Consider Outreach Efforts to Provide Immigrant and Refugee Support Services and Programs with Nominal or Minimal Expenditures. (Mayor Spencer and Vice Mayor Vella)
All right, so this referral is something. So I was able to attend the US mayor's conference recently in D.C.. During that time, I was able to hear from the mayor of Seattle and he shared things that they are doing in their city to. Assist immigrant and refugees. Immigrants and refugees. And and trying to do it utilizing volunteers within their community or people that want to volunteer and provide services to assist. Whether it's including. Counseling, psychological counseling, things like that, but also legal services for immigrants and refugees that have legal issues. And in a conversation with our vice mayor, as we were speaking, I said my number one takeaway from the conference was, in fact, that I think our city, because of the people we have here and we've heard it all all night, I'm going to say we have people that like to volunteer. And I think within our community. And then we also we have people that are immigrants and refugees. So if we can connect the dots and provide those services, to me, that was the number one takeaway from the mayor's conference for me. I was able to share it with our vice mayor and then she said, and I'm going to pass it to her. So I was in Seattle the weekend of the Women's March for my niece's first birthday, and we participated in the march. And I connected with some activists from Seattle and folks who worked for one of the council members office in Seattle. And they shared with me that they were doing a program to basically facilitate volunteers, volunteer assistance, attorneys coming in, working with the school districts to provide different services. And so essentially, I heard about the same program that the mayor had heard about, and it was serendipitous that we both heard about it independently, but we came with the same takeaways, which is that, you know, our city had just become a sanctuary city. We want to make sure that this is and, you know, that we are actually doing things to support our children, our families. We have a number of families in Alameda who and faith based organizations who are supporting refugees and refugee families. My partner went to school with a number of refugee children who had been taken in by Alameda families and, you know, really going and using, partnering with our schools to educate our our schoolchildren about what's going on. Give them context, allow them to know what resources are available oftentimes. That's a great audience that we can engage with. Our students are very thoughtful. They've been very active and activated by everything that's been going on. And, you know, I feel that it's a good opportunity to also empower them with information and knowledge about what their rights are, the rights of their classmates, friends, families, neighbors, that sort of thing. I do want to share that today. Actually, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors has approved $750,000 to go towards immigrant and refugee defense of immigrant and refugee populations, which will be administered through our social services agency. And that's going to go with an additional $750,000 that was given from an anonymous donor. So it's altogether 1.5 million that's going to be going towards immigrant and refugee defense. And a lot of that having spoken with some of our supervisors who are very excited about this. And is is the education and training aspect of it. And so if you look at the referral that Mayor Spencer and I put forward, we really want to facilitate this. And so many, so many members of our community have contacted both of us to say, I'm an attorney, I'm an immigration attorney. I have these specialized skills. How can I help people? How can I let them know what their rights are or provide services? In law school, I participated in a number of legal clinics that were free naturalization clinics where we were doing one on ones, giving just kind of cursory pro-bono guidance and counseling as to timelines, fees, costs , what type of paperwork was involved, what kind of documentation was involved. And so to the extent that the city can act as that facilitator and really do that to bring our community together and to offer these services, I've also heard from a number of business owners, nonprofit executives, who are saying we want to make sure that our staff is educated as to what they should do if they're under different events and how we can help our staff who might have concerns whether they be about clients or fellow employees. And so one statistic that I do want to put out there is 439,000 residents of Alameda County are immigrants or refugees. That's approximately 30% of our residents countywide. A number of those do live here in the city of Alameda. And I think that this is a step for us to take to actually connect them with those services that are readily available in the community to help facilitate that. To help. In ensure the fact that we are in fact giving them an opportunity, an opportunity for clear pathways and to actually activate and make sure that they are using all of the laws and resources that are available to them and at that. And I do want to add so I appreciate the vice mayor joining me in this referral. And so thank you, member Ashcraft. Thank you, Mayor Spencer