In the final hours of Sept. 15, 2022, Pablo Silva and four other Venezuelan men were wandering downtown Sacramento, a city they had never heard of, searching for a roof over their heads.

They didn’t find it.

They had traveled thousands of miles to escape violence and poverty in Venezuela. Silva said he and the men had asked for asylum at the border in Texas and, after they were processed, immigration officials gave them paperwork with an address, saying it was a shelter in Sacramento.

To this day, Silva isn’t sure who bought his ticket to California, but penniless and hungry he accepted, expecting a better future in the state capital.

After hours of walking in Sacramento, Silva spotted the address — 1107 9th St. — and imagined himself sleeping in a warm bed inside the tall building.

But a security guard there stopped him and the other men before they could knock and said, with the help of Google Translate, that there was no shelter in the Forum Building, a 10-story edifice that houses offices for lobbyists, two blocks from the Capitol.

The five immigrants, who barely knew each other, searched all night for a warm place to rest. At times they slept on the ground, huddled together on a park bench, and even ducked into portable toilets until the smell of human feces got to them.

A year later Silva still lives in Sacramento. Recently he retraced his steps from that night, telling his story of leaving his family in Venezuela, seeing the bodies of those who didn’t survive their journey to the United States, and almost giving up during that first night of sleeping on Sacramento’s streets.

“When I arrived here I had nothing,” Silva said, while standing across from the Forum Building on a recent afternoon. “Now I have a work permit, but I haven’t had much luck finding a job. I don’t want to take anybody’s job; I just want an opportunity.”

Silva’s journey foreshadowed a wave of buses and flights transporting asylum seekers from border cities in Texas to metropolitan areas run by Democrats, including Los Angeles and Sacramento. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have boasted about the mass migrant movement, though it’s unclear who sent Silva’s group to Sacramento.

Silva has made progress launching his new life, he said; though he still encounters setbacks. Like Silva, many of the dozens of asylum seekers landing into California are hoping to find work and a safe haven.

They may find that it takes a while, Silva said.

An unexpected journey to California

Silva said he was forced to leave his family and native country after refusing to join the National Liberation Army, a Marxist guerrilla group in Colombia that operates near the Venezuelan border, including in his hometown of Ureña.

Silva had heard from other Venezuelans who emigrated that the United States is a safe country filled with opportunities. On Aug. 7, 2022, Silva said goodbye to his 7-year-old daughter and, with the equivalent of $80 in his pocket, embarked on a journey north.

First he traveled by bus and boat until he reached the mountains of the infamous Darién Gap, a once-impenetrable rainforest connecting Panama with South America. It has become a major crossing point for U.S.-bound migrants.

Some don’t make it through, Silva said, describing the eight days it took him to cross the jungle.

“I saw dead women, men and children laying on the ground,” he said. “I went four days without eating, and drinking water from the river.”

Silva traversed Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador on foot and by bus. When he reached Guatemala City, he asked strangers for money until a man helped him buy a bus ticket to the Mexican border. Silva then rode the final 100 miles atop the notorious freight train known as La Bestia to Piedras Negras, a border town across from Eagle Pass, Texas.

The United Nation’s chief immigration agency has deemed the U.S.-Mexico border the world’s deadliest land route for migrants. Last year at least 686 people died or disappeared, nearly half in Mexico’s Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts.

On Sept. 8, 2022, Silva swam across the Rio Grande and surrendered to U.S. immigration officials. He spent his first night inside a Border Patrol cell, colloquially known as a hielera, or ice box, due to its cold temperatures, before being transported to a church in El Paso.

There, Silva said, he was given documents instructing him to check in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials in Sacramento. He also was given paperwork that included the address that was supposed to be a shelter in California’s capital.

Silva and a group of other migrants hitchhiked about 550 miles to the Migrant Resource Center in San Antonio, where he was told to board a flight to California.

