliest COVID-19 outbreaks at a meat or poultry plant. The California Report’s Central Valley reporter, Alex Hall, spent a year and a half talking to spouses and family members of workers who spent decades at the company’s chicken-processing plants. She found that hundreds of Foster Farms workers tested positive for the virus in 2020. Sixteen people died, and at least 20 others were hospitalized.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11892838/there-is-anger-he-should-be-alive-an-investigation-into-deadly-covid-19-outbreaks-at-foster-farms\">Hall’s investigation\u003c/a> shows that as plants stayed open to maintain the food supply, and workers got sick from COVID-19, or even died, Foster Farms didn’t always give a complete picture of the problem to health officials, state regulators and their own employees. We meet families who lost loved ones who worked at Foster Farms — families who are grieving, struggling financially, and trying to make sense of what happened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since this episode originally aired in October 2021, some of the families Hall spoke with are still waiting to hear whether they will receive death benefits — nearly a year and a half after their loved ones died. Meanwhile, three of the temp agencies Foster Farms used to hire workers have successfully argued to get their Cal/OSHA penalties reduced. Foster Farms is still appealing the state’s citations against them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When it comes to eviction court, tenants are far less likely than property owners to be represented by an attorney. That makes it especially difficult for them to understand their rights and navigate the complex system. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The right to counsel is something that tenant advocates are pushing for across the country, and more cities and states are considering it, especially in light of the economic hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In this episode of Sold Out, we’ll go to Fresno in California’s Central Valley, where rents are rising, and meet tenant advocates who have organized to push for a right to counsel. And we’ll also visit New York, where this movement took off, and speak to the activists behind it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch5 id=\"embed-code\" class=\"inconsolata\">\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC6308765795&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/h5>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>LANDLORD V. TENANT [TRANSCRIPT]\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>ERIKA KELLY, EDITOR\u003c/strong>: I’m Erika Kelly, the editor of Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America, here to say thank you for listening to the show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our team is wrapping up the season, and we’d love to know what you thought about it, what you liked, what you didn’t like. Most importantly, we’d like to know a little more about you, our listener. What issues or stories [do] you want to hear more of in the future?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Head over to \u003ca href=\"https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/6755022/f959eb5782fc\">kqed.org/soldoutsurvey\u003c/a> to leave us some feedback.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thanks so much!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>(KQED music in)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music in)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY SOLOMON, HOST\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Hey, I’m Molly Solomon.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN BALDASSARI, HOST\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And I’m Erin Baldassari. From KQED this is Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This season we’ve been exploring evictions. If you’ve been following along, you already know the system is stacked against tenants. And that evictions have devastating consequences. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Nowhere is that more clear than in eviction court. It’s where most cases end up, and it’s where a push for reform is growing.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On today’s episode: a fight to balance the scales. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music out)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Sounds: City streets. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Molly Solomon is walking and speaks into her recorder.)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MOLLY IN FRESNO\u003c/strong>: OK. We’re on O Street, downtown Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>MOLLY\u003c/strong>: Last fall I drove out to California’s Central Valley, and pulled up to a mid-century modern building in the middle of downtown, the Fresno County Superior Courthouse.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY IN FRESNO\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There is already a line of people that are getting ready to check in through the front door.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A security guard milled around outside. The crisp early morning air was starting to warm as the sun peeked out from behind the building. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m trying to look for Robert Cortez. He’s going to help me out today check out eviction court. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Are you Robert? Hi, I’m Molly. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ROBERT CORTEZ\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hi, nice to meet you.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Robert is an attorney who represents tenants. His law firm, \u003ca href=\"https://www.centralcallegal.org/\">Central California Legal Services\u003c/a>, handles the vast majority of eviction defense cases in Fresno.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We head up to the fourth floor where eviction hearings start every Tuesday morning at 8:30. Today, there are about 20 cases on the docket. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11907099\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11907099\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7937-1-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A gray and tan building with various columns, and two people passing in front of it.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7937-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7937-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7937-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7937-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7937-1-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7937-1-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Fresno County Superior Courthouse in downtown Fresno. \u003ccite>(Alex Hall/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ROBERT\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So 90% of the time we’re in 404, which is just down the hall.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The room is small, no windows. There are a few rows of benches that are about half full. It’s not as packed as it was before the pandemic. Many hearings are still happening on Zoom. Robert points out some lawyers in the room. He calls them the regulars.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ROBERT\u003c/b>: A\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">bout four or five regular landlord attorneys are here every day.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Robert tells me one of the attorneys also serves as a debt collector for the landlords he represents. He collects past due rent from tenants who’ve been evicted. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ROBERT\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He gets these unrepresented clients to agree to these deals that are payment plans basically. And they go on for years, like five, six, seven years. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music in)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I couldn’t record inside the courtroom while trials were underway. But I’ll say — you didn’t miss much. There’s a reason you never see TV shows about eviction courts. There’s not a lot of drama. Usually, you don’t call witnesses or present evidence. And a lot of times, evictions aren’t even decided in the courtroom.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>(Music out)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The action is out in the hallway.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Sounds: Door opens and closes.)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ROBERT\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You’ll see a lot of dealmaking out here in the hallways. A lot of times attorneys will come outside and, you know, see if there’s a deal to be made. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That’s how most cases end up: in deals or settlements. And that’s what Robert’s trying to do for his client Lea Esparza. Lea came to Robert after the court had already issued a default judgment against her, which is basically an automatic win for the landlord. It happens when tenants don’t show up or don’t file their paperwork in time. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Lea’s case, she tried to file her paperwork. The problem was she’d hired a paralegal off of Craigslist to help her fill it out.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>LEA ESPARZA\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She charged me $500 and she didn’t turn in the paperwork. That’s why we ended up with the lockout.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ROBERT\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So the sheriff is scheduled to come to the residence on Thursday. So what I’m trying to get the judge to do is delay that sheriff.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>LEA\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yes, they said they were going to come at 6 a.m. and lock me out.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music in) \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Lea had to stop working about a year ago after she was diagnosed with cancer.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>LEA\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I am battling cervical cancer and I’m also battling — I just had a surgery three months ago.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She says after this morning’s hearing she’s going back to the hospital for another surgery. And if her eviction goes through, she doesn’t know where she and her kids will go.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>LEA\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I got four daughters and myself and like I said, I do, I am battling my health, so I don’t think I have anywhere to go. I don’t got family around here.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music out)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Robert has just come out of a small mediators’ room with the landlord’s attorney. He and Lea huddle in a corner of the hallway, and keep their voices low. He’s got good news: Lea can stay through the end of the year, 109 more days. He’s also gotten her rent payments lowered to about $2 a day.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ROBERT\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A lot of this work is delaying the inevitable. Sometimes eviction is inevitable. But we just try to get as much time as possible, so the client’s not on the street.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lea will\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">eventually \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">have to leave. But the deal is way better than what she could have negotiated on her own.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Most people don’t have someone like Robert on their side. These eviction cases move quickly and play out in courtrooms every day. And wherever you go, there’s the same imbalance: Landlords have attorneys. And tenants don’t.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JOHN POLLOCK\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And that kind of representational imbalance yields the kind of results you would expect, which is it’s just completely one-sided.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> John Pollock is with the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://civilrighttocounsel.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Their data shows that across the country, 81% of landlords have a lawyer, but only 3% of tenants do.\u003c/span>\u003cb> \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JOHN\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The tenants always lose, and half of them don’t even participate in the process because it is such a hopeless, disempowering process right now.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> He says many tenants get pushed into deals that are on the landlord’s terms. And that’s why Pollock says tenants need attorneys, too. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Sold Out theme song begins.)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>MOLLY\u003c/strong>: Think of it this way: We grant defendants a right to an attorney in criminal cases. Why should it be any different for housing court?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JOHN\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">From our perspective, these are very serious proceedings on par with criminal ones in terms of the consequences. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now, the eviction protections put in place during the pandemic are expiring. And, eviction courts are filling up again. As they do, the calls for change are getting louder. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Because tenants and their allies say the current system isn’t fair, and it needs to change.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Sold Out theme song ends.)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11843281\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 657px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11843281\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/SOLD-OUT-Web-Banners__Tune-In_656x336.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"657\" height=\"337\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/SOLD-OUT-Web-Banners__Tune-In_656x336.png 657w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/SOLD-OUT-Web-Banners__Tune-In_656x336-160x82.png 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 657px) 100vw, 657px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sold Out: Rethinking Housing In America is a five-part series reimagining what housing could be by examining California, the epicenter of the nation’s housing affordability crisis.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On a windy morning last spring, a couple dozen people gathered outside Fresno City Hall.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There were tenants, faith leaders and housing advocates. And they were there to call attention to evictions in their neighborhoods.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>A SPEAKER AT CITY HALL\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What is a home when one is renting from a landlord who abuses their power dynamic and refuses to fix these conditions and then threatens to evict tenants who complain? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They directed their protest to the city council, which was meeting inside the gleaming stainless steel building. On their agenda was a proposal to help tenants avoid eviction. Outside, a local pastor, D.J. Criner, took the mic.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>D.J. CRINER\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Are you going to hold landlords just as accountable as landlords think they’re holding residents? Are you going to give individuals an opportunity to have legal aid? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Renters held signs and shared their stories about the rent going up, about being forced to move, about worrying for their children. One of them was Jessica Ramirez, a mother of five who was born and raised in Fresno.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music in)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She was evicted a few years ago and didn’t have an attorney to help her out. Now with that on her record, it’s almost impossible to find new housing. Speaking to the crowd, she held up her eviction papers. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JESSICA RAMIREZ\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is why I’m here today, I’m here to raise my voice. You know, this voice that I have is not for one, but for many.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She shared how she and her family had to live in their car. How her kids had to bathe themselves in the restrooms of a public park.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JESSICA\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You know, many out here in this world. You know, I live. This is a struggle. I’m in pain. You know, you guys don’t know how it is, living in the streets. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Pastor Criner called on the city council to protect renters like Jessica. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>D.J.\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is about a call to action. Speak for this young lady and mother of five that is praying for an opportunity to raise her children in the same decent housing you’re able to raise yours in. So we studied the problem. We found the solution. We wrote the proposal, and the money has already been found. The question is now, are you listening and are you going to do something about it?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music out)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Fresno City Hall is in the middle of downtown. It’s densely packed with tall office buildings. But you don’t have to drive far before you’re surrounded by farmland.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fresno sits at the center of California’s San Joaquin Valley. Founded as a railroad town, it’s grown into an agricultural powerhouse. It’s also been an affordable city in an extremely unaffordable state, at least until recently.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>CLIPS FROM FRESNO RENT NEWSCASTS\u003c/b>: “\u003cem>The real estate market is buzzing in the valley.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“According to a story in The Los Angeles Times called Fresno the hottest market in the country.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“\u003c/em>\u003cem>Monthly rent in Fresno has soared over the last year — experts cite high demand and low inventory.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> In the last year alone, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.fresnobee.com/fresnoland/article258073823.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">rents spiked 28%\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Now, the average one-bedroom is over \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.zumper.com/rent-research/fresno-ca\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">$1,400 a month\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.fresnobee.com/article252425493.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And home prices are way up, too\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Driving around Fresno, you can almost feel the hype. Everywhere you go, there are these advertisements for new housing developments. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Alexandra Alvarado has felt it, too. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ALEXANDRA ALVARADO\u003c/b>:\u003cb> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Central Valley has this myth of affordability that, like, people can just come in and afford it and be able to buy houses.\u003c/span>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She’s always lived around Fresno. She grew up in a small town nearby, moved here for college. Alexandra is now a community organizer with a group called \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://faithinthevalley.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Faith in the Valley\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> — the same group that organized the tenant protest outside City Hall. She says the idea of Fresno as an affordable place … is part of what’s driving up prices.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ALEXANDRA\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Especially during the pandemic, when people were working from home, we were running across stories of people from the bay or from LA that were saying, oh, I could buy two houses in Fresno.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fresno might be cheaper than San Francisco or Los Angeles, but it’s also \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article209826869.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">one of the poorest cities in the country\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/fresnocitycalifornia/INC110219\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One in four families\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> here live below the federal poverty line.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As prices rise, it’s becoming harder for people to find safe housing. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ALEXANDRA\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What they end up being pushed to is what they can afford.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[HOST]\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">An investigation\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> by local newspaper The Fresno Bee found that \u003ca href=\"https://www.fresnobee.com/fresnoland/article249299005.html\">some tenants were living in terrible conditions\u003c/a>: with no heat, leaky pipes, and mold. And when they complained, they were often threatened with an eviction.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music in)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Even before the pandemic, there are anywhere from three [thousand] to 4,000 eviction filings in Fresno each year. That’s according to a 2019 report from two researchers at Fresno State University.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>AMBER CROWELL\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So that’s a lot of people. And it was, you know, 200 or 300 families a month. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s Amber Crowell. She wrote the report with her colleague Janine Nkosi. They also work on housing advocacy with Faith in the Valley.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Janine and Amber spent months observing eviction hearings at the Fresno courthouse, the same place I met up with Robert and Lea. And they saw a lot of the same disparities that I did. Landlords had lawyers, and tenants didn’t. Here’s Janine:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JANINE NKOSI\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I could literally cry right now when I think about it. Three, like maybe three people, were able to get some type of legal representation in housing court.