and Vice Mayor Vella. So I'm not sure in the referral, the piece about what the school district does is a little clear, a little less clear to me how we would implement . Although I will hasten to add that the Mayor and I sit on the liaison committee between the city and the school district, but I did a little digging around myself today, and I see our library director, Jane Sasaki, there in the back of the the the chambers, because the Alameda County Bar Association has long had a program called Lawyers in the Library. And you may or may not know that our main library is one of those locations. The first Wednesday of the month, the lawyers who are volunteering pro-bono come and they all have different expertize and you go in the order of a lottery. But Jane tells me, just like he tells me, that everybody manages to be seen. And in fact, the library has now added another evening, which is lawyers in the library at the West End Library branch on the third Monday night of the month. And I appreciated her saying it's a little less private because they don't have the individual conference rooms that the main library does. But staff and we have great library staff has created a semi-private corner for those meetings because confidentiality is always important when you're dealing with a lawyer. So what Mr. Sakai mentioned, and I thought it was a lovely offer and I think it dovetails with what the mayor and vice mayor have said, is if you can arrange for a pro-bono lawyer with immigration and refugee rights expertize, we could offer library lawyers in the library on another night, Monday or Tuesday at the main library . I would leave the details to the folks who are who are doing this. But like the vice mayor, we actually attended the same law school but few years apart. But Santa Clara Law has has a very good legal clinic and I volunteered for another one when I was practicing in San Francisco. And it's just it's really a very satisfying, fulfilling work to help people understand their rights. So, yes, I know my community enough to know we have really dedicated, smart, talented people. And so if there is a way that we can connect them and the library, which we're also proud of and I love knowing that it's also at the West End branch is willing to step in. I think we're we're off to a good start. Thank you. And Birdie, did. You want me doing concerts? So we, you know. Should we wait. Till we do have public comments? I'll hold my comments till the. All right. So I'm going to go ahead and call the public at this point. Anna Rossi. Polly Lim. Fred Engel and then Michael Yoshi. Mayor. City Council people. Staff. My name is Anna Rossi. I am the chair of the Alameda Deanery. Welcome the stranger refugee group. We've been in existence for about one year now, and I got to go sideways for a second and say I also graduated from Santa Clara Law School. I have a reunion. We can. We can. First of all, on behalf of the Refugee Project and our group, we want to thank you very much for having this conversation. We've been struggling for a year to bring the refugees to the front, to the forefront of Alameda so people would understand how much assistance we can give to them and how much help we need. We started off thinking, this is easy. We can transition a family and I could do it by myself. And reality is, it's a really hard thing to do. Our group consist of volunteers from the four Catholic churches in Alameda. And we have about 80 volunteers, not all at once. They go up and down. We have a core group of 2020, but we have 80 people who have offered to help at various times. Our current family has been here since the summer of 2016. There are young father and even younger mother and an 18 month old baby. The father assisted the US government in translating in Afghanistan. He spoke fairly good English. His wife came, not speaking a word of English. They knew one person in Alameda before they knew us. Now. The husband has a full time job 40 hours a week. He just got his driver's license, which was really exciting. The wife has learned some English, and she can she can talk to all of us. And they're starting to make a home in Alameda. In what was originally a very strange community to them. It wasn't the hills of Afghanistan. Our current family is on the cusp of really being self sufficient. Which means that our next task will be to look for yet another family. When we started this project and have a company, this family. Through their transition to a home in Alameda. We've all shared in this wonderful journey not not just the family. We've learned so much and we've grown so much from it. But what has been the hardest for all of us? What has caused us nights of not sleeping. Nights of crying. Nights of laughing. Out of hysteria. Is housing. We had a very difficult time in this wonderful community. And Alameda is a wonderful community. Finding somebody who would rent a house to a refugee. I personally said I will guarantee one year rent. And they said, we don't rent to refugees. Now, I know that's illegal. I'm an employment lawyer, but you're not going to sue every landlord in Alameda. So we've. A few more seconds. But we've decided that what we need to do is have a breakaway group to start up a transition, a transitional housing research project for refugees and immigrants. And it will be multi denominational and non-denominational throughout