First: The American Airlines flight information for Pablo Silva. Silva crossed into the United States in Eagle Pass, Texas and was processed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. He was released in San Antonio and flown to Sacramento with a group of fellow migrants. Last: Greyhound bus information for Pablo Silva. Silva crossed into the United States in Eagle Pass, Texas last year . He was flown from San Antonio to Sacramento with other migrants. Photos by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters

“I thought I was finally going to a safe place,” Silva said. “But that happiness turned to nothing not long after we arrived. I realized that my journey hadn’t ended yet.”

Barricades as blankets

That security guard at the Forum Building advised Silva and the other four immigrants to come back early the next morning for more information.

Disappointed, they walked in circles looking for a place to eat and something to drink. It was near midnight and they could find nothing open. Every minute that went by they grew more hungry and thirsty. Headaches started to kick in.

When Silva saw a Sacramento police vehicle, hope manifested itself, he said.

“We showed our paperwork to a police officer and he called (on) his radio,” he said. “More officers came and they were speaking English to each other. He then approached us and said, ‘I am sorry, this is not our obligation.’”

The Sacramento Police Department didn’t respond to requests for comment about that encounter.

To fight the cold, the men sat close to each other on a metal bench at Cesar Chavez Plaza, a small park near Sacramento’s city hall. Not far from there, dozens of people were sleeping on the ground. Silva cried in silence.

Unable to sleep, the migrants kept walking until they were outside California’s Capitol. They decided to go inside some porta potties to warm up. But the smell was unbearable and they left.

As Silva continued walking, he thought of his weeks-long trek across a jungle and several countries. It helped him stay focused and motivated, though he could feel the blisters on his feet with every step.

Around the corner from the Capitol, the five men succumbed to fatigue. They entered a parking garage and laid down near a wall, using nearby barricades as blankets. Silva said he didn’t get any sleep, wondering how and why he had ended up on the streets.

First: A portable toilet outside of the Capitol grounds on Sept. 9, 2023. Pablo Silva said he and three fellow migrants tried to sleep in four portable bathrooms outside the state Capitol their first night in Sacrament. Overwhelmed by the smell, the group settled on a corner of a parking garage near K and 10th streets. Last: Folding barricades against a wall at a parking garage near K and 10th streets in downtown Sacramento on Sept. 9, 2023. Pablo Silva and three other migrants spent their first night in Sacramento sleeping in this corner of a garage, using barricades as blankets. Photos by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters

A few hours later, at 6 a.m. the five men headed back to the Forum Building, where the same security guard provided them with an address seven miles away. It was a food bank, where they were welcomed with breakfast and introduced to NorCal Resist, an immigration advocacy organization in Sacramento.

NorCal Resist said it would pay for their housing, food, and certain living expenses for six months.

“We make that agreement kind of knowing that we will probably have to provide assistance for a longer period because it takes a long time to get financially stable,” said Autumn Gonzalez, a volunteer attorney at NorCal Resist. “But these guys have been amazing. They went out hustling to find work immediately.”

Without proof of income or a credit history, they couldn’t rent a place to live, so Silva and the other immigrants were placed in a hotel. Gonzalez said her group has helped other migrants like them who arrive in Sacramento without friends or family to help.

“The first thing I did was to shower. I wanted to feel like myself again,” Silva said, showing the faded jeans he wore during his journey to the U.S.

“NorCal brought us new clothes and I tried them on. It felt like a new beginning.”

After a few months in the hotel, NorCal Resist helped Silva move to a two-bedroom apartment, which he now shares with two other immigrants seeking asylum.

Long journey for daily work

Without a work permit from the federal government, undocumented immigrants are not allowed to hold down jobs. Many wait six months or more after applying for asylum to qualify for a work permit. Until then, many find temporary or day work and are paid under the table.

Silva heard that if he showed up early in the morning at a Home Depot, he may be picked up for construction jobs. He rode a donated bike for 25 minutes in the predawn darkness to get there. His daughter needed to eat, he reminded himself. An hour before sunrise, Silva stood waiting to get picked up.

“I will never forget this American woman who didn’t speak Spanish but wanted people to help her move,” Silva said.

