News & Commentary

Sometimes the trucks arrive early. Sometimes they come with no notice at all. Sometimes, while workers from the California Department of Transportation make their way down the row of tents—seizing property and cherished belongings—people have mere minutes or seconds to grab everything they can carry before their bedding, clothes, tools, bikes, medicine, food, shelter, and other property are thrown into a Caltrans trash compactor and destroyed.

A coalition of community groups recently announced a groundbreaking partnership with Facebook and the cities of East Palo Alto and Menlo Park to address affordable housing, displacement, and economic opportunity in the region.

Each year, thousands of Californians are kept in jail awaiting trial simply because they can't afford to post bail.

Facebook’s proposed headquarters expansion would inject tens of thousands of new workers into one of the tightest housing markets in the country, yet its environmental study denies any impact on housing demand or displacement pressures.

Driving is not a luxury for me, it’s a necessity. My life depends on driving. And Santa Clara County wants to take away my license. I’m sure there are lots of other people out there in situations like mine.

The slum housing crisis in Fresno is a crisis of poverty and racism. Yet today, the Fresno City Council will vote on an overly broad and vague "nuisance" ordinance that will only open the door to more discrimination.

Did you know that in 2014 police took more property from people in the U.S. than burglars did? Frightening, but absolutely legal. A new ACLU of California report finds that, although this tactic of policing for profit can impact all types of innocent people, folks of color and poor people bear the heaviest burden.

Dear Governor Brown:

Imagine you’re on your way to buy a used car and a police officer pulls you over. After asking you a few questions, the officer asks to search your car. Knowing you’ve done nothing wrong, you agree. The next thing you know, the officer is telling you that he’s suspicious that you have $2,500 in cash – and he takes it. You explain that you’re on your way to buy a car. He doesn’t believe you and tells you that if you want your cash back, you’ll have to fight for it in court.