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">According to the \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">most recent data from Eviction Lab\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u003ca href=\"https://evictionlab.org/map/#/2016?geography=counties&bounds=-122.192,35.603,-116.28,37.847&type=er&locations=06019,-119.443,36.916\">Fresno has one of the highest eviction rates in the state\u003c/a>. Far higher than in Los Angeles and San Francisco. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But there’s only one legal aid organization in Fresno. And about half of the residents here are renters. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JANINE\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The challenges that we are experiencing, they are not so different than what folks in the Bay Area, right, or Northern California, are experiencing, or in Southern California, but they are happening at an accelerated rate. We have the highest need and the fewest amount of resources.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music out)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[HOST]\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What Janine and Amber found inspired a growing coalition of renters, faith leaders and students — one that only grew as economic shutdowns during the pandemic made it harder for tenants to pay their rent, tenants like Shar Thompson.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>SHAR THOMPSON\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m a single mom that works two jobs. So, you know, it’s really tough.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Shar works part time at Costco. When her shift ends in the afternoon, she heads to her second job at Walmart, where she works overnight stocking shelves. Shar’s from the Central Valley. She grew up in a small farming town nearby called Coalinga.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>SHAR\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you drive down I-5 and smell the fresh air of cow manure, that’s Coalinga. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She moved to Fresno during the pandemic and was having trouble paying her rent. She found Faith in the Valley when she Googled local rent assistance programs.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Then she started showing up at meetings, learning about her rights as a tenant, and discovered what was possible when she worked alongside other renters.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music in)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>SHAR\u003c/b>: There’s passion behind it from everybody. And I love the fact that we’re all from different walks of life, but we all have the same main goal and that’s to make a whole new housing system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>: Shar and the ot\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">her Fresno renters had specific demands for the city. They wanted every tenant fighting an eviction to have an attorney: a\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://leadershipcounsel.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Fresno-Right-to-Counsel-Coalition-Community-Proposal.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> right to counsel\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But they took it even further. They wanted the city to connect tenants with rent relief. And create a diversion program to help tenants and\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">landlords avoid the courtroom altogether. By early last year, their proposal was ready for the city council.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>SPEAKER AT CITY COUNCIL\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thank you. Last item — that’s public item that we have is 4-B, it’s a workshop to discuss right-to-counsel proposal.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11907097\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11907097 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7983-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A woman stares pensively off into the distance, she wears a green shirt.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7983-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7983-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7983-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7983-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7983-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7983-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fresno renter Jessica Ramirez. \u003ccite>(Alex Hall/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jessica Ramirez, the same renter who spoke outside City Hall, called into this meeting, too. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JESSICA\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I am one of many that are speaking out asking for help because I know it only takes one eviction on someone’s record to change their lives forever.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But there’s pushback from landlords and within City Hall. Here’s City Council member Garry Bredefeld.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>GARRY BREDEFELD\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So I know. Imagine, I guess we’re pretty flush with money at the City of Fresno, and now we’re going into the rental tenant defense business. I don’t see any way that I will support these kinds of things. I don’t think this is what we should be doing. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[HOST]\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Renters continued to pressure the city for months to vote on their proposal. But eventually, it became clear: A true right to counsel was not going to pass. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music out)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here’s Amber Crowell, the eviction researcher at Fresno State.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>AMBER\u003c/b>: It was tough. It was a tough battle. And we didn’t get everything we wanted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> What they got was something of a compromise. The city calls it the Eviction Protection Program. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s not for all tenants — just the ones who are being wrongfully evicted, like if their landlord’s retaliating against them, or illegally locking them out. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Amber and other housing activists think only a small number of tenants will qualify or even know the program exists, leaving many still vulnerable.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But City Councilmember Tyler Maxwell is more optimistic.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>TYLER MAXWELL\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I can tell you, it is an uphill battle to get where we’re at today. I’m happy we’re able to get our foot in the door.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He helped introduce the Eviction Protection Program. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.fresnobee.com/fresnoland/article258184263.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s already helped 180 people get free legal help.\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nearly all of them were able to avoid trial. For the few who did go, most were able to get the eviction off their record. And that’s important, because having an eviction on your record can lock you out of new housing. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11907096\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11907096\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7874-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7874-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7874-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7874-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7874-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7874-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7874-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A mural in downtown Fresno. \u003ccite>(Alex Hall/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The program is only funded for one year and Tyler hopes they’ll extend it. But a right to counsel is still a pretty radical idea for Fresno, and he thinks there’s always going to be some people questioning whether it’s worth it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>TYLER\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Why are we giving away free things? You know, why? Why are we providing something for free for people? You know they need to pick themselves up from the bootstraps, which, representing a district like I do, I know that’s a bunch of B.S. — picking yourself up by the bootstraps doesn’t work when you can’t afford the bootstraps. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music in)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This story isn’t over. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A couple months ago, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.fresnobee.com/news/politics-government/article256467491.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">150 people showed up at City Hall to demand the city use federal COVID dollars\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to pass a true right to counsel, rent control and more eviction protections. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Amber Crowell and Janine Nkosi say renters in Fresno can’t back down now, even if it feels like a battle between David and Goliath. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>AMBER\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The groups that represent property owners are much more powerful politically than the groups that represent tenants. And so that’s just an ideology that we’re always fighting against.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JANINE\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You know, it’s always a battle between individual rights versus, like, collective care and collective responsibility. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They say it’s a battle worth fighting. And you can’t win anything if you don’t ask for it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JANINE\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We are made to believe that these are big asks, but we should be dreaming much, much bigger than we ever have been. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Fresno isn’t the only place to fight for a right to counsel. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Coming up on Sold Out: where the movement first began.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music out)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>CROWD CHANTING\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Housing is a human right. Fight, fight, fight.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>RANDY DILLARD\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Good morning, good morning, good morning. My name is Randy Dillard and we are facing an eviction crisis in the Bronx.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Randy Dillard wears a bright orange T-shirt. On it is a fist thrust in the air. He energizes the crowd outside New York City Hall in lower Manhattan. It’s 2013 and he’s part of a tenants group in the South Bronx.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>RANDY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Representation for tenants in housing court should be a right.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Randy was familiar with housing court. Before he was an organizer, he worked as a bricklayer. A single dad with five kids, Randy was on Section 8, but his apartment was not up to code. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>RANDY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We have mold all over the apartment. We had leaks coming from up above into an open-light fixture in the bathroom that could have started a fire. We had to put plastic bags up.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He said the leaks were so bad, sometimes they had to use an umbrella inside the house to keep from getting wet. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Because of the conditions, Randy’s home failed a Section 8 inspection, so the government program stopped making payments to his landlord. And then he developed emphysema and ended up in the hospital. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>RANDY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And they was getting ready to put me on a breathing machine ’cause my lungs was getting ready to collapse. I almost, almost died.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He was in the hospital for two months. Three days after he got out, he got a knock on his door.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>RANDY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">My landlord’s lawyer served me with eviction papers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Randy says going to housing court to fight his eviction was confusing and scary. When he got there, he was met with long lines and little information.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>RANDY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It leaves you numb, and empty inside. As soon as you get there first, you don’t know what to look for and you’ve got a long line of people. And some of them are emotional, crying, you know, while you waiting in line to go through the metal detector to get in there.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At that time, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://newsettlement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/CDP.WEB_.doc_Report_CASA-TippingScales-full_201303.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">about 2,000 tenants were showing up at the Bronx housing court \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">every day. It was the busiest eviction courtroom in all five boroughs. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ultimately, Randy did end up getting an attorney. He found someone through a legal help group in his neighborhood. His case took almost two years, but he eventually won, an outcome he says would have been impossible without his attorney. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>RANDY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I don’t think no tenant should have to go through what me and my kids went through, and no tenant should have to stand before a judge and not know what their rights are. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Randy got involved with the group \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://newsettlement.org/casa/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Community Action for Safe Apartments, or CASA\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">CASA and a coalition of housing groups pressured the city to adopt a right to counsel. Organizers made the moral case that no one should have to face something as life-altering as losing your home without the benefit of an attorney.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Susanna Blankley was the group’s director at the time.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>SUSANNA BLANKLEY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It meant the right to not face eviction alone. It meant the right to know that you would be protected. It meant the right to have power within the court system.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music in)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The coalition kept pushing, whipping up support wherever they could. First at a neighborhood board meeting, then City Council hearings, delivering a petition with 7,000 signatures to the mayor’s office. They even got the chief judge of the New York court system to testify in support of a right to counsel.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Until finally, after three years of organizing, New York City tenants made history. And won something that didn’t exist anywhere else in America: a right to counsel.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When the program rolled out in 2017, it guaranteed most low-income tenants access to an attorney if they’re facing eviction. Former Mayor Bill de Blasio signed the legislation at CASA’s offices in the Bronx. Standing beside him was Randy Dillard.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Sounds from the moments when Mayor Bill de Blasio was signing the legislation.) \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>RANDY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The reason why I’m here today, you wouldn’t be able to see me if I didn’t have an attorney. That’s why I’m standing up here. That’s why I’ve been fighting with the coalition and with CASA to make this possible.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> In a video of the signing, Randy has this big smile on his face. Afterward, de Blasio turns to him and hands him the pen. He still has it today, framed on his wall.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>RANDY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I introduced the mayor and I, and I spoke. They let me speak. It was powerful. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was something that I had never imagined. Something that big that I will be a part of. I never looked at it starting out when we was fighting for it. I only looked at it, that is something that needed to be done. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music out)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003ca href=\"https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/EKYbCM890xsxzEyOiQa3O9?domain=www1.nyc.gov\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And early results show it’s working.\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Since a right to counsel passed in 2017, more than half a million New Yorkers have gotten legal representation. And 84% of them were able to stay in their homes.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Fewer evictions means fewer households falling into homelessness.\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/4408380/PDF/Cost-Benefit-Impact-Studies/SRR%20Report%20-%20Eviction%20Right%20to%20Counsel%20%203%2016%2016.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> A cost-benefit analysis\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> on New York City predicted it would save $320 million, most of it in emergency shelter costs.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When a tenant is guaranteed an attorney, it also changes the way landlords use eviction courts. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/EKYbCM890xsxzEyOiQa3O9?domain=www1.nyc.gov\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Since 2013, eviction filings have dropped by about 40%, and bogus cases are thrown out quickly.\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Again, here’s Susanna Blankley:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>SUSANNA\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We’ve seen filings go down. It means landlords are suing people less. You see people show up to court way more because they believe that they have a chance to win. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It might not be surprising to hear that landlords don’t welcome the right-to-counsel laws. Sam Gilboard is the senior manager of public policy at the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://apartmentalize.naahq.org/?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=apt22&utm_term=national-apartment-association&utm_content=responsive-search&gclid=Cj0KCQiA64GRBhCZARIsAHOLriL66LfyCp8d1UMwyleBNAQfzwlSf7ohYlCMaPJNOEqaQm5f-RJEuUoaAiYpEALw_wcB\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">National Apartment Association\u003c/span>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>SAM GILBOARD\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It prolongs an already lengthy process. When you have a right to counsel, you’re prolonging an experience that is stressful. It’s costly. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sam says landlords try to avoid evictions whenever possible.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>SAM\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Evictions are the only legal pathway that a housing provider has to dealing with issues of nonpayment or breach of lease. It’s a last-resort measure that is used in only the most dire of circumstances. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Instead, Gilboard advocates for different solutions — like more rental assistance. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But landlord opposition isn’t the only challenge. Legal defense programs are expensive. New York City budgeted $166 million for right to counsel this year. And not every city has that kind of money.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Brandi Snow is the legal director with \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.centralcallegal.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Central California Legal Services.\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>BRANDI SNOW\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It obviously costs money to pay lawyers to do that, somebody has to pay for it. And there is a resistance in some places to the idea of using taxpayer money to assist those who didn’t pay their rent.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The other issue is bandwidth, and having enough tenant attorneys to make sure they can actually take those cases. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>BRANDI\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When you’re lacking enough attorneys for it now, you’ve created this right to something that you can’t provide.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> But that isn’t stopping this idea from taking off.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>BRANDI\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Across the country, you’re seeing more of these right-to-counsel programs pop up that are doing amazing things. You know, New York has it, Cleveland has it, San Francisco has this also, and so does LA.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Last year\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Washington became the first state\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">to pass it. John Pollock with the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel says that’s a big deal. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JOHN\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s everything. It’s the fact that we went from having no jurisdiction with the right to counsel, to having 13. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, you know, from a movement standpoint, I think it’s really come to a high point.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the last year, 11 more states have introduced the idea. John says the pandemic is driving a lot of the interest.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Even President Joe Biden is paying attention. Right to counsel and other court diversion programs were the focus of a White House summit last year.