“I worked almost eight hours and got paid $200. That was my first job and the last for a few days.”

In the following months, Silva took daily jobs in construction and gardening, sometimes traveling to Modesto, Stockton and as far as Reno, Nevada. Some nights Silva skipped dinner to save every dollar he could for his daughter in Venezuela.

A man he met outside Home Depot helped him get steadier work at a carpet installation company. Though he gets paid $140 for a day shift that sometimes exceeds eight hours, Silva doesn’t always get five shifts a week, he said. In recent months he’s had to borrow to make ends meet and pay rent.

Just before his one-year anniversary in Sacramento, Silva experienced an anxiety attack and was rushed to the hospital.

His mental health had been deteriorating, he said. His eldest sister had died in April. His mother could not afford medication following her surgery. And he worried about his legal status.

“I remember I couldn’t move my face and my fingers,” Silva said of the panic attack. “I went back to work a couple of days after. I can’t take days off; I need to be able to provide for my family.”

A future still uncertain

When Silva claimed asylum, saying he fled harm in Venezuela, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents processed him and released him pending adjudication of his case. Instead of giving him a court hearing, agents instructed Silva to check in with ICE as part of a process designed to alleviate overcrowding in border facilities.

Soon after he connected with NorCal Resist, the group helped him file his official asylum application, starting the clock to obtain work authorization.

Getting a work permit has nothing to do with whether or not your asylum case is likely to be approved, said Theresa Cardinal Brown, a former immigration official under Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush.

Ultimately an immigration judge and asylum officers must find that a migrant was persecuted or could be persecuted in their home countries due to one of several factors, such as their political views or religion, in order to grant them asylum. Those who lose their asylum case face deportation.

Migrants are waiting years to get their cases heard because of backlogs. As of December, more than 1.5 million asylum seekers were awaiting asylum hearings, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.

“To get a resolution, to get either approved or rejected, depends on where the immigration court hearing is. It could be anywhere from a year to five years, or longer,” said Cardinal Brown, now a senior adviser at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, D.C.

U.S. border officials have reported record levels of migrant apprehensions in recent years, including 2.2 million in fiscal 2022. Along with posing humanitarian and operational challenges, the unprecedented migrant influx has ignited a political battle between Republican state governors, President Joe Biden and Democratic-led cities.

At Abbott’s direction, Texas has bused hundreds of migrants to large cities across the United States — including more than 500 to California since June — to protest the Biden administration’s border strategy and local sanctuary policies.

And the Florida Division of Emergency Management said it was responsible for flying a group of 36 migrants to Sacramento in June.

Neither Abbott nor DeSantis took credit for the flight that sent Silva to Sacramento.

Lauren Heidbrink, an associate professor and anthropologist at Cal State Long Beach who focuses on migration, said that by paying to ship migrants out of Texas, Abbott “is enlisting taxpayer dollars to create a political spectacle. He’s fabricating a crisis where there is none.”

There have been reports that Texas officials listed migrants’ addresses incorrectly on official documents, confiscated their documents and never returned them, and deceived migrants to get on buses to places where they have no contacts.

These practices can hinder migrants’ ability to attend their assigned court hearings and comply with immigration proceedings, Heidbrink said.

“It’s potentially creating chaos within the immigration system that’s trying to ensure that people get their day in court,” she said.

State officials have said California has assisted 423,000 immigrants since April 2021 and spent $1.3 billion since 2019, helping the federal government provide humanitarian services to new arrivals at the border.

Gonzalez said NorCal Resist is still unsure about who bought the plane tickets for Silva and the other four men last year. She added that, in some cases, shelters or nonprofits will pay for transportation for migrants being processed at the border, if they request it but have no money to continue their travels in the United States.

Permission to work

In the early morning of July 15, 10 months after his arrival in Sacramento, Silva opened his mailbox to find a letter from the federal government. Silva jumped with excitement when he realized he had received his work permit, a much sought-after document and a key milestone on his year-long journey that began far from California.

