Disaster "Relief" in New Jersey

Find the article here! http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/4/30/fema-sandy-aid.html

Although Superstorm Sandy occurred a year and a half ago, the people of the states of New Jersey and New York are still suffering. As devastating as the actual event was to the people living in the area, the aftermath and lack of support is the real tragedy. FEMA has just discontinued support although Many people relied on FEMA money after the hurricane to pay their high rents while their houses were being rebuilt. New York and New Jersey promised better support at the time of the incident, but little has been done to help former home owners; many are still paying for expensive temporary housing with little sign of return or aid to rebuild their old homes. These expenses leave very little money to pay to remodel homes to fit state standards, especially for people who were low-income to begin with. The applications for state government aid have been notoriously slow to respond, unclear in their language, and not reaching underserved populations such as non-English speakers. There have been many cases and paperwork lost as well. Clearly something is wrong with the process currently in place.

The Fair Share Housing Center, a legal team based in New Jersey, piloted the "Sandy Bill of Rights," a lists of the rights that people recovering from the superstorm should be entitled to. The legal team is urging the governor to sign the bill of rights to show his true commitment to the people of New Jersey. The rights include:  

-The right to a plain language explanation of the application process for any recovery funds;
• The right to know why an application is rejected and to appeal that rejection with a specified timeframe;
• The right to know current status of an application and position on any wait list;
• The right to access information in English, Spanish, and any other language spoken by impacted communities;
• The right to a review of racial and ethnic disparities in funding and corrections of any problems;
• The right to have funds distributed by amount of damage and not based on political or other considerations;
• The right to transparent information online about how funds are being distributed.

The Bill of Rights acknowledges that government-aided recourses are distributed unfairly, leaving poorer and more disadvantaged people even more at risk and in debt. This Bill of Rights seeks to provide better services to lessen the inequality of the resources distribution and make the modes of doing so more fair.

What do you think? Is this another Katrina? Do disasters and lack of relief reveal government insufficiency? Can grassroots organizations, like the Fair Share Housing Center, make a change in government operations?

Looking for the Hidden Signs

For my practice experience, I am working with the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant (EBSC) located in Berkeley, Ca. Essentially, the  EBSC, "provides sanctuary---support, protection, and advocacy-- to low-income and indigent refugees and immigrants."

In preparation for this blog, I went searching for a multimedia link that would be able to show all of the great services offered by the EBSC. The sanctuary does so much to serve its client database and quick video only touches on the diverse group of people that come into our office. 

I actually started my practice experience about 2 weeks ago; every time I go into the office there is always something new that I am learning and new people that I am interacting with. 

At the 20 second mark, the video begins to describe the hand painted mural that, "greets visitors with colorful and moving scenes of military persecution, displacement, and sanctuary". I have seen this mural each time I have gone into the sanctuary, but I did not think much of it and did not realize how much significance it held for the sanctuary and the message it is attempting to convey. I am only starting to appreciate its meaning and what it means for the organization that I am working with. 

As we embark or prepare to embark on our PE journeys, I challenge all of us to keep our eyes peeled for these murals, signs, or other physical objects that give us more insight into organization and people that make our practice experiences. 

My first week at Asian Law Caucus

My first week at Asian Law Caucus

Last Tuesday and Thursday, I went to Asian Law Caucus (ALC) to start my practice experience. ALC is a nonprofit organization in San Francisco that provides free legal services mainly but not limited to low-income Asian Pacific Islander population in the area. Currently, the organization is particularly involved in advancing housing rights, worker’s rights and justice in the immigration process for the local low-income API Americans. I was filled with high expectations that I will be working directly with the attorneys there and that I will be making a significant change in one’s life by helping them win an important legal case. My 5 hr experience there was completely different from these expectations.

First, I was separate from the attorneys. The attorneys and civil advocates were busy working with the clients. Often they speak in Asiatic languages such as Mandarin Chinese, Korean or Vietnamese if the clients feel more comfortable speaking in those languages. I was placed at a work station downstairs with the administration staff while all the attorneys were working upstairs on the first floor. Second, I learned that my major administrative task will be about filing all the case documents that have been settled or resolved. A stack of legal documents was put on my desk and I had to punch in all the data from the document into the database of the organization. This was to facilitate the attorneys’ resolution process in case the clients come back again with a new legal issue. It was truly mind-blowing to see so many legal documents that needed to be filed. Only the administrative staff and I were given the tasks to file these documents. The filing had mainly to do with immigration, housing and employment. Last week I focused on immigration which is usually about adjustment of status not deportation because the latter issue will require a prolonged effort of attorneys. This week, I will be working on filing the employment documents which have more bundles of testimonials.

What was shocking to me was the fact that I was not making a direct change in the clients’ lives. The documents I receive to file indicate that the legal cases have been resolved, not just started. The change in clients’ lives has been made already; I just had to make sure we keep that in our official history by filing them. This discouraged me a bit about my practice experience because I held such high expectations that I will be fighting for the clients’ lives at the court. In reality, I had to remind myself that this filing is part of the process to make it faster and easier for the organization to serve the clients and to get funding from the city.

Two other things I noticed. One aspect was that the organization lacked so much manpower for basic work. While legal representation and counsel are the essential part of ALC, administrative work from filing to assorting the documents and grant seeking needed more people. There were one fundraiser, one administrative staff and two volunteers including me who worked on these tasks which are fundamental to the well-functioning of the organization. I think this could be a unique hurdle for ALC or maybe it is a problem for many non-profit organizations in the United States today.

On the whole, while I was taken aback by the work of filing for various reasons this week, I will be working on different projects throughout my practice experience from rallying to helping with the actual cases. I guess doing the administrative work is the rite of passage for non-profit volunteers, learning to appreciate the ways in which works on the ground contribute to the workings of the organization.

Disaster Relief and Corruption in Mexico.

There was Storm Manuel that hit Mexico’s Pacific coast, near Acapulco last month. Sources say that “Many of those deaths occurred in Acapulco's home state… and the mud completely blocked the entrance to a main hillside tunnel that lead into the city as waist-deep flood waters at the city's international airport prevented roughly 40,000 visitors from leaving. At least 58 people remain missing days after Manuel slammed the region.”

Although there was not much news coverage about this storm, it was a grave disaster to the vulnerable communities in the Pacific coast of Mexico, whom relied primarily from government disaster relief.

I did not experience the implication of this storm directly, but a friends’ relative did, and I was able to get a local perspective about how governmental/international distribution of water, food, and other emergency supplies sometimes do not reach the people and become lost or handed over by corruption dealings. The relative of my friend lived in Guerrero, Acapulco, and her homes were one of the many homes that were shattered by the impact of the storm. She claimed that she along with the family of 5 was forced to live in set up camps along with other victim families. The next day, when local Mexican authority had claimed that governmental aid supplies, and necessary supplies would come by in a few hours in trucks to be distributed to the families who lost everything, the families waited for that promised assistance. However, as soon as they herd the arrival of trucks loaded with supplies, the trucks simply kept going straight into the road, and never stopped. The supplies and the trucks never came, and they still do not know where those donation went. This story depict the immense corruption behind local aid distribution, in this case specifically target for disaster relief. I wonder to what extent were national actors involved in this type of doing, whether it was corruption by secondary hand, or already top-down dealings. The question holds, who is to be held accountable? Because the victims see only the governmetn as the ineffective provider.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/19/us-storm-manuel-idUSBRE98H1BQ20130919

Class Infographic | Fall 2013