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music in)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And that’s the biggest win for tenants like Randy Dillard, who started this fight — that it didn’t stop with New York City.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>RANDY\u003c/b>: For other cities to follow, to me, is a great achievement, and I never knew that I would ever be a part of something so great. I feel good. I really do. And you know, knowing that somebody like me that was getting ready to go in front of a judge can sleep a little bit peaceful at night because they got somebody fighting for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It’s a reminder that movements don’t happen overnight. They’re usually built on small victories. But sometimes they turn into something bigger that shifts the power and changes the narrative, and gives tenants the right to a fighting chance to stay in their homes.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music out)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Sold Out theme song begins.)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Next time on Sold Out: We go to the root of the problem — how to keep people housed when they can’t pay the rent.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>KEMANIE\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Knowing that we had the housing voucher, we thought it was going to be easier because it was a guarantee.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>EVA ROSEN\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It can be really hard to find a place to live with that voucher at all.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>EUGENE ZINCHIK\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It’s like dealing with the DMV. It’s, you know, we’ve all been there, but you know, we don’t really want to do that, unless we have to.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m Erin Baldassari.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And I’m Molly Solomon. You’ve been listening to Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you like what you hear, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts — and tell a friend about the show!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sold Out is a production of KQED. This episode was written and reported by us: Molly Solomon and Erin Baldassari.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Adhiti Bandlamudi produced this episode. Kyana Moghadam is our senior producer. Brendan Willard is our sound engineer. And Rob Speight wrote our theme song. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Natalia Aldana is our senior engagement producer and Gerald Fermin is our engagement intern.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thank you to our editor, Erika Kelly. Additional editing from Jessica Placzek and Otis Taylor Jr.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We couldn’t have made this season without Ethan Toven-Lindsey, Holly Kernan, Erika Aguilar and Vinnee Tong. Thanks so much for listening. We’ll see you next week.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "In this episode of Sold Out, we'll go to Fresno in California's Central Valley and meet tenant advocates who are pushing for a right to counsel. And we'll also visit New York, where this movement took off, and speak to the activists behind it.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When it comes to eviction court, tenants are far less likely than property owners to be represented by an attorney. That makes it especially difficult for them to understand their rights and navigate the complex system. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The right to counsel is something that tenant advocates are pushing for across the country, and more cities and states are considering it, especially in light of the economic hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In this episode of Sold Out, we’ll go to Fresno in California’s Central Valley, where rents are rising, and meet tenant advocates who have organized to push for a right to counsel. And we’ll also visit New York, where this movement took off, and speak to the activists behind it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch5 id=\"embed-code\" class=\"inconsolata\">\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC6308765795&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/h5>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>LANDLORD V. TENANT [TRANSCRIPT]\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>ERIKA KELLY, EDITOR\u003c/strong>: I’m Erika Kelly, the editor of Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America, here to say thank you for listening to the show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our team is wrapping up the season, and we’d love to know what you thought about it, what you liked, what you didn’t like. Most importantly, we’d like to know a little more about you, our listener. What issues or stories [do] you want to hear more of in the future?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Head over to \u003ca href=\"https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/6755022/f959eb5782fc\">kqed.org/soldoutsurvey\u003c/a> to leave us some feedback.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thanks so much!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>(KQED music in)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music in)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY SOLOMON, HOST\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Hey, I’m Molly Solomon.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN BALDASSARI, HOST\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And I’m Erin Baldassari. From KQED this is Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This season we’ve been exploring evictions. If you’ve been following along, you already know the system is stacked against tenants. And that evictions have devastating consequences. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Nowhere is that more clear than in eviction court. It’s where most cases end up, and it’s where a push for reform is growing.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On today’s episode: a fight to balance the scales. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music out)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Sounds: City streets. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Molly Solomon is walking and speaks into her recorder.)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>MOLLY IN FRESNO\u003c/strong>: OK. We’re on O Street, downtown Fresno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>MOLLY\u003c/strong>: Last fall I drove out to California’s Central Valley, and pulled up to a mid-century modern building in the middle of downtown, the Fresno County Superior Courthouse.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY IN FRESNO\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There is already a line of people that are getting ready to check in through the front door.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A security guard milled around outside. The crisp early morning air was starting to warm as the sun peeked out from behind the building. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m trying to look for Robert Cortez. He’s going to help me out today check out eviction court. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Are you Robert? Hi, I’m Molly. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ROBERT CORTEZ\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hi, nice to meet you.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Robert is an attorney who represents tenants. His law firm, \u003ca href=\"https://www.centralcallegal.org/\">Central California Legal Services\u003c/a>, handles the vast majority of eviction defense cases in Fresno.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We head up to the fourth floor where eviction hearings start every Tuesday morning at 8:30. Today, there are about 20 cases on the docket. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11907099\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11907099\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7937-1-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A gray and tan building with various columns, and two people passing in front of it.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7937-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7937-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7937-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7937-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7937-1-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7937-1-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Fresno County Superior Courthouse in downtown Fresno. \u003ccite>(Alex Hall/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ROBERT\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So 90% of the time we’re in 404, which is just down the hall.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The room is small, no windows. There are a few rows of benches that are about half full. It’s not as packed as it was before the pandemic. Many hearings are still happening on Zoom. Robert points out some lawyers in the room. He calls them the regulars.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ROBERT\u003c/b>: A\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">bout four or five regular landlord attorneys are here every day.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Robert tells me one of the attorneys also serves as a debt collector for the landlords he represents. He collects past due rent from tenants who’ve been evicted. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ROBERT\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He gets these unrepresented clients to agree to these deals that are payment plans basically. And they go on for years, like five, six, seven years. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music in)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I couldn’t record inside the courtroom while trials were underway. But I’ll say — you didn’t miss much. There’s a reason you never see TV shows about eviction courts. There’s not a lot of drama. Usually, you don’t call witnesses or present evidence. And a lot of times, evictions aren’t even decided in the courtroom.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>(Music out)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The action is out in the hallway.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Sounds: Door opens and closes.)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ROBERT\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You’ll see a lot of dealmaking out here in the hallways. A lot of times attorneys will come outside and, you know, see if there’s a deal to be made. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That’s how most cases end up: in deals or settlements. And that’s what Robert’s trying to do for his client Lea Esparza. Lea came to Robert after the court had already issued a default judgment against her, which is basically an automatic win for the landlord. It happens when tenants don’t show up or don’t file their paperwork in time. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Lea’s case, she tried to file her paperwork. The problem was she’d hired a paralegal off of Craigslist to help her fill it out.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>LEA ESPARZA\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She charged me $500 and she didn’t turn in the paperwork. That’s why we ended up with the lockout.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ROBERT\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So the sheriff is scheduled to come to the residence on Thursday. So what I’m trying to get the judge to do is delay that sheriff.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>LEA\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yes, they said they were going to come at 6 a.m. and lock me out.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music in) \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Lea had to stop working about a year ago after she was diagnosed with cancer.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>LEA\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I am battling cervical cancer and I’m also battling — I just had a surgery three months ago.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She says after this morning’s hearing she’s going back to the hospital for another surgery. And if her eviction goes through, she doesn’t know where she and her kids will go.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>LEA\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I got four daughters and myself and like I said, I do, I am battling my health, so I don’t think I have anywhere to go. I don’t got family around here.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music out)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Robert has just come out of a small mediators’ room with the landlord’s attorney. He and Lea huddle in a corner of the hallway, and keep their voices low. He’s got good news: Lea can stay through the end of the year, 109 more days. He’s also gotten her rent payments lowered to about $2 a day.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ROBERT\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A lot of this work is delaying the inevitable. Sometimes eviction is inevitable. But we just try to get as much time as possible, so the client’s not on the street.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lea will\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">eventually \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">have to leave. But the deal is way better than what she could have negotiated on her own.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Most people don’t have someone like Robert on their side. These eviction cases move quickly and play out in courtrooms every day. And wherever you go, there’s the same imbalance: Landlords have attorneys. And tenants don’t.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JOHN POLLOCK\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And that kind of representational imbalance yields the kind of results you would expect, which is it’s just completely one-sided.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> John Pollock is with the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://civilrighttocounsel.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Their data shows that across the country, 81% of landlords have a lawyer, but only 3% of tenants do.\u003c/span>\u003cb> \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JOHN\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The tenants always lose, and half of them don’t even participate in the process because it is such a hopeless, disempowering process right now.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> He says many tenants get pushed into deals that are on the landlord’s terms. And that’s why Pollock says tenants need attorneys, too. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Sold Out theme song begins.)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>MOLLY\u003c/strong>: Think of it this way: We grant defendants a right to an attorney in criminal cases. Why should it be any different for housing court?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JOHN\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">From our perspective, these are very serious proceedings on par with criminal ones in terms of the consequences. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now, the eviction protections put in place during the pandemic are expiring. And, eviction courts are filling up again. As they do, the calls for change are getting louder. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Because tenants and their allies say the current system isn’t fair, and it needs to change.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Sold Out theme song ends.)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11843281\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 657px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11843281\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/SOLD-OUT-Web-Banners__Tune-In_656x336.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"657\" height=\"337\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/SOLD-OUT-Web-Banners__Tune-In_656x336.png 657w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/10/SOLD-OUT-Web-Banners__Tune-In_656x336-160x82.png 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 657px) 100vw, 657px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sold Out: Rethinking Housing In America is a five-part series reimagining what housing could be by examining California, the epicenter of the nation’s housing affordability crisis.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On a windy morning last spring, a couple dozen people gathered outside Fresno City Hall.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There were tenants, faith leaders and housing advocates. And they were there to call attention to evictions in their neighborhoods.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>A SPEAKER AT CITY HALL\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What is a home when one is renting from a landlord who abuses their power dynamic and refuses to fix these conditions and then threatens to evict tenants who complain? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They directed their protest to the city council, which was meeting inside the gleaming stainless steel building. On their agenda was a proposal to help tenants avoid eviction. Outside, a local pastor, D.J. Criner, took the mic.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>D.J. CRINER\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Are you going to hold landlords just as accountable as landlords think they’re holding residents? Are you going to give individuals an opportunity to have legal aid? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Renters held signs and shared their stories about the rent going up, about being forced to move, about worrying for their children. One of them was Jessica Ramirez, a mother of five who was born and raised in Fresno.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music in)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She was evicted a few years ago and didn’t have an attorney to help her out. Now with that on her record, it’s almost impossible to find new housing. Speaking to the crowd, she held up her eviction papers. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JESSICA RAMIREZ\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is why I’m here today, I’m here to raise my voice. You know, this voice that I have is not for one, but for many.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She shared how she and her family had to live in their car. How her kids had to bathe themselves in the restrooms of a public park.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JESSICA\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You know, many out here in this world. You know, I live. This is a struggle. I’m in pain. You know, you guys don’t know how it is, living in the streets. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Pastor Criner called on the city council to protect renters like Jessica. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>D.J.\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is about a call to action. Speak for this young lady and mother of five that is praying for an opportunity to raise her children in the same decent housing you’re able to raise yours in. So we studied the problem. We found the solution. We wrote the proposal, and the money has already been found. The question is now, are you listening and are you going to do something about it?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music out)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Fresno City Hall is in the middle of downtown. It’s densely packed with tall office buildings. But you don’t have to drive far before you’re surrounded by farmland.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fresno sits at the center of California’s San Joaquin Valley. Founded as a railroad town, it’s grown into an agricultural powerhouse. It’s also been an affordable city in an extremely unaffordable state, at least until recently.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>CLIPS FROM FRESNO RENT NEWSCASTS\u003c/b>: “\u003cem>The real estate market is buzzing in the valley.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“According to a story in The Los Angeles Times called Fresno the hottest market in the country.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“\u003c/em>\u003cem>Monthly rent in Fresno has soared over the last year — experts cite high demand and low inventory.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> In the last year alone, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.fresnobee.com/fresnoland/article258073823.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">rents spiked 28%\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Now, the average one-bedroom is over \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.zumper.com/rent-research/fresno-ca\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">$1,400 a month\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.fresnobee.com/article252425493.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And home prices are way up, too\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Driving around Fresno, you can almost feel the hype. Everywhere you go, there are these advertisements for new housing developments. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Alexandra Alvarado has felt it, too. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ALEXANDRA ALVARADO\u003c/b>:\u003cb> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Central Valley has this myth of affordability that, like, people can just come in and afford it and be able to buy houses.\u003c/span>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She’s always lived around Fresno. She grew up in a small town nearby, moved here for college. Alexandra is now a community organizer with a group called \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://faithinthevalley.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Faith in the Valley\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> — the same group that organized the tenant protest outside City Hall. She says the idea of Fresno as an affordable place … is part of what’s driving up prices.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ALEXANDRA\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Especially during the pandemic, when people were working from home, we were running across stories of people from the bay or from LA that were saying, oh, I could buy two houses in Fresno.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fresno might be cheaper than San Francisco or Los Angeles, but it’s also \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article209826869.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">one of the poorest cities in the country\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/fresnocitycalifornia/INC110219\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One in four families\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> here live below the federal poverty line.