But Silva’s struggles didn’t end there. Not long after he opened the letter, he walked through downtown Sacramento for hours searching for a job. With a work permit, Silva thought that a stable income was finally attainable.

But all the businesses he visited rejected him.

“Some managers said they would call me back and they never did,” Silva said. “But what really hurt me was the discrimination. A manager said my work permit was fake.

“It discouraged me to hear that I had no right to have this kind of documentation.”

Pablo Silva at Cesar E. Chavez Memorial Plaza in Sacramento on Sept. 9, 2023. Silva is sitting on the bench where he and three other migrants slept their first night in Sacramento. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters

But he will keep searching, Silva said; that’s what he has done since he left Venezuela. And as his future in Sacramento remains uncertain, his dreams and goals remain the same.

“I want to start my own business, contribute to this economy,” Silva said with a smile. “And I know I can only do that in a country like the U.S.”

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Alejandra Reyes-Velarde at CalMatters contributed to this report.CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

From the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services:

The new COVID-19 monovalent vaccine was recently approved and is expected to be available locally in the next week. The new vaccines, which are designed to protect against the current Omicron subvariants, are the only vaccines currently approved. The previous bivalent COVID-19 vaccines were deauthorized on Sept. 11.

In addition to the new vaccine, COVID vaccines have transitioned to the commercial market which means they will no longer be purchased by the federal government and provided free of charge to all U.S. residents. Instead, they will be available through commercial insurance, Medicaid, including California’s Medi-Cal program, Medicare, the Vaccines for Children Program and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

The Humboldt County Department of Health & Human Services Public Health branch will also have a limited number of vaccines available for uninsured adults at its main clinic in Eureka. For more information, call your local pharmacy, primary care provider or the Public Health Clinic at 707-268-2108.

For more information about the COVID-19 vaccine commercialization, click on the Vaccinate ALL 58 vaccination program’s FAQ page.

Press release from the Trinidad Rancheria:

The Cher-Ae Heights Indian Community of the Trinidad Rancheria (Trinidad Rancheria) is issuing this Press Release to inform the public of the commencement of construction of the Trinidad Harbor Stormwater Construction Project. Construction will commence on October 2, 2023 and conclude October 30, 2023. Contractors will be working on rock slope protection near launcher beach for approximately one week. There will be very limited closures of launcher beach while crews are delivering replacement rock and other delivery items; during this time we are asking the public to use alternate access areas identified in the attached public access map.

Contractors will allow boaters to launch kayaks and boats during all other times. Contractor will also be installing a small rain garden near the Seascape Restaurant. During this time traffic routes and walkways will be routed around this construction zone. Launcher beach will have no closures during construction of the rain garden. We are asking the public to be mindful of the alternate traffic routes and public walkways during this time for everyone’s safety. The Trinidad Harbor Stormwater Construction Project will Commence again June 1st 2024. Trinidad Rancheria will issue another press release before commencement 2024 to inform the public of construction schedules and public access routes.

Trinidad Rancheria purchased the Trinidad Harbor Property in January 2000. Since the purchase, the tribe has worked hard to mitigate hazardous waste and remove toxic materials left behind by previous commercial operations, and other sources of pollution such as used oil, hydraulic fluid, creosote and pollutants that affect groundwater and the Trinidad Bay. After first purchasing the property, Trinidad Harbor was identified by the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) as in violation of the California Ocean Plan and the Rancheria began work on mitigating several discharges to the Trinidad Head Area of Special Biological Significance (ASBS), which is home to the unique and diverse kelp forest ecosystem.

Trinidad Rancheria has completed numerous projects to eliminate discharges and comply with the SWRCB discharge prohibition. Projects include the construction of the zero-discharge pier, public restrooms, and a state-of-the-art wastewater treatment facility and disposal fields. Trinidad Rancheria has also performed a number of upgrades to Seascape Restaurant, the boat launch, ramp, and hoist. In addition to infrastructure improvements, Trinidad Rancheria has also implemented best management practices for soil and erosion control, pesticides, and other chemical prevention; public education and outreach; trash clean up and handling; wastewater treatment facility operation and maintenance and stormwater runoff from parking areas and other developed features. Trinidad Rancheria will construct a series of rain gardens, bio retention swales, permeable pavers, linear drains, and speed humps to redirect and treat stormwater from the parking areas and developed features. This project will also include concrete mat to improve access to launcher beach and rock slope protection around launcher beach to protect the beach from erosion and restore the area’s natural beauty.

