By: Luis Mirón / Special for Real America News 11 from January 2021
Series: ‘Odyssey of students with insecure housing: obtaining a degree when you have no home’
Sixth and last item of six:
One of each 10 students of the California State University (CSU) system are homeless, do not really have a home or are on the brink of homelessness, Assembly Member David Chiu (D. SF) told CSUN School of Journalism students in a video briefing on 10 from December. The students were wrapping up a special series on students dealing with the insecurity of homelessness, and had invited the legislator, a leading voice in legislative efforts addressing the state’s affordable housing crisis, to speak about what legislators can do.
The CSU system educates 482, 000 students per year, according to their website, which means that at least 48, 200 students are affected by this problem.
Assemblyman Chiu introduced us to his two assistants , who have experienced the insecurity of homelessness in the Bay Area. That showed us that he knows the subject very closely.
“I represent San Francisco and we have been ground zero for the housing crisis in our state, in part because our city it has the densest urban neighborhoods on the west coast, ”Chiu said. He talked about why homelessness for students is difficult to identify and why many of us can be in class with someone who is experiencing the insecurity of homelessness without realizing it.
“They have classmates who sleep on friends’ couches, or in their car and bathe in the school gym,” Chiu said. “They may not look like the classic homeless people in the way that society stereotypes the chronically homeless person… but they are still homeless.”
Students are struggling to afford an education, which is not cheap, and to find an affordable place to to live, which is extremely rare, no matter where you live in California.
Chiu’s research has found that most students are one check away from homelessness . In fact, if they lose their job, have an accident, have a sick relative, or just a flat tire, they could be homeless. Chiu fought for passage of Bill AB 943 recently signed by the Governor to help students experiencing devastating financial problems .
But Chiu could not get the approval of the bill AB 516, which proposed changing the towing laws of parked vehicles in California, something that also triggers homelessness.
“Our towing laws in California lead to homelessness ”Due to the exorbitant fines that people have to pay to claim their vehicles, which are often their only property. “We tried to prevent what we call ‘towed into homelessness, debt and poverty,’ but we failed,” he said.
To his surprise, he said, the opposition did not come from the companies of cranes, which actually supported the bill. It came from local elected representatives, whose members stated that the neighborhoods did not want homeless people sleeping in their cars on the streets.
“They misinterpreted my bill and said it would make all these homeless people lived on the streets of their beautiful neighborhoods, ”Chiu said.
Chiu continues to push for changes and for greater awareness, knowing that the pandemic is only going to make the housing crisis. In 2021, he hopes to pass bills that lead to more affordable housing being built.
“The solutions are obvious. We have to put a roof over each person’s head. We have to build the facilities that do that, including shelters and permanent supportive housing. ”
Chiu estimates that California is short of 3.5 million affordable housing units. Some 150,000 residents sleep on the streets because the state has not built enough facilities for them.
Although the briefing with Assemblyman Chiu was only thirty minutes, it was revealing as to what he and other elected representatives are doing to try to fix a growing problem that affects the entire country. A key point was that there is no simple solution to such a complex problem. But at the root of the problem is the lack of affordable housing and local resistance to new laws and regulations that people fear could reduce the value of their properties in their neighborhoods.
We realize the role that our reports can play in combating stereotypes and raising awareness of human interests on issues such as vehicle towing laws.
These articles were published in Real America News from January 4 to 9. You can also read them on the internet at Real America News.com and in English in elnuevosol.net. (Translation Patricia Ramos)
Luis Mirón
Luis Mirón is a Mexican journalist from California State University in Northridge . Her passion is telling the stories of people in her community who have no voice. In his third year at CSUN, he seeks to tell those stories in different multimedia formats, such as podcasts, documentaries, and photo galleries. Luis, being an immigrant himself, understands how important it is to give voice to the problems that his Latino community faces every day. His passion for soccer drew him into the world of journalism, but as he grew as a journalist, he fell in love with helping the voiceless in communities of color and sharing his struggle in a way to bring about change.