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As prices rise, it’s becoming harder for people to find safe housing. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ALEXANDRA\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What they end up being pushed to is what they can afford.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[HOST]\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">An investigation\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> by local newspaper The Fresno Bee found that \u003ca href=\"https://www.fresnobee.com/fresnoland/article249299005.html\">some tenants were living in terrible conditions\u003c/a>: with no heat, leaky pipes, and mold. And when they complained, they were often threatened with an eviction.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music in)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Even before the pandemic, there are anywhere from three [thousand] to 4,000 eviction filings in Fresno each year. That’s according to a 2019 report from two researchers at Fresno State University.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>AMBER CROWELL\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So that’s a lot of people. And it was, you know, 200 or 300 families a month. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s Amber Crowell. She wrote the report with her colleague Janine Nkosi. They also work on housing advocacy with Faith in the Valley.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Janine and Amber spent months observing eviction hearings at the Fresno courthouse, the same place I met up with Robert and Lea. And they saw a lot of the same disparities that I did. Landlords had lawyers, and tenants didn’t. Here’s Janine:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JANINE NKOSI\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I could literally cry right now when I think about it. Three, like maybe three people, were able to get some type of legal representation in housing court.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">According to the \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">most recent data from Eviction Lab\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u003ca href=\"https://evictionlab.org/map/#/2016?geography=counties&bounds=-122.192,35.603,-116.28,37.847&type=er&locations=06019,-119.443,36.916\">Fresno has one of the highest eviction rates in the state\u003c/a>. Far higher than in Los Angeles and San Francisco. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But there’s only one legal aid organization in Fresno. And about half of the residents here are renters. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JANINE\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The challenges that we are experiencing, they are not so different than what folks in the Bay Area, right, or Northern California, are experiencing, or in Southern California, but they are happening at an accelerated rate. We have the highest need and the fewest amount of resources.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music out)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[HOST]\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What Janine and Amber found inspired a growing coalition of renters, faith leaders and students — one that only grew as economic shutdowns during the pandemic made it harder for tenants to pay their rent, tenants like Shar Thompson.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>SHAR THOMPSON\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m a single mom that works two jobs. So, you know, it’s really tough.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Shar works part time at Costco. When her shift ends in the afternoon, she heads to her second job at Walmart, where she works overnight stocking shelves. Shar’s from the Central Valley. She grew up in a small farming town nearby called Coalinga.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>SHAR\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you drive down I-5 and smell the fresh air of cow manure, that’s Coalinga. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She moved to Fresno during the pandemic and was having trouble paying her rent. She found Faith in the Valley when she Googled local rent assistance programs.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Then she started showing up at meetings, learning about her rights as a tenant, and discovered what was possible when she worked alongside other renters.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music in)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>SHAR\u003c/b>: There’s passion behind it from everybody. And I love the fact that we’re all from different walks of life, but we all have the same main goal and that’s to make a whole new housing system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>: Shar and the ot\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">her Fresno renters had specific demands for the city. They wanted every tenant fighting an eviction to have an attorney: a\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://leadershipcounsel.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Fresno-Right-to-Counsel-Coalition-Community-Proposal.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> right to counsel\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But they took it even further. They wanted the city to connect tenants with rent relief. And create a diversion program to help tenants and\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">landlords avoid the courtroom altogether. By early last year, their proposal was ready for the city council.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>SPEAKER AT CITY COUNCIL\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thank you. Last item — that’s public item that we have is 4-B, it’s a workshop to discuss right-to-counsel proposal.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11907097\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11907097 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7983-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A woman stares pensively off into the distance, she wears a green shirt.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7983-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7983-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7983-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7983-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7983-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7983-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fresno renter Jessica Ramirez. \u003ccite>(Alex Hall/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jessica Ramirez, the same renter who spoke outside City Hall, called into this meeting, too. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JESSICA\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I am one of many that are speaking out asking for help because I know it only takes one eviction on someone’s record to change their lives forever.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But there’s pushback from landlords and within City Hall. Here’s City Council member Garry Bredefeld.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>GARRY BREDEFELD\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So I know. Imagine, I guess we’re pretty flush with money at the City of Fresno, and now we’re going into the rental tenant defense business. I don’t see any way that I will support these kinds of things. I don’t think this is what we should be doing. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>[HOST]\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Renters continued to pressure the city for months to vote on their proposal. But eventually, it became clear: A true right to counsel was not going to pass. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music out)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here’s Amber Crowell, the eviction researcher at Fresno State.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>AMBER\u003c/b>: It was tough. It was a tough battle. And we didn’t get everything we wanted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> What they got was something of a compromise. The city calls it the Eviction Protection Program. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s not for all tenants — just the ones who are being wrongfully evicted, like if their landlord’s retaliating against them, or illegally locking them out. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Amber and other housing activists think only a small number of tenants will qualify or even know the program exists, leaving many still vulnerable.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But City Councilmember Tyler Maxwell is more optimistic.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>TYLER MAXWELL\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I can tell you, it is an uphill battle to get where we’re at today. I’m happy we’re able to get our foot in the door.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He helped introduce the Eviction Protection Program. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.fresnobee.com/fresnoland/article258184263.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s already helped 180 people get free legal help.\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nearly all of them were able to avoid trial. For the few who did go, most were able to get the eviction off their record. And that’s important, because having an eviction on your record can lock you out of new housing. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11907096\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11907096\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7874-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7874-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7874-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7874-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7874-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7874-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/03/IMG_7874-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A mural in downtown Fresno. \u003ccite>(Alex Hall/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The program is only funded for one year and Tyler hopes they’ll extend it. But a right to counsel is still a pretty radical idea for Fresno, and he thinks there’s always going to be some people questioning whether it’s worth it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>TYLER\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Why are we giving away free things? You know, why? Why are we providing something for free for people? You know they need to pick themselves up from the bootstraps, which, representing a district like I do, I know that’s a bunch of B.S. — picking yourself up by the bootstraps doesn’t work when you can’t afford the bootstraps. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music in)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This story isn’t over. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A couple months ago, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.fresnobee.com/news/politics-government/article256467491.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">150 people showed up at City Hall to demand the city use federal COVID dollars\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to pass a true right to counsel, rent control and more eviction protections. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Amber Crowell and Janine Nkosi say renters in Fresno can’t back down now, even if it feels like a battle between David and Goliath. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>AMBER\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The groups that represent property owners are much more powerful politically than the groups that represent tenants. And so that’s just an ideology that we’re always fighting against.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JANINE\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You know, it’s always a battle between individual rights versus, like, collective care and collective responsibility. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They say it’s a battle worth fighting. And you can’t win anything if you don’t ask for it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JANINE\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We are made to believe that these are big asks, but we should be dreaming much, much bigger than we ever have been. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Fresno isn’t the only place to fight for a right to counsel. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Coming up on Sold Out: where the movement first began.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music out)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>CROWD CHANTING\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Housing is a human right. Fight, fight, fight.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>RANDY DILLARD\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Good morning, good morning, good morning. My name is Randy Dillard and we are facing an eviction crisis in the Bronx.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Randy Dillard wears a bright orange T-shirt. On it is a fist thrust in the air. He energizes the crowd outside New York City Hall in lower Manhattan. It’s 2013 and he’s part of a tenants group in the South Bronx.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>RANDY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Representation for tenants in housing court should be a right.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Randy was familiar with housing court. Before he was an organizer, he worked as a bricklayer. A single dad with five kids, Randy was on Section 8, but his apartment was not up to code. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>RANDY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We have mold all over the apartment. We had leaks coming from up above into an open-light fixture in the bathroom that could have started a fire. We had to put plastic bags up.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He said the leaks were so bad, sometimes they had to use an umbrella inside the house to keep from getting wet. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Because of the conditions, Randy’s home failed a Section 8 inspection, so the government program stopped making payments to his landlord. And then he developed emphysema and ended up in the hospital. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>RANDY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And they was getting ready to put me on a breathing machine ’cause my lungs was getting ready to collapse. I almost, almost died.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He was in the hospital for two months. Three days after he got out, he got a knock on his door.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>RANDY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">My landlord’s lawyer served me with eviction papers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Randy says going to housing court to fight his eviction was confusing and scary. When he got there, he was met with long lines and little information.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>RANDY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It leaves you numb, and empty inside. As soon as you get there first, you don’t know what to look for and you’ve got a long line of people. And some of them are emotional, crying, you know, while you waiting in line to go through the metal detector to get in there.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At that time, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://newsettlement.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/CDP.WEB_.doc_Report_CASA-TippingScales-full_201303.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">about 2,000 tenants were showing up at the Bronx housing court \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">every day. It was the busiest eviction courtroom in all five boroughs. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ultimately, Randy did end up getting an attorney. He found someone through a legal help group in his neighborhood. His case took almost two years, but he eventually won, an outcome he says would have been impossible without his attorney. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>RANDY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I don’t think no tenant should have to go through what me and my kids went through, and no tenant should have to stand before a judge and not know what their rights are. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Randy got involved with the group \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://newsettlement.org/casa/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Community Action for Safe Apartments, or CASA\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">CASA and a coalition of housing groups pressured the city to adopt a right to counsel. Organizers made the moral case that no one should have to face something as life-altering as losing your home without the benefit of an attorney.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Susanna Blankley was the group’s director at the time.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>SUSANNA BLANKLEY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It meant the right to not face eviction alone. It meant the right to know that you would be protected. It meant the right to have power within the court system.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music in)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The coalition kept pushing, whipping up support wherever they could. First at a neighborhood board meeting, then City Council hearings, delivering a petition with 7,000 signatures to the mayor’s office. They even got the chief judge of the New York court system to testify in support of a right to counsel.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Until finally, after three years of organizing, New York City tenants made history. And won something that didn’t exist anywhere else in America: a right to counsel.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When the program rolled out in 2017, it guaranteed most low-income tenants access to an attorney if they’re facing eviction. Former Mayor Bill de Blasio signed the legislation at CASA’s offices in the Bronx. Standing beside him was Randy Dillard.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Sounds from the moments when Mayor Bill de Blasio was signing the legislation.) \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>RANDY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The reason why I’m here today, you wouldn’t be able to see me if I didn’t have an attorney. That’s why I’m standing up here. That’s why I’ve been fighting with the coalition and with CASA to make this possible.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> In a video of the signing, Randy has this big smile on his face. Afterward, de Blasio turns to him and hands him the pen. He still has it today, framed on his wall.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>RANDY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I introduced the mayor and I, and I spoke. They let me speak. It was powerful. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was something that I had never imagined. Something that big that I will be a part of. I never looked at it starting out when we was fighting for it. I only looked at it, that is something that needed to be done. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music out)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003ca href=\"https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/EKYbCM890xsxzEyOiQa3O9?domain=www1.nyc.gov\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And early results show it’s working.\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Since a right to counsel passed in 2017, more than half a million New Yorkers have gotten legal representation. And 84% of them were able to stay in their homes.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Fewer evictions means fewer households falling into homelessness.\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/4408380/PDF/Cost-Benefit-Impact-Studies/SRR%20Report%20-%20Eviction%20Right%20to%20Counsel%20%203%2016%2016.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> A cost-benefit analysis\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> on New York City predicted it would save $320 million, most of it in emergency shelter costs.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When a tenant is guaranteed an attorney, it also changes the way landlords use eviction courts. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/EKYbCM890xsxzEyOiQa3O9?domain=www1.nyc.gov\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Since 2013, eviction filings have dropped by about 40%, and bogus cases are thrown out quickly.\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Again, here’s Susanna Blankley:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>SUSANNA\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We’ve seen filings go down. It means landlords are suing people less. You see people show up to court way more because they believe that they have a chance to win. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It might not be surprising to hear that landlords don’t welcome the right-to-counsel laws. Sam Gilboard is the senior manager of public policy at the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://apartmentalize.naahq.org/?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=apt22&utm_term=national-apartment-association&utm_content=responsive-search&gclid=Cj0KCQiA64GRBhCZARIsAHOLriL66LfyCp8d1UMwyleBNAQfzwlSf7ohYlCMaPJNOEqaQm5f-RJEuUoaAiYpEALw_wcB\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">National Apartment Association\u003c/span>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>SAM GILBOARD\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It prolongs an already lengthy process. When you have a right to counsel, you’re prolonging an experience that is stressful. It’s costly. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sam says landlords try to avoid evictions whenever possible.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>SAM\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Evictions are the only legal pathway that a housing provider has to dealing with issues of nonpayment or breach of lease. It’s a last-resort measure that is used in only the most dire of circumstances. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Instead, Gilboard advocates for different solutions — like more rental assistance. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But landlord opposition isn’t the only challenge. Legal defense programs are expensive. New York City budgeted $166 million for right to counsel this year. And not every city has that kind of money.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Brandi Snow is the legal director with \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.centralcallegal.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Central California Legal Services.\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>BRANDI SNOW\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It obviously costs money to pay lawyers to do that, somebody has to pay for it. And there is a resistance in some places to the idea of using taxpayer money to assist those who didn’t pay their rent.