Trinidad Rancheria is building a Marine Program that will empower the Tribe to protect, restore, and sustainably co-manage the coastal environment and its resources to achieve healthy and diverse ecosystems, sustainable fisheries, economic viability, and generational prosperity. As Indigenous peoples, and owners of the Trinidad Harbor, we honor the inherent balance and interconnectedness of the ocean and coastal communities.

To learn more about Trinidad Rancheria’s Environmental Program, please visit this link.

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Press release from the California Economic Development Department:

The Employment Development Department (EDD) announced today it has awarded more than $648,000 for the Supply Chain and Worker Readiness Program (the Program), an integral part of Humboldt County’s groundbreaking offshore wind energy project. The Program is designed to facilitate workforce development efforts over the entire offshore wind project lifecycle and will utilize funds for research, community preparation, and workforce partner development. The funding will also be applied towards the education and capacity building of local businesses to meet Humboldt County’s long-term workforce needs while this new industry is established.

“This offshore wind project will give regional workers access to industry-focused training, supportive services, and employment opportunities,” said EDD Director Nancy Farias. “As our economy evolves, EDD and its regional workforce development partners are focused on preparing California’s workforce for these new opportunities.”

The Program will be administered by Humboldt County’s Economic Development Division in tandem with the Humboldt County Workforce Development Board (WDB). WDB staff will work with program beneficiaries to develop an emerging offshore wind workforce by connecting beneficiaries with partner grants, loans, and technical assistance. While offshore wind is expected to create jobs within construction and skilled trades, such as manufacturing, fabrication, welding, construction, and safety, it also has the potential to grow other local industries including medical, housing and childcare.

To meet the extensive demands of the long-term offshore wind project, the Program will provide supportive services to Humboldt County as it strategically plans to integrate this new industry into its community. Specialized training and education will be made available through partnerships with Cal Poly Humboldt, College of the Redwoods, and labor unions. These programs will provide direct path opportunities that transition participants into employment with businesses that are part of the offshore wind system supply chain. In addition, the Program will support widespread community education and outreach pertaining to offshore wind energy.

Funding for this grant was provided through the discretionary funds made available to Governor Gavin Newsom in accordance with the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act and administered by the EDD and the California Labor & Workforce Development Agency.

For more information on this Program, contact Humboldt County’s Economic Development Division Director Scott Adair at 1-707-476-4800.

Humboldt County Drug Task Force press release: 

On September 14th, 2023, Humboldt County Drug Task Force Agents served a search warrant at the residence of Jordan Guthart, Laluna Martin, and Kirk Thurston, located on Manzanita Lane in Redway. HCDTF Agents received information that drug activity was occurring at the residence. 

Upon arrival at the residence, three subjects fled on foot out of the back of the residence. Two of the fleeing subjects were believed to be Jordan Guthart and Laluna Martin. Due to the residence not being secured and other parties being contacted inside the residence, Agents did not pursue the fleeing subjects.

Inside the residence, Agents located Kirk Thurston, 41 years old of Redway. Agents searched the residence and located 4 grams of methamphetamine, 4 grams of fentanyl, packaging materials, a digital scale, four firearms (two of which were assault weapons), ammunition, and one Billy club. 

After interviewing the tenants of the residence and collecting indicia, Agents were able to confirm the bedroom that Guthart and Martin were living in. Agents located a loaded .22 caliber handgun inside Guthart and Martin’s bedroom. Guthart is a convicted felon and is prohibited from possessing firearms and ammunition. 

