La junta de supervisores del condado votó a favor de extender varias protecciones para los inquilinos antes de que venza la moratoria de desalojos el próximo 31 de diciembre. Entre las mociones aprobadas está que se prohíbe los desalojos de aquellos inquilinos que no deban un mes completo de renta. Asimismo, se brindará representación legal gratuita para quienes enfrentan procesos de desalojo.

Source: https://www.univision.com/local/los-angeles-kmex/extienden-protecciones-para-inquilinos-de-las-areas-no-incorporadas-de-los-angeles-asi-puedes-beneficiarte-video

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors held its first in-person board meeting in 2 1/2 years on Tuesday, only to be barraged with demonstrators inside and outside the hearing room.

Protestors gathered on the front steps of the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration, many of them focused on eviction protections for tenants in the county.

Earlier this month, the supervisors voted to end its eviction moratorium at the end of the year, but were considering a motion that would bolster eviction defense services for tenants. Another measure would limit what landlords can ask potential renters about their pandemic renting history.

"Tenants in LA County need stronger protections because it's really hard for a lot of our tenants to stay in their homes when we have landlords harassing them," Elizabeth Hernandez, a housing advocate, told the board members.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=645875256959477

The Regents of the 10-campus University of California voted unanimously on Thursday to suspend the requirement that first-time applicants submit scores from SAT or ACT standardized test scores for admission.

"I think it's an incredible step in the right direction," said UC Regents Chair John Perez.

The vote suspends the requirement through 2024 while UC studies whether to require scores from another test that UC either creates or adopts.

"By one measure this is a conversation 43 years in the making, since the 1977 adoption of the test as a weeding mechanism, as a way to decrease the number of students admitted to the University of California," Perez said.

The proposal to put the standardized test requirement on hold while UC re-evalutes its admissions criteria was first floated by UC President Janet Napolitano, who had already dropped the test requirement for applications due in the Fall 2020 because of the COVID-19 crisis. She said she was "unpersuaded" that requiring the tests for admissions "was sufficient to outweigh all of the extensive mitigation measures we employ to counteract the effect of the standardized test on certain populations."

Applicants for Fall 2020 can submit SAT or ACT results, but they aren't required to do so, and UC admissions offices may choose whether to consider those scores. The new policy extends that arrangement for another year, and adds another two years during which UC campuses will not use the standardized scores for admissions decisions even if students submit them.

Durante este lunes se llevó a cabo una protesta que derivó en una caravana por varios edificios federales. En la manifestación, miembros de la comunidad, activistas y empleados de distintos sectores económicos, le exigieron al gobierno estatal y a líderes políticos auxilios en las que se tengan en cuenta a los inmigrantes indocumentados y a los desamparados que también han sufrido los efectos de la pandemia.

DeShae Johnson in Fresno worries about finishing her senior year, taking Advanced Placement tests, and completing scholarship applications for college while taking care of her younger siblings so her mother can continue to work as a janitor.

Daniela Hernandez, a youth leader on the eastside of Los Angeles, couldn’t get her employer, a food retailer, to provide protective equipment even as shelter-in-place orders began. She won the right to wear gloves, but ultimately decided to quit her job to prevent exposing vulnerable family members to the coronavirus.

Lidia Cruz is a mother of three young children living in Sacramento. With schools closed and limited resources, she worries how to keep food on the table and get pencils and workbooks so her children can learn from home.

Each of these women’s stories resonate with thousands of Californians whose lives also have been upended by the coronavirus pandemic.

As education and youth advocates working in Los Angeles, Sacramento and Fresno, we see first-hand how our

students and families are navigating the new reality when confronted with impossible circumstances.

The challenges created by the pandemic lay bare what we always have known: First, working-class families and students of color are one small crisis away from a dire situation, while living and learning in communities with fewer resources than upper-income communities.

Secondly, if we are to truly achieve equity in our schools and communities, the voices of the most-affected students and parents are necessary to create policies that meet student needs.

That is why the California Partnership for the Future of Learning, a statewide alliance of community organizing and advocacy groups, directly asked students and families from low-income communities of color how they are experiencing this viral disruption to life and schooling.

Yesenia Vélez, de 18 años, es estudiante de último año en la secundaria Garfield, en el Este de Los Ángeles, y hasta principios de año todavía estaba haciendo planes para asistir a su fiesta de graduación.

Cerrar el ciclo de la clase de 2020 y abrir camino para empezar la universidad eran algunos de sus sueños. No obstante, han quedado truncados debido a la pandemia del coronavirus.

Yesenia tiene cinco hermanos y su padre es el único proveedor del hogar. Tras la pandemia ha quedado sin empleo y por la falta de estatus migratorio legal en el país, no pueden obtener ayuda del gobierno como el cheque de estímulo federal.

“De la escuela, a mí me prestaron una computadora con un hotspot [un dispositivo para obtener Internet]”, dijo Yesenia, quien es estudiante sobresaliente y actualmente toma dos clases avanzadas (AP).

He vivido en el este de Los Ángeles por 25 años y este año será la primera vez que lleno el Censo. Soy madre de tres hijas y un hijo. Soy abuela de tres nietos de siete, cuatro y dos años. Aunque estamos sufriendo con los pagos, tenemos nuestra salud. 

Mi esposo y yo somos vendedores ambulantes de fruta y así hemos sobrevivido día a día. Desafortunadamente, debido a la pandemia del COVID-19 ya no podemos trabajar. 

Me da mucho miedo de que mi familia se enferme. Cuando dejamos de trabajar, fue difícil porque fue así como hemos salimos adelante. 

Me siento decepcionada porque aunque pago impuestos como todos, el gobierno me ha excluido de recibir el estímulo económico federal. En estos momentos de crisis, aunque también contribuimos a este país, los inmigrantes indocumentados hemos sido ignorados.  

Pero hay esperanza. 

Maria Brenes has been in “virtual mode” for almost a month now. That’s when Los Angeles closed schools and ordered residents to stay home to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Brenes is a community organizer on L.A.’s Eastside with the group InnerCity Struggle. She usually spends her days talking face-to-face with families, teachers and politicians to advocate for equal access to a quality education. It hurt Brenes a lot when she had to shutter the doors to the group’s community center, which had been bustling with youth and organizers since its opening last year. Now, she’s balancing video chats and phone calls for work with helping her own kids —second and fourth grade students in the Los Angeles Unified School District— to complete their online assignments.

While talking to Capital & Main by phone last week, Brenes was occasionally interrupted by her daughter who was eagerly playing a spelling game recommended by her teacher.

Brenes half-joked that she gives herself a C+ as a homeschool teacher. But she feels fortunate compared to many of the families her organization serves, and recognizes the importance of continuing, and expanding, her group’s work amid the pandemic.
 

InnerCity Struggle is creating its own “stimulus” for 300 families to make up for the exclusion of undocumented immigrants from the federal aid bills.

 
“Engagement has been so important in a period of ‘social distancing.’ We call it physical distancing because we still want to maintain the tie,” Brenes said.

InnerCity Struggle has talked with hundreds of community members in the early weeks of the outbreak to check in, assess their needs, answer their questions and learn how the crisis is impacting their families, and them individually. The group has delivered food to Eastside families, paid for with rapid response grants. And they’re creating its own “stimulus,” so far totaling $60,000 for 300 families, to make up for the exclusion of undocumented immigrants from the federal aid bills.

And they’re far from alone.