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The other issue is bandwidth, and having enough tenant attorneys to make sure they can actually take those cases. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>BRANDI\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When you’re lacking enough attorneys for it now, you’ve created this right to something that you can’t provide.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> But that isn’t stopping this idea from taking off.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>BRANDI\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Across the country, you’re seeing more of these right-to-counsel programs pop up that are doing amazing things. You know, New York has it, Cleveland has it, San Francisco has this also, and so does LA.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Last year\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Washington became the first state\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">to pass it. John Pollock with the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel says that’s a big deal. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>JOHN\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s everything. It’s the fact that we went from having no jurisdiction with the right to counsel, to having 13. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, you know, from a movement standpoint, I think it’s really come to a high point.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the last year, 11 more states have introduced the idea. John says the pandemic is driving a lot of the interest.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Even President Joe Biden is paying attention. Right to counsel and other court diversion programs were the focus of a White House summit last year.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music in)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And that’s the biggest win for tenants like Randy Dillard, who started this fight — that it didn’t stop with New York City.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>RANDY\u003c/b>: For other cities to follow, to me, is a great achievement, and I never knew that I would ever be a part of something so great. I feel good. I really do. And you know, knowing that somebody like me that was getting ready to go in front of a judge can sleep a little bit peaceful at night because they got somebody fighting for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It’s a reminder that movements don’t happen overnight. They’re usually built on small victories. But sometimes they turn into something bigger that shifts the power and changes the narrative, and gives tenants the right to a fighting chance to stay in their homes.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music out)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Sold Out theme song begins.)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Next time on Sold Out: We go to the root of the problem — how to keep people housed when they can’t pay the rent.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>KEMANIE\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Knowing that we had the housing voucher, we thought it was going to be easier because it was a guarantee.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>EVA ROSEN\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It can be really hard to find a place to live with that voucher at all.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>EUGENE ZINCHIK\u003c/b>:\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It’s like dealing with the DMV. It’s, you know, we’ve all been there, but you know, we don’t really want to do that, unless we have to.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m Erin Baldassari.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And I’m Molly Solomon. You’ve been listening to Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you like what you hear, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts — and tell a friend about the show!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sold Out is a production of KQED. This episode was written and reported by us: Molly Solomon and Erin Baldassari.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>ERIN\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Adhiti Bandlamudi produced this episode. Kyana Moghadam is our senior producer. Brendan Willard is our sound engineer. And Rob Speight wrote our theme song. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Natalia Aldana is our senior engagement producer and Gerald Fermin is our engagement intern.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thank you to our editor, Erika Kelly. Additional editing from Jessica Placzek and Otis Taylor Jr.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>MOLLY\u003c/b>: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We couldn’t have made this season without Ethan Toven-Lindsey, Holly Kernan, Erika Aguilar and Vinnee Tong. Thanks so much for listening. We’ll see you next week.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Satellites Are Becoming a Part of California's Water Conservation Strategy",
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"content": "\u003cp>In a new push to stop further depletion of California’s shrinking aquifers, state regulators are turning to technology once used to count Soviet missile silos during the Cold War: satellites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Joel Kimmelshue, co-founder of Land IQ\"]‘The days of agricultural anonymity are over.’[/pullquote]Historically, California’s farmers could pump as much as they wanted from their wells. But as a consequence of that unrestricted use, the underground water table has sunk by hundreds of feet in some areas, and the state is now trying to stabilize those aquifers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Regulators need to calculate just how much water each farmer is using across California’s vast agricultural lands, and scientists and private companies are now offering a technique that uses images from orbiting satellites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The days of agricultural anonymity are over,” says \u003ca href=\"https://www.landiq.com/joel-kimmelshue\">Joel Kimmelshue\u003c/a>, co-founder of the company \u003ca href=\"https://www.landiq.com/\">Land IQ\u003c/a>, which is helping to hone the technique.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Water surveillance got a big boost when \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11891246/california-farmers-are-storing-water-in-underground-aquifers-that-function-like-savings-accounts\">California passed a law in 2014 that aims to protect the state’s aquifers\u003c/a>. It places limits on the amount of water that farmers are allowed to pump.\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003cbr>\nThere was a big problem: Local officials like Eric Limas weren’t sure how to enforce limits on water use. Limas is general manager of the Lower Tule River and Pixley irrigation districts, in Tulare County, where aquifers are among the most depleted in the entire state. He’s also in charge of a newly established groundwater sustainability agency for that area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That was one of the first conversations that our groundwater committee tackled,” Limas says. “‘OK, how are we going to do that? Are we going to measure every molecule that’s pumped?'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11891401\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/aquifer1-1020x679.jpg\"]Limas doesn’t even know exactly how many wells there are in his part of the county. Thousands of them are hidden away in the middle of cornfields and almond orchards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many farmers weren’t inclined to help him out, especially in the first years after the law was passed. Limas recalls the initial reaction: “At first it’s like, ‘You’re crazy if you think you’re going to come on my place and … figure out how much I’m pumping. That’s my water.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then Limas heard that researchers at California Polytechnic State University had developed \u003ca href=\"http://www.itrc.org/projects/metric.htm\">a way to estimate the amount of water used by agricultural crops from images recorded by NASA-operated satellites\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Land IQ, meanwhile, was using that same technique — supplemented with stations on the ground — to collect data on field-by-field water use. It sounded like “Star Wars stuff,” Limas recalls. But it also sounded easier and cheaper than getting water meters installed on every well in his district.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The technique involves several steps. The first is figuring out which crops are growing on each field. The satellite images, which are updated almost every week, contain clues: the shade of green, the spacing of vegetation, the time of year the field turns green.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Combining these clues, Kimmelshue says, produces a fingerprint of each crop. “We have a fingerprint for walnuts and a fingerprint for alfalfa, tomatoes and all these different crops,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11892959\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1342px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11892959 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/alfa-maps-satellite.jpg\" alt=\"Two maps side-by-side created by LandIQ. Both use a multi-color, grid system to describe different factors present in a small patch of land in the Central Valley: what crops are grown and how much water is being consumed.\" width=\"1342\" height=\"870\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/alfa-maps-satellite.jpg 1342w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/alfa-maps-satellite-800x519.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/alfa-maps-satellite-1020x661.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/alfa-maps-satellite-160x104.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1342px) 100vw, 1342px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Land IQ uses data from a NASA satellite to determine which crops are growing on each field. The map on the left shows one small part of California’s Central Valley. The darkest green areas are almond groves. The map on the right shows “evapotranspiration” (water used by crops or evaporated from soil) in the region during June 2020. Some fields (shown in dark blue) consumed 8 inches of water. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of LandIQ)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>About 4% of the time, Kimmelshue says, there’s a case of mistaken identity. “We might confuse almonds for peaches,” he says. “But a peach tree and an almond tree have similar water needs” so the estimate of water use still ends up being quite accurate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each crop, at a particular point in its life cycle, takes up a predictable amount of water and releases it through its leaves, depending on local weather conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Land IQ has set up local monitoring stations to keep track of things like wind speed, heat and humidity, at hundreds of locations. Putting it all together, the company calculates the amount of “evapotranspiration” — the amount of water that the plants are releasing to the air, as well as what’s evaporating from the soil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"science_1976952\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/09/Grapes-1920x1440.jpg\"]That’s different from the amount that farmers are pumping because some irrigation water that’s pumped from the aquifer sinks back into the earth. Because of this, Kimmelshue has convinced officials like Limas that it’s more important to regulate water consumption, in the form of evapotranspiration, rather than water pumping.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s now selling that data to more than a dozen groundwater regulatory agencies, including the ones that Eric Limas manages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Limas and his colleagues can monitor how much water is consumed by every farmer, field by field, and show farmers how that compares with their legal allotment under the new Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of guys are going in and looking at their water budgets and saying, ‘Oh, yeah, we don’t have enough water to plant that summer crop,'” Limas says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s how the process is supposed to work. Farming practices are supposed to change to conserve aquifer water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label ='More Climate Coverage' tag='climate']Some officials worry that it won’t go so smoothly when limits on groundwater use get tighter over the next two decades, while others are predicting court battles over whether the satellite-based technique is accurate. Some farmers say that regulators ultimately may shift to using data from water meters that are installed on every well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, though, the technique is growing more popular.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Later this week, a coalition of scientists, NASA and environmental groups like the Environmental Defense Fund plans to launch a new version of space-based water monitoring. This one is called OpenET (“ET” refers to evapotranspiration). It will estimate water use in agricultural areas across much of the western United States, and make it available on the web for anyone to see.\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Historically, California’s farmers could pump as much as they wanted from their wells. But as a consequence of that unrestricted use, the underground water table has sunk by hundreds of feet in some areas, and the state is now trying to stabilize those aquifers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Regulators need to calculate just how much water each farmer is using across California’s vast agricultural lands, and scientists and private companies are now offering a technique that uses images from orbiting satellites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The days of agricultural anonymity are over,” says \u003ca href=\"https://www.landiq.com/joel-kimmelshue\">Joel Kimmelshue\u003c/a>, co-founder of the company \u003ca href=\"https://www.landiq.com/\">Land IQ\u003c/a>, which is helping to hone the technique.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Water surveillance got a big boost when \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11891246/california-farmers-are-storing-water-in-underground-aquifers-that-function-like-savings-accounts\">California passed a law in 2014 that aims to protect the state’s aquifers\u003c/a>. It places limits on the amount of water that farmers are allowed to pump.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cbr>\nThere was a big problem: Local officials like Eric Limas weren’t sure how to enforce limits on water use. Limas is general manager of the Lower Tule River and Pixley irrigation districts, in Tulare County, where aquifers are among the most depleted in the entire state. He’s also in charge of a newly established groundwater sustainability agency for that area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That was one of the first conversations that our groundwater committee tackled,” Limas says. “‘OK, how are we going to do that? Are we going to measure every molecule that’s pumped?'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Limas doesn’t even know exactly how many wells there are in his part of the county. Thousands of them are hidden away in the middle of cornfields and almond orchards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many farmers weren’t inclined to help him out, especially in the first years after the law was passed. Limas recalls the initial reaction: “At first it’s like, ‘You’re crazy if you think you’re going to come on my place and … figure out how much I’m pumping. That’s my water.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then Limas heard that researchers at California Polytechnic State University had developed \u003ca href=\"http://www.itrc.org/projects/metric.htm\">a way to estimate the amount of water used by agricultural crops from images recorded by NASA-operated satellites\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Land IQ, meanwhile, was using that same technique — supplemented with stations on the ground — to collect data on field-by-field water use. It sounded like “Star Wars stuff,” Limas recalls. But it also sounded easier and cheaper than getting water meters installed on every well in his district.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The technique involves several steps. The first is figuring out which crops are growing on each field. The satellite images, which are updated almost every week, contain clues: the shade of green, the spacing of vegetation, the time of year the field turns green.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Combining these clues, Kimmelshue says, produces a fingerprint of each crop. “We have a fingerprint for walnuts and a fingerprint for alfalfa, tomatoes and all these different crops,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11892959\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1342px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11892959 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/alfa-maps-satellite.jpg\" alt=\"Two maps side-by-side created by LandIQ. Both use a multi-color, grid system to describe different factors present in a small patch of land in the Central Valley: what crops are grown and how much water is being consumed.\" width=\"1342\" height=\"870\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/alfa-maps-satellite.jpg 1342w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/alfa-maps-satellite-800x519.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/alfa-maps-satellite-1020x661.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/alfa-maps-satellite-160x104.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1342px) 100vw, 1342px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Land IQ uses data from a NASA satellite to determine which crops are growing on each field. The map on the left shows one small part of California’s Central Valley. The darkest green areas are almond groves. The map on the right shows “evapotranspiration” (water used by crops or evaporated from soil) in the region during June 2020. Some fields (shown in dark blue) consumed 8 inches of water. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of LandIQ)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>About 4% of the time, Kimmelshue says, there’s a case of mistaken identity. “We might confuse almonds for peaches,” he says. “But a peach tree and an almond tree have similar water needs” so the estimate of water use still ends up being quite accurate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each crop, at a particular point in its life cycle, takes up a predictable amount of water and releases it through its leaves, depending on local weather conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Land IQ has set up local monitoring stations to keep track of things like wind speed, heat and humidity, at hundreds of locations. Putting it all together, the company calculates the amount of “evapotranspiration” — the amount of water that the plants are releasing to the air, as well as what’s evaporating from the soil.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>That’s different from the amount that farmers are pumping because some irrigation water that’s pumped from the aquifer sinks back into the earth. Because of this, Kimmelshue has convinced officials like Limas that it’s more important to regulate water consumption, in the form of evapotranspiration, rather than water pumping.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s now selling that data to more than a dozen groundwater regulatory agencies, including the ones that Eric Limas manages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Limas and his colleagues can monitor how much water is consumed by every farmer, field by field, and show farmers how that compares with their legal allotment under the new Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of guys are going in and looking at their water budgets and saying, ‘Oh, yeah, we don’t have enough water to plant that summer crop,'” Limas says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s how the process is supposed to work. Farming practices are supposed to change to conserve aquifer water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Some officials worry that it won’t go so smoothly when limits on groundwater use get tighter over the next two decades, while others are predicting court battles over whether the satellite-based technique is accurate. Some farmers say that regulators ultimately may shift to using data from water meters that are installed on every well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, though, the technique is growing more popular.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Later this week, a coalition of scientists, NASA and environmental groups like the Environmental Defense Fund plans to launch a new version of space-based water monitoring. This one is called OpenET (“ET” refers to evapotranspiration). It will estimate water use in agricultural areas across much of the western United States, and make it available on the web for anyone to see.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-california-report-magazine/id1314750545?mt=2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Listen to this and more in-depth storytelling by subscribing to The California Report Magazine podcast.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In September 2020, the fast-moving Creek Fire tore through remote stretches of the Sierra Nevada, northeast of Fresno, trapping hundreds of campers who were in the area for Labor Day weekend. Their only chance to escape the rapidly spreading flames was to gather together in a nearby lake. Miraculously, this story has a happy ending — all 242 people and 16 dogs were airlifted to safety as the forest burned around them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11890478\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11890478 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/MammothPoolCreekFire3_AlexT-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"An orange-and-black-hued photo of an RV and a few cars alongside a lake completely darkened by smoky skies.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The smoke-ridden sky above Mammoth Pool in September 2020. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Alex Tettamanti)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A new podcast, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kvpr.org/programs/escape-mammoth-pool\">Escape From Mammoth Pool\u003c/a>, chronicles that dramatic event through the experiences of families who lived through it. Reporter Kerry Klein of Valley Public Radio spent more than a year talking to people trapped by the fire, and the rescuers who helped save them. She also dug into government documents and data to piece together what happened. Klein joins California Report Magazine host Sasha Khokha to share excerpts of the podcast, and talks about what it takes in the era of climate change to launch a successful large-scale rescue from a massive forest fire in the Sierra Nevada.