Kirk Thurston was transported to the Humboldt County Correctional Facility where he was booked on the following charges:

• HS11370.1(A)- Possession of Controlled Substances while Armed
• PC30605(A)- Illegally Possess Any Assault Weapon

The following charges will be requested for Jordan Guthart and Laluna Martin: 

• HS11370.1-  Possession of a Controlled Substance While Armed
• HS11351- Possession of a Controlled Substance for Sales
• PC29800(A)(1)- Felon in Possession of a Firearm
• PC30605(A)- Illegally Possess Any Assault Weapon
• PC30305(A)- Felon in Possession of Ammunition 
• PC22210- Possession of a Leaded Cane or Baton 

Anyone with information related to this investigation or other narcotics related crimes is encouraged to call the Humboldt County Drug Task Force at 707-267-9976.

Mia Neustein calls her work for Planned Parenthood in the Coachella Valley her “dream job.” She believes in the organization’s mission, and wants to be a part of it for years to come.

But the pace of that work has increased substantially since last year, when the Supreme Court ended the nationwide right to abortion, leading some out-of-state patients to travel to Southern California for care.

That trend, coupled with several local decisions that she said exacerbated stresses on her colleagues, led workers at her clinic last week to vote to create a union. They’re joining a labor movement taking root at a number of other Planned Parenthood clinics in states that have protected abortion rights since the Supreme Court struck down Roe vs. Wade.

“The types of working conditions that we’ve been dealing with, especially in the last year or so, have really pushed people toward realizing how necessary a union is,” said Neustein, who started working for Planned Parenthood as a health center educator two years ago.

Her clinic belongs to Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest, a group of 26 sites in Imperial, Riverside and San Diego counties that regularly sees patients from states with abortion restrictions. The organization estimates that 10% of its patients since the 2022 Supreme Court decision have come from other states.

About 93% of the workers who voted to join SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West. After certification by the National Labor Relations Board, the union would represent 550 Planned Parenthood workers ranging from clinicians to registered nurses and licensed social workers.

Workers said they hope to get better pay, an improved time-off policy and safer working conditions through this union.

California voters cemented the right to abortion in the state constitution last year, and Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed more than two dozen other laws that are designed to expand access to reproductive care after the 2022 Supreme Court decision known as Dobbs. He and other Democratic leaders have championed California as a safe haven for women seeking abortions.

At the same time, 22 states have introduced or passed legislation to restrict or ban abortion, according to the news organization Axios. One of them, Arizona, shares a border with California. Arizona prohibits most abortions after 15 weeks.

More abortions in California

In states where abortion remains legal, reproductive care workers have been complaining about being overworked due to increased demand for care from out-of-state patients. Planned Parenthood workers in at least seven states, including Massachusetts and Nebraska, have decided to unionize, according to news reports.

“We’ve definitely seen an increase in patients,” said Libby Kusiak, a certified physician associate at a Planned Parenthood in San Diego. “We see a lot of out-of-state patients since we’re kind of really perfectly nestled geographically to serve and accommodate patients from other states like Arizona, but we do see patients from Texas and other states as well.”

A new study by the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports reproductive rights, shows that the number of abortions in California has increased by 16% since the end of Roe vs. Wade.

It found 12,300 more abortions were performed from January to June 2023 compared to a similar time period in 2020. That marked the second-largest numerical increase in abortions among states.

Cathren Cohen, staff attorney at the UCLA Center on Reproductive Health, Law and Policy, said some patients seeking abortions may be traveling from states where bans have not yet been legalized or instituted.

“When people hear the news about the introduction of bans in states like North Carolina, Florida or even Arizona, there is a significant chilling effect,” she said. “People don’t seek out care because they think it is illegal, even if it is six months before those laws go into effect.”

Planned Parenthood union vote

Reproductive care workers, especially those close to the border, are feeling burdened by the increase in patients. The Planned Parenthood employees who voted to join the union last week said they believe they are underpaid and overworked, contributing to turnover.

“I am excited to be able to hopefully repair employee benefits in this organization in a way that truly benefits our employees,” Kusiak said. “Given how hard we work, when we show up to work every day, we really need to have that better balance in our lives.”