the island of Alameda. We've had a first meeting of four people and we're planning on growing that shortly. But what would be really helpful to us is to have the support of the city of Alameda. And I read your a little blurb that said you wanted to support without having a lot of money. And I understand that. And one thing that we figured you could do for us, you could do for the refugees and you could do for the immigrants is designate one house when you're doing low cost housing, one house for refugees and one house for immigrants wouldn't cost you a penny more than whatever you rented out for it to low cost housing. And it would give recognition to the refugees and recognition to the immigrants. It would be a way for the city of Alameda. To show the county, the world, the United States. That you're really, truly willing to support these people. They're people just like us. And they've come to this country looking for something that I sure hope we can give them. It would truly represent the city of Alameda support of refugees and immigrants situation. And we ask you to consider that. And we thank you very much for raising this issue tonight. Thank you. Holly. Good evening. My name is Holly, Ronnie Lim, and I am a board member of Filipino Advocates for Justice and a resident of Alameda. And as a Filipina immigrant, I encourage the city council to adopt efforts that will provide services to immigrant and refugee residents and students. The last time I was here, I spoke to you about adopting a sanctuary city policy and the importance for a community to offer safety and support to its immigrants and refugees as a way to create thriving individuals who can engage and contribute to their communities. I am proof of how safety and support can do this. I am also an educator teaching ethnic studies at Laney College. Last night I taught how stereotypes like the Yellow Peril stereotype deemed Asian-Americans as a threat and how this imagined threat has caused implications like the wrongful internment of Japanese-Americans. We are at a critical time where the present measures are passed, and we have the choice to learn from our country's mistakes and make the right decisions for our community. For me, that means offering resources to our community, like Seattle's Family Unity Project counseling and peer support for our immigrant and youth. Sorry, but our immigrant and refugee youth. Clear avenues for the public to support. Site for the public to report. Incidents of bias, hate speech and violence. And the formation of a city supported group that can support these programs. I know these programs are needed because research proves it. I once worked for Human Impact Partners, a public health nonprofit organization which released a study in 2012 about the health impacts of deportation on the children of undocumented immigrants. At the time of its release, an estimated 4.5 million children nationwide who are U.S. citizens by birth live in families where one or more of their parents are undocumented. Nearly 30% of undocumented parents reported that their children were afraid, either all of the time or most of the time. Nearly half reported that their children had been anxious, and almost three fourths of undocumented parents reported that each child had shown symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. We can all agree that we want a safe and healthy place for all of our residents. I encourage the City Council to not only consider efforts but to adopt and implement an immigrant and refugee support programs and services rooted in community needs and input. Thank you. Thank you, Fred. Michael and then Alan Prior. And if anyone else wants to speak on this item, please submit your slip. Mary Spencer, vice mayor and council members. Thank you for your time. My name's Fred Pringle and I'm here representing Philippino Advocates for Justice. We work with young people and their families in the Filipino community here in Alameda and we. Are. Hearing from a lot of them that there is a lot of unrest and worry from our community members with the current political context in this country, specifically executive orders and other policies that are coming down and don't know what it means for them and their future in this city and in this country. And so we wanted to take the time to thank you, Mayor Spencer, Vice Mayor Vella, for making this referral and to the council members for and staff for seriously considering the needs of our immigrant community here in Alameda and the supports that they need that can be facilitated by the city as a group that particularly works with young people here in Alameda, we understand the role of young people in immigrant families. They often have to take on the load of translator and as sort of bridges for adults in their families to the larger world. And so the focus on the referral and the Seattle model on schools and outreach to young people we think is particularly powerful and hopeful. And we think that it's a really strategic way of focusing your outreach efforts to support as many people as possible, as quickly as possible. And so thank you again for your commitment to all of the people of the city, including immigrants, refugees and everyone else affected by the recent developments at the national level . Thank you. Michael Yoshi, then Alan Prior. I put my trying to put my alarm. Watch out here. Okay, I'm