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11890428\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11890428 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/CreekFireHuntington_USFS-800x600.jpeg\" alt=\"Massive plumes of white smoke above an otherwise clear day, with turquoise water of a lake and green trees in the foreground.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Smoke billows from the Creek Fire in September 2020. \u003ccite>(Courtesy U.S. Forest Service)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11890481\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11890481 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/MammothPoolRescue2_Rosamond-800x800.jpg\" alt=\"A helicopter hovers over the lake with two trucks on the shore and a hillside burning beyond. Dark sky is completely orange and smoke-filled.\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/MammothPoolRescue2_Rosamond-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/MammothPoolRescue2_Rosamond-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/MammothPoolRescue2_Rosamond.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The rescue operation underway at Mammoth Pool in September 2020. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Joseph Rosamond)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Escape From Mammoth Pool is a production of Valley Public Radio. It was reported and produced by Kerry Klein, and edited by Alice Daniel. Music in the podcast is written by Kevin MacLeod with additional music help from Benjamin Boone.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-california-report-magazine/id1314750545?mt=2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Listen to this and more in-depth storytelling by subscribing to The California Report Magazine podcast.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In September 2020, the fast-moving Creek Fire tore through remote stretches of the Sierra Nevada, northeast of Fresno, trapping hundreds of campers who were in the area for Labor Day weekend. Their only chance to escape the rapidly spreading flames was to gather together in a nearby lake. Miraculously, this story has a happy ending — all 242 people and 16 dogs were airlifted to safety as the forest burned around them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11890478\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11890478 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/MammothPoolCreekFire3_AlexT-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"An orange-and-black-hued photo of an RV and a few cars alongside a lake completely darkened by smoky skies.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The smoke-ridden sky above Mammoth Pool in September 2020. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Alex Tettamanti)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A new podcast, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kvpr.org/programs/escape-mammoth-pool\">Escape From Mammoth Pool\u003c/a>, chronicles that dramatic event through the experiences of families who lived through it. Reporter Kerry Klein of Valley Public Radio spent more than a year talking to people trapped by the fire, and the rescuers who helped save them. She also dug into government documents and data to piece together what happened. Klein joins California Report Magazine host Sasha Khokha to share excerpts of the podcast, and talks about what it takes in the era of climate change to launch a successful large-scale rescue from a massive forest fire in the Sierra Nevada.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11890428\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11890428 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/CreekFireHuntington_USFS-800x600.jpeg\" alt=\"Massive plumes of white smoke above an otherwise clear day, with turquoise water of a lake and green trees in the foreground.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Smoke billows from the Creek Fire in September 2020. \u003ccite>(Courtesy U.S. Forest Service)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11890481\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11890481 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/MammothPoolRescue2_Rosamond-800x800.jpg\" alt=\"A helicopter hovers over the lake with two trucks on the shore and a hillside burning beyond. Dark sky is completely orange and smoke-filled.\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/MammothPoolRescue2_Rosamond-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/MammothPoolRescue2_Rosamond-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/MammothPoolRescue2_Rosamond.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The rescue operation underway at Mammoth Pool in September 2020. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Joseph Rosamond)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Escape From Mammoth Pool is a production of Valley Public Radio. It was reported and produced by Kerry Klein, and edited by Alice Daniel. Music in the podcast is written by Kevin MacLeod with additional music help from Benjamin Boone.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/hidden-gems\">\u003cem>Read more from The California Report Magazine’s ‘Hidden Gems’ series.\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Just off Highway 99, halfway between Fresno and Bakersfield, lies the small community of Goshen. It’s mostly known for its ethanol plant, but among the warehouses and agricultural supply stores that line its commercial streets, there’s a jewel of a joint whose popularity goes well beyond even state lines: a food truck that serves Lao fried chicken and rice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The truck sits in the parking lot of a large store that sells plastic dinosaurs, stuffed animals and novelty items for vending machines. Lady Chicken & Rice is hand painted in candied red letters on its front. Lady Chicken is named for the woman who created the deep-fried Lao chicken recipe that’s so popular here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889486\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11889486 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_1725-800x1067.jpg\" alt=\"A smiling man in a ball cap and glasses standing inside a food truck puts two small plastic containers into a plastic bag.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1067\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_1725-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_1725-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_1725-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_1725-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_1725-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_1725-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bounthong Sang prepares an order for a customer. \u003ccite>(Alice Daniel/KVPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I call her Lady. She’s my Lady,” said Bounthong Sang, who runs the business. He was talking about his wife, Bounleuk. Bounthong didn’t give her the nickname, though — fame did. Well, fame among the locals here in Goshen who love her chicken.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They didn’t know her name. They call, ‘Oh, that’s Lady Chicken,’” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The food truck serves as many as 500 customers a day. It’s open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and lines form as soon as the first batch of chicken is out of the fryer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bounthong said he’s met travelers from as far away as Virginia and Texas who find rave reviews on Yelp or other food apps. But there are also plenty of regulars, like Tony Solis, a UPS driver who comes here at least once a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Great food, good price, friendly people, awesome,” Tony said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The friendly people include Bounthong’s employees, whom he calls family even though they’re from Mexico and he’s from Laos. Ramona Villa, who was inside the truck prepping the $3 plates of golden brown chicken and sticky rice, said they stay busy all day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We never stop cooking until it’s time to go home,” she said. Ramona has a large colorful tattoo just below her neck that says “Robert.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My husband,” she said, looking down at the word and smiling. Robert. Lady Chicken. Love is written all around here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Ramona Villa, Works at Lady Chicken & Rice\"]‘Everybody always comes back over and over and that’s the first thing they always say is the chile.’[/pullquote]Speaking of love, people also return for the homemade green jalapeño sauce that goes with the chicken, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everybody always comes back over and over and that’s the first thing they always say is the chile,” Ramona said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Villa packed two wrapped plates in a brown paper lunch bag, threw in a couple containers of sauce and handed them to Marbella Sotelo. Marbella ran the cash register and took orders, sometimes in English and sometimes in Spanish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Un pollo con arroz, unas spring rolls, y — gracias,” she said to a customer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said everyone who works here knows how to do all the tasks: ring up orders, make rice, deep-fry the egg rolls, deep-fry the chicken, twice. The second time, it’s fried at a higher temperature to make it extra crispy, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889487\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11889487 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_1737-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Two women, backs turned, stand inside a food truck, one wearing an apron and pulling chicken from a deep fryer.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_1737-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_1737-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_1737-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_1737-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_1737-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_1737-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bounleuk Sang, nicknamed ‘Lady,’ fries chicken at the food truck. \u003ccite>(Alice Daniel/KVPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s the flavor, you know, they’ve got something,” she said, explaining why the chicken is so popular. “The chicken, you know, it’s a good flavor and the way that they cook, it’s crispy, and soft inside. So it’s really good.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Apart from the chicken, fresh spring rolls also are on the menu. Egg rolls, too. That’s why Erendira Aranzazu comes here. Often.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“More often than I should!” she said, laughing loudly. “Very, very good food. You can taste the authenticity of it, and my favorite are the egg rolls. Egg rolls by far are the best in town. For sure. Hands down.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few other customers in line shared why they visit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s close by, the food is good, and the ladies are friendly,” said one woman ordering for herself and her co-workers who work at a nearby grocery store.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside tag=\"hidden-gems\" label=\"More Stories From the California Report Magazine's Hidden Gems Series\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Quality, I guess you could say. Because I’ve tried a lot of chicken and rice and it’s not the same,” said a young man named Brian.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The authenticity of it. It’s not like anything else. You can’t really get this anywhere else other than here,” said Jonathan Zavaleta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bounthong knows he’s got a good thing going here: regulars he greets daily, people who come from far away to enjoy the food, employees he views as family and a popular chicken recipe created by the woman he loves\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Oh, maybe I say, ‘Hey, Lady, I love you.’ Something like that every day,” he said. “We have to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We have to, he said, because how can you run a popular food truck without letting the woman behind it know how much she’s appreciated? Without Lady Chicken, he said, there would be no Lady Chicken & Rice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/hidden-gems\">\u003cem>Read more from The California Report Magazine’s ‘Hidden Gems’ series.\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Just off Highway 99, halfway between Fresno and Bakersfield, lies the small community of Goshen. It’s mostly known for its ethanol plant, but among the warehouses and agricultural supply stores that line its commercial streets, there’s a jewel of a joint whose popularity goes well beyond even state lines: a food truck that serves Lao fried chicken and rice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The truck sits in the parking lot of a large store that sells plastic dinosaurs, stuffed animals and novelty items for vending machines. Lady Chicken & Rice is hand painted in candied red letters on its front. Lady Chicken is named for the woman who created the deep-fried Lao chicken recipe that’s so popular here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889486\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11889486 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_1725-800x1067.jpg\" alt=\"A smiling man in a ball cap and glasses standing inside a food truck puts two small plastic containers into a plastic bag.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1067\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_1725-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_1725-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_1725-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_1725-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_1725-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_1725-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bounthong Sang prepares an order for a customer. \u003ccite>(Alice Daniel/KVPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I call her Lady. She’s my Lady,” said Bounthong Sang, who runs the business. He was talking about his wife, Bounleuk. Bounthong didn’t give her the nickname, though — fame did. Well, fame among the locals here in Goshen who love her chicken.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They didn’t know her name. They call, ‘Oh, that’s Lady Chicken,’” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The food truck serves as many as 500 customers a day. It’s open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and lines form as soon as the first batch of chicken is out of the fryer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bounthong said he’s met travelers from as far away as Virginia and Texas who find rave reviews on Yelp or other food apps. But there are also plenty of regulars, like Tony Solis, a UPS driver who comes here at least once a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Great food, good price, friendly people, awesome,” Tony said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The friendly people include Bounthong’s employees, whom he calls family even though they’re from Mexico and he’s from Laos. Ramona Villa, who was inside the truck prepping the $3 plates of golden brown chicken and sticky rice, said they stay busy all day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We never stop cooking until it’s time to go home,” she said. Ramona has a large colorful tattoo just below her neck that says “Robert.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My husband,” she said, looking down at the word and smiling. Robert. Lady Chicken. Love is written all around here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Speaking of love, people also return for the homemade green jalapeño sauce that goes with the chicken, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everybody always comes back over and over and that’s the first thing they always say is the chile,” Ramona said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Villa packed two wrapped plates in a brown paper lunch bag, threw in a couple containers of sauce and handed them to Marbella Sotelo. Marbella ran the cash register and took orders, sometimes in English and sometimes in Spanish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Un pollo con arroz, unas spring rolls, y — gracias,” she said to a customer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said everyone who works here knows how to do all the tasks: ring up orders, make rice, deep-fry the egg rolls, deep-fry the chicken, twice. The second time, it’s fried at a higher temperature to make it extra crispy, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11889487\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11889487 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_1737-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Two women, backs turned, stand inside a food truck, one wearing an apron and pulling chicken from a deep fryer.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_1737-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_1737-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_1737-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_1737-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_1737-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/IMG_1737-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bounleuk Sang, nicknamed ‘Lady,’ fries chicken at the food truck. \u003ccite>(Alice Daniel/KVPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s the flavor, you know, they’ve got something,” she said, explaining why the chicken is so popular. “The chicken, you know, it’s a good flavor and the way that they cook, it’s crispy, and soft inside. So it’s really good.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Apart from the chicken, fresh spring rolls also are on the menu. Egg rolls, too. That’s why Erendira Aranzazu comes here. Often.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“More often than I should!” she said, laughing loudly. “Very, very good food. You can taste the authenticity of it, and my favorite are the egg rolls. Egg rolls by far are the best in town. For sure. Hands down.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few other customers in line shared why they visit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s close by, the food is good, and the ladies are friendly,” said one woman ordering for herself and her co-workers who work at a nearby grocery store.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Quality, I guess you could say. Because I’ve tried a lot of chicken and rice and it’s not the same,” said a young man named Brian.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The authenticity of it. It’s not like anything else. You can’t really get this anywhere else other than here,” said Jonathan Zavaleta.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bounthong knows he’s got a good thing going here: regulars he greets daily, people who come from far away to enjoy the food, employees he views as family and a popular chicken recipe created by the woman he loves\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Oh, maybe I say, ‘Hey, Lady, I love you.’ Something like that every day,” he said. “We have to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We have to, he said, because how can you run a popular food truck without letting the woman behind it know how much she’s appreciated? Without Lady Chicken, he said, there would be no Lady Chicken & Rice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "almost-like-two-states-recall-results-highlight-californias-geopolitical-divisions",
"title": "'Almost Like Two States': Recall Results Highlight California's Geopolitical Divisions",