out. Madam Mayor and City Council members Michael Yoshi from Buena Vista Methodist Church. I'm the pastor there. You may have known that we have a refugee ministry that we are engaged in, and we're accompanying a Central American family currently and as part of the East Bay Interfaith Immigrant Coalition that is also participating with a number of other current Haitians in the East Bay and. We also I wear another hat and that is I chair the Advocacy and Justice Committee for our conference in the our church belongs to the largest denominational conference. So Northern California Nevada is our conference. We have this committee that under that has an immigration task force as well. And so we're very tuned in to what's going on with immigration issues around us today. In fact, we'll be having a consultation on February 20th in Berkeley with our immigration task force. You're invited to come, if you'd like to, will be networking with attorneys and with community organizers around what they're doing around immigration concerns at this time. Our new bishop Bishop Maneuver Carcano, who just came to us this past year, is also our national chair for our immigration task force for the United Methodist Church. We have 60 sanctuary congregations across the country. We have a large network of congregations working on immigration issues. And so what I offer to you today in first of all, thanking you for Mayor Spencer and for Vice Mayor Avila for bringing this forward. As you talk about wanting to network with different groups, including faith communities, we offer the resources that we have and some of the experiences and expertize that we have on this issue. And we look forward to having meetings with you to consult, talk about best way so we can work together as a whole community. I really think the idea of working with the schools is a great idea because I think children and youth are being impacted in ways that I think, as some of the other speakers have talked about, are not always recognizable for them. But post-traumatic stress is definitely happening among families. We see this taking place in particularly around children and young people who really are assimilating feelings about the larger climate that's going on today. So with that, you know, I just want to lend my support to the proposals that you have before you. I also echo my concerns about housing, given that we're concerned about that as well. And if there's ways that we can collaborate on working on transitional housing for refugees, we really would be interested in working with you on that. So thank you very much. Thank you. Alan Fryer and then Sister Pat Nagle. Thank you, Mayor and council people. I just want. To applaud you for what you're doing here. This is great. I'm. Took public speaking with gym back there, but he got all the. Smarts out of it. I mean, I was just. Blown away with the number of people that were at the march, the gathering that we did at the. Islamic Center. Yeah. And, you know, and the stories that I hear, you know, from teachers about students that are, you know, afraid when they get to school, you know, Monday morning, because they don't know what's going to happen with their family and where they're going to be living. And. And I also want to share a friend of my wife called this weekend and she's an immigrant and it doesn't quite documented. And she had some really bad pains in her gut. And she was afraid to go to Highland because she might be turned in. And my wife called one of the council people, and she got her in touch with a super advisor in the county. And they assured her and she went to Highland and everything was fine and they didn't turn her in and she came home. So, you know, this we've got a really good community here and it really is inclusive of everybody. Thank you. Thank you. Sister Pat. They don't. She's our last speaker on this item. Mayor Spencer, council members, staff and and everybody here still. Well, I can't tell you how heartened I am by this effort. I am deeply moved and I really appreciate your commitment. This is the way that we can change the world. We come together around what we have in common. We can change the little place where we are now. We can really strengthen our relationships with each other. And that will affect the larger system. It'll affect the world beyond. So I am very heartened by this. I want to speak, though, as you know, in support of the efforts to address the housing issue here. We cannot say that we welcome refugees and immigrants if we don't help to provide housing. I had one very difficult time finding housing for the family that we have worked with. And so I encourage you to think outside of the box and to find ways to bring us all together property owners, landlords, realtors, citizens, renters, owners to talk about this issue, to Facebook, and to create a response. We all share. Every single one of us. The right to safe, secure housing. So thanks again. And you can count on my efforts to collaborate with you in whatever way. Thank you. And she's our last speaker, council member. Do you want to go. Next or go next? Yeah, you can go first. Remember matter arresting. I think you've laid a nice outline of a plan that we can adopt. Here in Alameda. And I'm hoping to get a recommendation from the Social Service Human Relations Board as as a body so that we can understand in the context of what resources we have and what resources have been offered, how this plan or elements of this plan can be implemented. So I'm willing to support this to get the ball rolling and. If we can do. Thank you. Member Odie. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I want to thank my colleagues for bringing forth this referral. When we did the Sanctuary City Resolution a few weeks ago, one of the arguments I remember making was that if we're going to have a saying that everyone belongs here, then we should actually have policies like the sanctuary city that reflect that saying. And this is kind of the next step. If we're going to have a sanctuary, we're going to be designated as a sanctuary city and say that our immigrants and refugees are welcome here and we're not going to turn anyone in and we're not going to discriminate. Then we need to take that next step and back up that resolution with services. So I think this referral does a really good job of starting that process. Now, every day in my job, I do this type of work. You know, people call in with issues. They're more than just refugees and immigrants. But everyone in Alameda and Oakland and San Leandro and you know, we do have the Blue Book, The Eden, you know, two, one, one. But that's not enough. I mean, we have to rely on, you know, all sorts of different resources, like the referral talks about our schools, our folks, like the Filipino advocates for justice and counselors and social workers and attorneys. And that that's one area where I think, you know, our city could do a lot better job of is connecting our residents with services so like a council member matter. So you know I look forward to seeing what shrub comes comes up with and you know, I know that we're hiring a new city attorney or assistant city attorney. And I think that individual is going to be focused on constituent type services problems, issues. So I think that's a very good start. Not all ideas. Great ideas come from me. So I know other people have great ideas and I don't want to steal the vice mayor's thunder. But when her and I were talking about some of the things the city could do as far as assisting our tenants, she came up with an idea that, you know, we really hear from a lot of tenants and a lot of residents that, you know, they their housing problem is is really symptomatic of larger problems, you know, that have festered or gone, you know, unchecked or, you know, it really even looked at. So the idea that the vice mayor came up with was that, you know, we actually have as part of our housing program, you know, a social worker or a case manager or somebody that could, you know, do intake and say, you know, this person, yes, they have a housing issue. Yes, they have an issue with their landlord. But, you know, they're also not receiving the health coverage that they need or they need other services or maybe they do need help paying their rent and they can connect with Catholic Charities or other social services that help paying the rent. So I think, you know, not only do I think this is a great referral, you know, I think we should even do more than just as the thing says, minimal and nominal expenditures. I think we have a responsibility to connect our residents in need and in trouble, whether they're immigrants, refugees or not, with different social services and different services that they may they may be eligible for. And I will say before I close that, you know, Yusef Law School does also produce some really good people. And I went there because of their social justice commitment, and I'm glad that I did. With that, I'd like to move approval on the referral ticket. And I'd like to add that I recently attended the first Latino Hispanic roundtable. That's part of our we started it through our Alameda Unified School District, I can't say. And they have offered to provide translators, which is another issue translators. And I also reached out to Dr. Sean McFetridge, the superintendent of the school district, and he does also support the referral. So I reached out to him before I submitted it because a lot of it does include working with the school district and its member, Ashcraft Church. We already have our liaison committee with the school district, so that that would be a natural way to work, work on these issues. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor I motion carries unanimously. Thank you, everyone. Council communications. Vice mayor. I think this is the point in time that I let everybody know that I attended the League of Cities. New council members boot camp and training in Sacramento a few weeks ago. It was very informative, met with a lot of other elected officials from the area. I also attended the League of Cities Dinner for the East Bay a couple of weeks ago. Along with a few along along with all the women on the. Women on the council. And again, I think this is these are the types of opportunities that also help us to connect with our our fellow elected officials to hear what they're doing in their communities. And then I attended the Airport Noise Forum as well, that same the same week as the League of Cities Training. There was at that committee, we voted to move forward with a proposal from the subcommittee addressing the noise issues at the airport, having to do with the gen implementation for those of us who aren't as familiar with all of the terminology. It's basically the new flight patterns that have been put in place since 2014, 2015, that have caused an increase in noise complaints from our constituents here. Both the mayor and I are the liaisons to the airport noise forum. We also had a meeting today and a briefing with the folks from the Noise Forum to help us learn all of the terminology, among other things. And I also attended the LED abatement meeting with the county JPA. And on that board, we've been talking about the different ordinances in place in all of our cities. And in specific regards to the report that came out recently about the lead levels mainly in Oakland, but also countywide and what we can do to work together. With regards to our ordinances. And Brody. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Quick report out. I attended the Starboy Stalk meeting, as I always do, and there was really nothing of critical import for Alameda. But we did sign off or at least do our part in signing off on the landfill out in Livermore. And I was honored to attend with many of my colleagues the Kona's Barbecue and love with a big basket of Cuban. You've been bought some stuff that I bought that was made in Cuba, so that was kind of cool and I was really honored to participate also with a number of my colleagues at the Islamic Center. And and then we actually marched around the block, which was kind of. Fun, past my childhood. Home. Remember Ashcroft. And I was going to say that I also took part in the gathering at the in front of the Islamic center. It was a Sunday afternoon. Nice weather and it was really sweet. I heard the count was something like 400. But as we were approaching, I brought my husband. I think it's the first march he's ever attended because we're very different people. But as we were approaching, we saw families coming, pulling children in wagons and on bicycles and tricycles and people with their dogs and just all generations. And yeah, it was lovely. And the folks, the imam and the and these very gracious ladies from the Islamic center served refreshments and were just so pleased and so gracious to have us there. And I told other other folks who were there that it made me proud of my city to just see that spontaneous, because I think it was just organized online the day before and folks just came and made their signs and that was great. Then a week ago today, early in the morning, 5 a.m., a number of us gathered to help with a countywide homeless count. The mayor was there and city manager was there. Debbie Potter, head of our Community Development Department, Jim Fran's Social Services Department, and some residents, just some Alameda residents. We all we went first to the West Oakland Youth Center at five in the morning and then we got our census tract maps we all asked to be assigned in Alameda because we want to understand the homelessness situation in our own city and the city manager and I partnered upon because we are also asked to respect confidentiality. We can't really tell you how many and where we saw them, but just let it be known that homelessness exists in our city. And and as the city manager and I observed, sometimes hiding in plain sight. So it's sobering, but it just it speaks to the fact that we are part of this, the Bay Area and this situation exists everywhere. And we're not immune. We're a wonderful city, but we're not immune and we're going to work together and find solutions. But the first step in that and oh, another Alameda resident was Sarah Otis, daughter of my colleague, who is a staff aide to our county supervisor, Wilma Chan. But the first step and these are numbers that go to head at the federal level where I hope they will still be counted in any way. And then that's the first step in knowing what the situation looks like and then to start addressing it. So but anyway, kudos to everybody for getting up at the crack of dawn. Embarrassing. So I already shared, of course, my highlight from the U.S. mayor's conference. And of course, I joined vice mayor at the Airport Noise Workshop. And I want to thank the Port of Oakland for hosting us and as an extremely informative meeting. And then I also had the opportunity to meet, along with staff, the new president of the College of Alameda that I want to share with the public. Jim Karas, he's been he's been there for approximately three years, and he will now be leading the college. And I and I'm actually really looking forward to it. For those of you that are familiar with our college, we seem to have had quite a few turnovers of presidents lately, and I'm really hoping that he stays and that we are better able to serve the needs of our community members that attend the local community college. I think that's very important. And I also had the opportunity, along with, and I believe, member Ashcraft, to attend last night's meeting that I also thought was extremely informative. That being said, I will now adjourned the meeting. Thank you. And it's 9:45. P.m.. I'm sorry. I just wanted to say I just wanted to recognize Brett Webb, who actually organized the Islamic Center event that we had and stand in solidarity along with his partner, Amanda Cooper, who's not here. So thank you so much for taking the initiative. And it was really great to see the outpouring of everybody there. That being said, good evening. Turning the. Point left. For Bret. There's.