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"headTitle": "‘Almost Like Two States’: Recall Results Highlight California’s Geopolitical Divisions | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>The California recall election was a blowout win for Gov. Gavin Newsom that reinforced the state’s political divisions: The Democratic governor won big support in coastal areas and urban centers, while the rural north and agricultural inland, with far fewer voters, largely wanted him gone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s almost like two states,” Menlo College political scientist Melissa Michelson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Prof. Melissa Michelson, Menlo College\"]‘It’s almost like two states.’[/pullquote]Though California is a liberal stronghold where Democrats hold every statewide office and have two-thirds majorities in the Legislature, it is also home to deeply conservative areas. Those residents have long felt alienated from Sacramento, where Democrats have been in full control for more than a decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A conservative movement in far Northern California has for years sought to break away and create its own state to better reflect the area’s political sensitivities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Republicans still are able to win some local elections, the party hasn’t captured a statewide race since 2006. Last year, then-President Donald Trump got 6 million votes in California in 2020 — more than any Republican presidential candidate before him — but still lost in a landslide to Democrat Joe Biden, who won nearly 64% of the votes.\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003cbr>\nRepublicans hold just 11 of the state’s 53 U.S. House seats, but their strongholds don’t have nearly enough votes to overcome Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area and other Democratic areas in statewide elections. And counties such as San Diego and especially Orange, respectively the second- and third-most populated, used to be mainly Republican but no longer are.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With about 85% of the recall ballots counted, those opposed to retiring Newsom early had 64%. In San Diego, “no” on the recall was winning by 17 percentage points and in Orange it was up by 4 points.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fresno, the 10th-most populated county, was the largest where the recall was leading. But it was only ahead by 1 percentage point.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11888358\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/RS51419_010_Oakland_ItzelDiazandFamily_09092021-qut-1020x680.jpg\"]Jeffrey Cummins, a professor of political science at California State University, Fresno, said the results reinforce that Newsom’s partisan critics represent “a pretty small share of the population.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They are very vocal about that disdain for Sacramento and state government in particular, and the recall just gave them … a national platform to voice their opposition to the direction the state is headed,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>GOP organizers of the recall failed to broaden their appeal and even struggled to turn out Republicans in their core areas. For example, Kern County — most of which is represented in Congress by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy — will have less than 50% turnout when all the votes are counted. Statewide turnout is projected at about 55%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Los Angeles County — with 10 million people, the largest county in the nation — is the state’s Democratic nucleus, where statewide elections can be won or lost depending on turnout. With 3 million Democrats, it accounts for nearly one-third of the party’s statewide total.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were in the LA media market more than any other. And that was intentional,” Newsom campaign spokesperson Nathan Click said. It apparently worked — Newsom got nearly 71% support there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s long been true that Democrats tend to dominate in urban areas across the U.S., with Republicans more prevalent in rural and farming areas. But deep, geographic polarization wasn’t always a marker in California politics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Nathan Click, Spokesperson for Newsom campaign\"]‘We were in the LA media market more than any other. And that was intentional.’[/pullquote]There’s no single cause of the current divide. But causes include the early 1990s recession and the closing of military bases and the collapse of the defense industry, which prompted many white, working-class residents to leave the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s economy became more focused on a rising Silicon Valley and the entertainment industry, both liberal bastions. At the same time, the state grew more diverse as millions of Latino and Asian people moved in. Over time, the coastal areas where most of the population lives grew more diverse and Democratic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eric McGhee, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, said a decade ago the geographic divide largely was defined by the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas, but San Diego, Orange and San Bernardino counties, with a combined population of 8.5 million people, all have become more diverse and Democratic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since his first days in office, Newsom has promised to not ignore the Central Valley and has made it a point to travel there on a regular basis. He backs the controversial high-speed rail project under construction in the region and has vowed to provide more drinking water to areas that lack it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label ='Related Coverage' tag='recall-election']But his administration has also alienated farmers, the backbone of the region’s economy, with restrictions on water usage amid a drought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom on Wednesday pledged to respect and work hard on behalf of those who supported him and those who didn’t.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those who voted ‘yes,’ they matter. I care. And I want them to know I’m going to do my best to have their backs as well,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the reality is that Newsom can’t make everyone happy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Newsom is governing a very large and very diverse state, and it’s hard to be attentive to the very liberal coasts and the more moderate or even conservative [areas],” said Jessica Trounstine, a political science professor at the University of California, Merced, in the state’s Central Valley.\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The results of the Newsom recall confirmed what many thought about California: Democrats tend to dominate cities, and Republicans are more prevalent in rural areas. But geographic polarization wasn't always the rule in Golden State politics.",
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"title": "'Almost Like Two States': Recall Results Highlight California's Geopolitical Divisions | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The California recall election was a blowout win for Gov. Gavin Newsom that reinforced the state’s political divisions: The Democratic governor won big support in coastal areas and urban centers, while the rural north and agricultural inland, with far fewer voters, largely wanted him gone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s almost like two states,” Menlo College political scientist Melissa Michelson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Though California is a liberal stronghold where Democrats hold every statewide office and have two-thirds majorities in the Legislature, it is also home to deeply conservative areas. Those residents have long felt alienated from Sacramento, where Democrats have been in full control for more than a decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A conservative movement in far Northern California has for years sought to break away and create its own state to better reflect the area’s political sensitivities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Republicans still are able to win some local elections, the party hasn’t captured a statewide race since 2006. Last year, then-President Donald Trump got 6 million votes in California in 2020 — more than any Republican presidential candidate before him — but still lost in a landslide to Democrat Joe Biden, who won nearly 64% of the votes.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cbr>\nRepublicans hold just 11 of the state’s 53 U.S. House seats, but their strongholds don’t have nearly enough votes to overcome Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area and other Democratic areas in statewide elections. And counties such as San Diego and especially Orange, respectively the second- and third-most populated, used to be mainly Republican but no longer are.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With about 85% of the recall ballots counted, those opposed to retiring Newsom early had 64%. In San Diego, “no” on the recall was winning by 17 percentage points and in Orange it was up by 4 points.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fresno, the 10th-most populated county, was the largest where the recall was leading. But it was only ahead by 1 percentage point.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Jeffrey Cummins, a professor of political science at California State University, Fresno, said the results reinforce that Newsom’s partisan critics represent “a pretty small share of the population.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They are very vocal about that disdain for Sacramento and state government in particular, and the recall just gave them … a national platform to voice their opposition to the direction the state is headed,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>GOP organizers of the recall failed to broaden their appeal and even struggled to turn out Republicans in their core areas. For example, Kern County — most of which is represented in Congress by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy — will have less than 50% turnout when all the votes are counted. Statewide turnout is projected at about 55%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Los Angeles County — with 10 million people, the largest county in the nation — is the state’s Democratic nucleus, where statewide elections can be won or lost depending on turnout. With 3 million Democrats, it accounts for nearly one-third of the party’s statewide total.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were in the LA media market more than any other. And that was intentional,” Newsom campaign spokesperson Nathan Click said. It apparently worked — Newsom got nearly 71% support there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s long been true that Democrats tend to dominate in urban areas across the U.S., with Republicans more prevalent in rural and farming areas. But deep, geographic polarization wasn’t always a marker in California politics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>There’s no single cause of the current divide. But causes include the early 1990s recession and the closing of military bases and the collapse of the defense industry, which prompted many white, working-class residents to leave the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s economy became more focused on a rising Silicon Valley and the entertainment industry, both liberal bastions. At the same time, the state grew more diverse as millions of Latino and Asian people moved in. Over time, the coastal areas where most of the population lives grew more diverse and Democratic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eric McGhee, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, said a decade ago the geographic divide largely was defined by the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas, but San Diego, Orange and San Bernardino counties, with a combined population of 8.5 million people, all have become more diverse and Democratic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since his first days in office, Newsom has promised to not ignore the Central Valley and has made it a point to travel there on a regular basis. He backs the controversial high-speed rail project under construction in the region and has vowed to provide more drinking water to areas that lack it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But his administration has also alienated farmers, the backbone of the region’s economy, with restrictions on water usage amid a drought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom on Wednesday pledged to respect and work hard on behalf of those who supported him and those who didn’t.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those who voted ‘yes,’ they matter. I care. And I want them to know I’m going to do my best to have their backs as well,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the reality is that Newsom can’t make everyone happy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Newsom is governing a very large and very diverse state, and it’s hard to be attentive to the very liberal coasts and the more moderate or even conservative [areas],” said Jessica Trounstine, a political science professor at the University of California, Merced, in the state’s Central Valley.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Want to Get a Measure on the Ballot? This Is How You Do It",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>The Bay’s How To newsletter series (\u003ca href=\"https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfeiQTfCnzwvOkxyTf8kUNPHsaoishgMkbMpQ25W5UpHOn9bw/viewform\">sign up here\u003c/a>) is an extension of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bythepeople\">By the People\u003c/a> episodes that look into how democracy functions in the spaces around us — and where, exactly, each of us can plug in. These features include changemakers who have learned how to get involved locally and now are sharing their step-by-step guides.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-11888461 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/How-To-Headers-4-800x200.png\" alt='A graphic with a picture of Sandra Celedon called \"How to Get a Measure on the Ballot.\"' width=\"800\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/How-To-Headers-4-800x200.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/How-To-Headers-4-1020x255.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/How-To-Headers-4-160x40.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/How-To-Headers-4-1536x384.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/How-To-Headers-4.png 1584w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11881651/maybe-you-should-run-for-office-heres-how\">running for office\u003c/a> isn’t your thing, maybe working with your neighbors to change a local issue is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Let’s say you want to propose a new law for the state of California or your own city or county. You can, through the ballot!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if lawmakers pass something you are not in favor of, guess what? You can start \u003ca href=\"https://ballotpedia.org/Veto_referendum\">a process to revoke it\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Only \u003ca href=\"https://ballotpedia.org/Ballot_measure\">24 states\u003c/a> offer residents the chance to submit statewide ballot measure initiatives, and \u003ca href=\"https://ballotpedia.org/History_of_Initiative_and_Referendum_in_California\">California is one of them\u003c/a>. Ballot measures propose new laws that can apply to cities and/or counties or to the entire state (then called propositions). Both need to be voted on and are included in voting ballots alongside the candidates running for office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ballot measures allow California voters to make new laws, change or repeal existing laws, change the state constitution, or approve a bond measure, without having to rely on lawmakers to do so. As a matter of fact, the 2021 recall election against Gov. Gavin Newsom is partly the result of a voter initiative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California secretary of state has compiled \u003ca href=\"https://elections.cdn.sos.ca.gov/ballot-measures/pdf/statewide-initiative-guide.pdf\">an extensive guide on how to navigate the bureaucracy and paperwork when organizing to get a measure on the state ballot\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-11888453 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/2-800x450.png\" alt=\"A graphic titled "Steps for an initiative to become law" with 6 steps available at Rob Bonta's Ballot Initiative website. \" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/2-800x450.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/2-1020x574.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/2-160x90.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/2.png 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you want to make a change in your city or county, getting a measure on a local ballot is also an option in California and that can happen through one of two paths:\u003c/p>\n\u003col>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Direct\u003c/strong>: You collect the needed signatures and your initiative goes straight to the ballot.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Indirect\u003c/strong>: You submit your initiative and it goes to a legislative body (like a city council), which then votes on it.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ol>\n\u003cp>Where you live determines the rules you have to follow to successfully submit a ballot measure. It’s important to know the procedures and timeline because it can be an intricate and lengthy process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For starters, many cities in California, like San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, San José and Fresno, are “charter cities.” This means that they each have their own process for getting a measure on their local ballots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Sandra Celedon, organizer, Fresno for Parks\"]‘Taking issues to the ballot is the pinnacle of people-led movements.’[/pullquote]If you live in a charter city and want to know what the process is like, you can call the city directly (reach out to the city clerk) and ask for what their process looks like, or you can check their website (\u003ca href=\"https://sfelections.sfgov.org/sites/default/files/Documents/candidates/2020Nov/Nov2020_MeasuresGuide_updated22120.pdf\">here’s an example from San Francisco\u003c/a>).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you don’t live in a charter city, you should still contact your city clerk, who should walk you through the next steps. Your ballot initiative will eventually go to a legislative body (like your city council), who then can do one of three things:\u003c/p>\n\u003col>\n\u003cli>Pass your ballot initiative without having to put it on a ballot for voter approval.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Approve the ballot initiative to be placed on the ballot for approval.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Ask for a report on the impact of the initiative, although \u003ca href=\"https://ballotpedia.org/Laws_governing_local_ballot_measures_in_California\">that is rare\u003c/a>.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ol>\n\u003cp>Sandra Celedon and \u003ca href=\"https://click.email.kqed.org/?qs=a8449da0086608c3266738bc923bcd4cd689bafc408c8e47544d7093aa19ed1fa19076c2e12826911e49aa36a8f823ce46d9c5b403a815f5\">Fresno for Parks\u003c/a> are an example of a successful local community- and youth-led ballot initiative. Celedon was part of the group that identified a community issue, gathered signatures and wrote Measure P aimed to provide clean, safe neighborhood parks, trails and recreational and art programs throughout Fresno back in 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Taking issues to the ballot is the pinnacle of people-led movements,” Celedon told KQED. While there were \u003ca href=\"https://www.fresnobee.com/news/politics-government/article247933200.html\">ups and downs\u003c/a>, Measure P passed and Celedon shared her tips with us:\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>1. Get community and data to inform your issue\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Make sure issues connect to your community’s concerns and priorities. Even if they seem important to you, it may not be for your neighbors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11883205\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/07/HOW-TO-Newsletter-Graphic-43-1.png\"]When Celedon began organizing back in 2017, some advocates believed housing was the most pressing issue to address. But when they hosted a town hall that 300 people showed up to, some young people asked Celedon why they weren’t focusing on parks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Celedon asked why they should, and one young person said, “Well, they suck! They don’t have any working bathrooms, there’s no grass, there’s no activities, and there aren’t any nearby.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Celedon called it a “gut check and humility point.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bottom line for Celedon and her team was to make long-lasting change in response to the concerns and priorities the community was highlighting. It is essential to take the time to hear what the community wants and needs, and to be flexible enough to shift priorities to meet those needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group quickly got to work and surveyed young people in the community to see if they also thought parks were an issue worth focusing on. Turns out they did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They understood how parks connected to land use, neighborhoods, wellness and all of the things that we now take as fact,“ says Celedon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At this point, Celedon and advocates didn’t really know about issues facing parks, like the complexities of land use and development in Fresno. So research had to be done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Sandra Celedon, Fresno for Parks organizer\"]‘[The youth] understood how parks connected to land use, neighborhoods, wellness and all of the things that we now take as fact.’[/pullquote]Celedon suggests looking at public city documents, like budgets, and comparing them to other cities. Research national organizations that conduct annual studies and compile statistics on your issue. All of the information that organizers were learning was then shared back with the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We hosted huge community meetings of 300 to 400 people — at one point 900 — to just really break it down,” says Celedon. “We said, ‘Here’s what we understand. What do others understand? What do we want to learn more about?’ And then we started to bring in other experts to confirm we understood what was happening with land use and development in Fresno.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s also important to continuously survey your community. “We had been running citywide voter surveys every year,” Celedon says. “We were just calling folks and asking, ‘Why do you care about parks? Would you be willing to pay more for parks?’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These surveys, plus door-to-door canvassing, allowed the coalition to build relationships with residents, obtain more than 35,000 signatures and set the foundation for funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Note: Certain local bond and tax measures require approval by a \u003ca href=\"https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/ballot-measures\">55% or a two-thirds vote of the electorate\u003c/a>. A statewide ballot measure can be approved by a majority vote of the people. Unless a city charter specifies anything different, 10% of registered voters are needed to pass a measure (not bond or tax), but check your county or city laws for the required percentage of votes it needs to pass.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-11888452 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/1-800x450.png\" alt='A graphic titled \"Get Community & Data to Inform Your Issue,\" with 4 steps that are covered in the article.' width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/1-800x450.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/1-1020x574.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/1-160x90.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/1.png 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>2. Launch your campaign\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11881651\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2020/11/alexlee_horizontal-copy-1376x1032.jpg\"]Once you’ve identified the issue your community cares about and have the data to prove why it’s important, it’s time to increase the public’s awareness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fresno for Parks decided to do a communication campaign using city bus ads to highlight the statistics they discovered through their research. When the ads were being placed on buses, an employee notified them they weren’t going to run the ads, \u003ca href=\"https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article22569339.html?utm_medium=Email&utm_source=ExactTarget&utm_campaign=The%20Bay&mc_key=00Q1Y00001wB9IBUA0\">claiming they were too political\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That was the biggest gift the city could have given us because it actually got us tons of free media,” says Celedon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At press conferences, the coalition shared more data like the fact that the parks budget makes up 4% of general fund spending, while police make up about half.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>3. Get that money!\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Everything takes money. You will need to explain how your proposed measure will be funded if it’s passed into law. So, it’s helpful to know off the bat whether voters are willing to see their tax money used to support their proposal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Fresno for Parks, their annual surveys informed them early on that they had the financial support of residents. They also asked for help from \u003ca href=\"https://www.tpl.org/\">The Trust for Public Land\u003c/a>, a national organization that provides annual park scores. They conducted a study to find out all the ways parks can be funded and how other communities were doing it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, Measure P’s funding source was a 3/8-cent city sales tax — a sales tax increase smaller than 1 cent per purchase — that ensured visitors and non-Fresno residents also paid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another thing that costs money is the campaign in favor of the measure itself, plus any potential legal fees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under \u003ca href=\"https://www.centralvalleycf.org/advocacy\">federal law\u003c/a>, support for ballot measures is considered a form of direct lobbying, and such support may take many forms. Fresno for Parks got money from the nonprofit \u003ca href=\"https://www.centralvalleycf.org/\">Central Valley Community Foundation\u003c/a>, which had just received an endowment specifically for parks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the IRS, under what’s called the expenditure test, an organization’s tax-exempt status will not be jeopardized if the amount \u003ca href=\"https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/measuring-lobbying-activity-expenditure-test\">does not exceed a specific amount\u003c/a>. This amount usually depends on the size of the organization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These are just some examples highlighting the financial needs and costs of an initiative. It is by no means \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/initiatives\">a comprehensive list\u003c/a>, but rather a reality to consider for this process.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>4. No losses, only setbacks\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The process may be arduous and slow, but Celedon says you have to stay committed. Measure P \u003ca href=\"https://www.fresnobee.com/news/politics-government/article247933200.html\">faced a lot of opposition\u003c/a> from prominent city officials. The “Vote No On Measure P” campaign was backed by Fresno’s former mayor, police chief, and fire chief and the Fresno Chamber of Commerce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label ='Related Coverage' tag='fresno']In the 2018 local elections, Measure P received about 52% of the yes vote after votes were certified. But the city of Fresno argued that the ballot measure needed a two-thirds majority to pass, not a simple majority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The dispute carried on until December 2020 — more than two years after the election — when California’s Fifth District Court of Appeal \u003ca href=\"https://www.fresnobee.com/news/politics-government/article247933200.html\">overturned the opinion of a lower court\u003c/a>. Ultimately, Measure P passed thanks to that successful appeal, and since then the city has approved a \u003ca href=\"https://www.fresnoforparks.com/commissioners\">Parks, Recreation, and Arts Commission\u003c/a> to oversee Measure P expenditures. The commission is currently \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/fresnoforparks/status/1428838794975842304\">accepting project proposals for parks, trails and arts\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can follow Fresno for Parks \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/fresnoforparks\">on Twitter\u003c/a> to see how they are ensuring the proper planning, budgeting and projects made possible by Measure P.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Search for information about \u003ca href=\"https://ballotpedia.org/November_3,_2020_ballot_measures_in_California\">the local ballot measures on the recent November 2020 ballot in California\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-11888454 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/3-2-800x450.png\" alt='A chart reads \"Tips on Getting a Measure on the Ballot\" with 4 categories, which are covered in the article.' width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/3-2-800x450.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/3-2-1020x574.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/3-2-160x90.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/3-2.png 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Isabeth Mendoza is the engagement producer for The Bay, a podcast that explores local news every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. We launched a newsletter and episode series called \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bythepeople\">By the People\u003c/a> shortly after Election Day in the U.S. in 2020. The purpose of the series was to look into how democracy functions in the spaces around us, and by extension \u003ca href=\"https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfeiQTfCnzwvOkxyTf8kUNPHsaoishgMkbMpQ25W5UpHOn9bw/viewform'\">the newsletter\u003c/a> continued the conversation focusing on how to plug in. We looked at how to run for office, how to use digital spaces for advocacy and how to get a measure on a ballot. If any of these spark your curiosity, keep reading because we break it down for you in simple how-to guides.\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>The Bay’s How To newsletter series (\u003ca href=\"https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfeiQTfCnzwvOkxyTf8kUNPHsaoishgMkbMpQ25W5UpHOn9bw/viewform\">sign up here\u003c/a>) is an extension of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bythepeople\">By the People\u003c/a> episodes that look into how democracy functions in the spaces around us — and where, exactly, each of us can plug in. These features include changemakers who have learned how to get involved locally and now are sharing their step-by-step guides.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-11888461 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/How-To-Headers-4-800x200.png\" alt='A graphic with a picture of Sandra Celedon called \"How to Get a Measure on the Ballot.\"' width=\"800\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/How-To-Headers-4-800x200.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/How-To-Headers-4-1020x255.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/How-To-Headers-4-160x40.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/How-To-Headers-4-1536x384.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/How-To-Headers-4.png 1584w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11881651/maybe-you-should-run-for-office-heres-how\">running for office\u003c/a> isn’t your thing, maybe working with your neighbors to change a local issue is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Let’s say you want to propose a new law for the state of California or your own city or county. You can, through the ballot!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if lawmakers pass something you are not in favor of, guess what? You can start \u003ca href=\"https://ballotpedia.org/Veto_referendum\">a process to revoke it\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Only \u003ca href=\"https://ballotpedia.org/Ballot_measure\">24 states\u003c/a> offer residents the chance to submit statewide ballot measure initiatives, and \u003ca href=\"https://ballotpedia.org/History_of_Initiative_and_Referendum_in_California\">California is one of them\u003c/a>. Ballot measures propose new laws that can apply to cities and/or counties or to the entire state (then called propositions). Both need to be voted on and are included in voting ballots alongside the candidates running for office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ballot measures allow California voters to make new laws, change or repeal existing laws, change the state constitution, or approve a bond measure, without having to rely on lawmakers to do so. As a matter of fact, the 2021 recall election against Gov. Gavin Newsom is partly the result of a voter initiative.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California secretary of state has compiled \u003ca href=\"https://elections.cdn.sos.ca.gov/ballot-measures/pdf/statewide-initiative-guide.pdf\">an extensive guide on how to navigate the bureaucracy and paperwork when organizing to get a measure on the state ballot\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-11888453 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/2-800x450.png\" alt=\"A graphic titled "Steps for an initiative to become law" with 6 steps available at Rob Bonta's Ballot Initiative website. \" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/2-800x450.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/2-1020x574.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/2-160x90.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/2.png 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you want to make a change in your city or county, getting a measure on a local ballot is also an option in California and that can happen through one of two paths:\u003c/p>\n\u003col>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Direct\u003c/strong>: You collect the needed signatures and your initiative goes straight to the ballot.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Indirect\u003c/strong>: You submit your initiative and it goes to a legislative body (like a city council), which then votes on it.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ol>\n\u003cp>Where you live determines the rules you have to follow to successfully submit a ballot measure. It’s important to know the procedures and timeline because it can be an intricate and lengthy process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For starters, many cities in California, like San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, San José and Fresno, are “charter cities.” This means that they each have their own process for getting a measure on their local ballots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘Taking issues to the ballot is the pinnacle of people-led movements.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>If you live in a charter city and want to know what the process is like, you can call the city directly (reach out to the city clerk) and ask for what their process looks like, or you can check their website (\u003ca href=\"https://sfelections.sfgov.org/sites/default/files/Documents/candidates/2020Nov/Nov2020_MeasuresGuide_updated22120.pdf\">here’s an example from San Francisco\u003c/a>).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you don’t live in a charter city, you should still contact your city clerk, who should walk you through the next steps. Your ballot initiative will eventually go to a legislative body (like your city council), who then can do one of three things:\u003c/p>\n\u003col>\n\u003cli>Pass your ballot initiative without having to put it on a ballot for voter approval.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Approve the ballot initiative to be placed on the ballot for approval.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Ask for a report on the impact of the initiative, although \u003ca href=\"https://ballotpedia.org/Laws_governing_local_ballot_measures_in_California\">that is rare\u003c/a>.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ol>\n\u003cp>Sandra Celedon and \u003ca href=\"https://click.email.kqed.org/?qs=a8449da0086608c3266738bc923bcd4cd689bafc408c8e47544d7093aa19ed1fa19076c2e12826911e49aa36a8f823ce46d9c5b403a815f5\">Fresno for Parks\u003c/a> are an example of a successful local community- and youth-led ballot initiative. Celedon was part of the group that identified a community issue, gathered signatures and wrote Measure P aimed to provide clean, safe neighborhood parks, trails and recreational and art programs throughout Fresno back in 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Taking issues to the ballot is the pinnacle of people-led movements,” Celedon told KQED. While there were \u003ca href=\"https://www.fresnobee.com/news/politics-government/article247933200.html\">ups and downs\u003c/a>, Measure P passed and Celedon shared her tips with us:\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>1. Get community and data to inform your issue\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Make sure issues connect to your community’s concerns and priorities. Even if they seem important to you, it may not be for your neighbors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>When Celedon began organizing back in 2017, some advocates believed housing was the most pressing issue to address. But when they hosted a town hall that 300 people showed up to, some young people asked Celedon why they weren’t focusing on parks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Celedon asked why they should, and one young person said, “Well, they suck! They don’t have any working bathrooms, there’s no grass, there’s no activities, and there aren’t any nearby.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Celedon called it a “gut check and humility point.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bottom line for Celedon and her team was to make long-lasting change in response to the concerns and priorities the community was highlighting. It is essential to take the time to hear what the community wants and needs, and to be flexible enough to shift priorities to meet those needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group quickly got to work and surveyed young people in the community to see if they also thought parks were an issue worth focusing on. Turns out they did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They understood how parks connected to land use, neighborhoods, wellness and all of the things that we now take as fact,“ says Celedon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At this point, Celedon and advocates didn’t really know about issues facing parks, like the complexities of land use and development in Fresno. So research had to be done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘[The youth] understood how parks connected to land use, neighborhoods, wellness and all of the things that we now take as fact.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Celedon suggests looking at public city documents, like budgets, and comparing them to other cities. Research national organizations that conduct annual studies and compile statistics on your issue. All of the information that organizers were learning was then shared back with the community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We hosted huge community meetings of 300 to 400 people — at one point 900 — to just really break it down,” says Celedon. “We said, ‘Here’s what we understand. What do others understand? What do we want to learn more about?’ And then we started to bring in other experts to confirm we understood what was happening with land use and development in Fresno.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s also important to continuously survey your community. “We had been running citywide voter surveys every year,” Celedon says. “We were just calling folks and asking, ‘Why do you care about parks? Would you be willing to pay more for parks?’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These surveys, plus door-to-door canvassing, allowed the coalition to build relationships with residents, obtain more than 35,000 signatures and set the foundation for funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Note: Certain local bond and tax measures require approval by a \u003ca href=\"https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/ballot-measures\">55% or a two-thirds vote of the electorate\u003c/a>. A statewide ballot measure can be approved by a majority vote of the people. Unless a city charter specifies anything different, 10% of registered voters are needed to pass a measure (not bond or tax), but check your county or city laws for the required percentage of votes it needs to pass.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-11888452 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/1-800x450.png\" alt='A graphic titled \"Get Community & Data to Inform Your Issue,\" with 4 steps that are covered in the article.' width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/1-800x450.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/1-1020x574.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/1-160x90.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/1.png 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>2. Launch your campaign\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Once you’ve identified the issue your community cares about and have the data to prove why it’s important, it’s time to increase the public’s awareness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fresno for Parks decided to do a communication campaign using city bus ads to highlight the statistics they discovered through their research. When the ads were being placed on buses, an employee notified them they weren’t going to run the ads, \u003ca href=\"https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article22569339.html?utm_medium=Email&utm_source=ExactTarget&utm_campaign=The%20Bay&mc_key=00Q1Y00001wB9IBUA0\">claiming they were too political\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That was the biggest gift the city could have given us because it actually got us tons of free media,” says Celedon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At press conferences, the coalition shared more data like the fact that the parks budget makes up 4% of general fund spending, while police make up about half.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>3. Get that money!\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Everything takes money. You will need to explain how your proposed measure will be funded if it’s passed into law. So, it’s helpful to know off the bat whether voters are willing to see their tax money used to support their proposal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Fresno for Parks, their annual surveys informed them early on that they had the financial support of residents. They also asked for help from \u003ca href=\"https://www.tpl.org/\">The Trust for Public Land\u003c/a>, a national organization that provides annual park scores. They conducted a study to find out all the ways parks can be funded and how other communities were doing it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, Measure P’s funding source was a 3/8-cent city sales tax — a sales tax increase smaller than 1 cent per purchase — that ensured visitors and non-Fresno residents also paid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another thing that costs money is the campaign in favor of the measure itself, plus any potential legal fees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under \u003ca href=\"https://www.centralvalleycf.org/advocacy\">federal law\u003c/a>, support for ballot measures is considered a form of direct lobbying, and such support may take many forms. Fresno for Parks got money from the nonprofit \u003ca href=\"https://www.centralvalleycf.org/\">Central Valley Community Foundation\u003c/a>, which had just received an endowment specifically for parks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the IRS, under what’s called the expenditure test, an organization’s tax-exempt status will not be jeopardized if the amount \u003ca href=\"https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/measuring-lobbying-activity-expenditure-test\">does not exceed a specific amount\u003c/a>. This amount usually depends on the size of the organization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These are just some examples highlighting the financial needs and costs of an initiative. It is by no means \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/initiatives\">a comprehensive list\u003c/a>, but rather a reality to consider for this process.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>4. No losses, only setbacks\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The process may be arduous and slow, but Celedon says you have to stay committed. Measure P \u003ca href=\"https://www.fresnobee.com/news/politics-government/article247933200.html\">faced a lot of opposition\u003c/a> from prominent city officials. The “Vote No On Measure P” campaign was backed by Fresno’s former mayor, police chief, and fire chief and the Fresno Chamber of Commerce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In the 2018 local elections, Measure P received about 52% of the yes vote after votes were certified. But the city of Fresno argued that the ballot measure needed a two-thirds majority to pass, not a simple majority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The dispute carried on until December 2020 — more than two years after the election — when California’s Fifth District Court of Appeal \u003ca href=\"https://www.fresnobee.com/news/politics-government/article247933200.html\">overturned the opinion of a lower court\u003c/a>. Ultimately, Measure P passed thanks to that successful appeal, and since then the city has approved a \u003ca href=\"https://www.fresnoforparks.com/commissioners\">Parks, Recreation, and Arts Commission\u003c/a> to oversee Measure P expenditures. The commission is currently \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/fresnoforparks/status/1428838794975842304\">accepting project proposals for parks, trails and arts\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can follow Fresno for Parks \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/fresnoforparks\">on Twitter\u003c/a> to see how they are ensuring the proper planning, budgeting and projects made possible by Measure P.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Search for information about \u003ca href=\"https://ballotpedia.org/November_3,_2020_ballot_measures_in_California\">the local ballot measures on the recent November 2020 ballot in California\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-11888454 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/3-2-800x450.png\" alt='A chart reads \"Tips on Getting a Measure on the Ballot\" with 4 categories, which are covered in the article.' width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/3-2-800x450.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/3-2-1020x574.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/3-2-160x90.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/3-2.png 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Isabeth Mendoza is the engagement producer for The Bay, a podcast that explores local news every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. We launched a newsletter and episode series called \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/bythepeople\">By the People\u003c/a> shortly after Election Day in the U.S. in 2020. The purpose of the series was to look into how democracy functions in the spaces around us, and by extension \u003ca href=\"https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfeiQTfCnzwvOkxyTf8kUNPHsaoishgMkbMpQ25W5UpHOn9bw/viewform'\">the newsletter\u003c/a> continued the conversation focusing on how to plug in. We looked at how to run for office, how to use digital spaces for advocacy and how to get a measure on a ballot. If any of these spark your curiosity, keep reading because we break it down for you in simple how-to guides.\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"soldout": {
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"title": "SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America",
"tagline": "A new future for housing",
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