“Given how hard we work, when we show up to work every day, we really need to have that better balance in our lives.”
— Libby Kusiak, certified physician associate at a Planned Parenthood in San Diego

Alex Scordato was one of the earliest employees of Planned Parenthood Pacific Southwest who advocated to form a union.

“It started about a year ago, with actually a conversation between a relatively small group of admin workers and clinical staff,” they said. “We only had about eight people, had an informal session where we’re comparing our pay, talking about various issues.”

The group soon realized that they were dealing with similar issues and decided that a union would be their best bet.

The Planned Parenthood-East Los Angeles Health Center in East Los Angeles on Aug. 8th, 2022. Photo by Raquel Natalicchio for CalMatters

Darrah Johnson, president of Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest, said in a statement to CalMatters, “As an organization that champions everyone’s right to pursue their own path to a healthy and meaningful life, our goal throughout this process was to ensure that every employee had the opportunity to participate in a fair election.”

“We are proud of the number of staff who participated in the National Labor Relations Board election and made their voice heard today. We look forward to continuing to work together with our staff and now, SEIU-UHW, to ensure Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest is a compassionate and affirming place to give and get care,” she added.

The union could be one of the largest representing Planned Parenthood workers in the country.

“I think this sends a ripple to not only other Planned Parenthood affiliates across the country, but other nonprofit health care organizations, that this is possible, this is coming,” he said. “This is the rebirth of the labor movement. It’s not just a hot labor summer. This is here to last.”

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Supported by the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF), which works to ensure that people have access to the care they need, when they need it, at a price they can afford. Visit www.chcf.org to learn more.

CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

You may not have seen the headlines (there weren’t any). You may have missed the raucous debate (there wasn’t much of one). But with the end of the legislative session last week, California is now on the verge of laying down a welcome mat for most major affordable housing projects across the state.

That’s not because of a single bill, but a patchwork of current and former legislation that, taken together, “basically covers any flavor of affordable housing you could possibly want to build,” said Linda Mandolini, president of Eden Housing, an affordable housing development nonprofit.

Homes designated for low-income occupants, like all housing projects, face a gauntlet of potential challenges and hold-ups that add to the already exorbitant cost of affordable housing in California. Those hurdles include lawsuits filed under the wide-ranging California Environmental Quality Act, extensive public hearings and other forms of opposition from local government.

Now, affordable housing projects — in most places and most of the time — may soon be exempt from all that, fitted out in a suit of procedural armor made up of some half a dozen bills and laws.

A bill now sitting on the governor’s desk would cover up one of the last chinks in that armor. Assembly Bill 1449, authored by two Democratic Assemblymembers, David Alvarez of San Diego and Buffy Wicks of Oakland, would exempt certain affordable apartment developments from review under CEQA. To qualify, projects would have to be located in dense urban areas, set aside each unit for someone earning less than 80% the area median income and abide by stricter labor standards, among other requirements.

Though modest and technical-sounding, that’s unusually broad for new construction in California.

“I do think it’s gonna be very consequential but it’s kind of flown under the radar,” Alvarez said. His explanation why: “The politics of where Californians are and certainly where the Legislature is — we want to see results. We want to see housing being produced.”

Taken together with a handful of other bills and current laws, said Mark Stivers, a lobbyist with the California Housing Partnership, which co-sponsored AB 1449, the new legislation “effectively make it possible for affordable housing providers to develop nearly all viable sites in California by-right and exempt from CEQA review.”

Speeding up approval for these projects comes with a trade-off. Environmental justice organizations, labor unions and various opponents of new development see CEQA as a vital tool to weigh in and on what gets built, where and and under what terms.

“Our communities rely heavily on CEQA to be able to get more information about proposed developments that might be contributing to further pollution,” said Grecia Orozco, a staff attorney with the nonprofit Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment.

Local activists also often flood the public meetings of city councils and planning boards to pressure elected officials to block unpopular projects or extract concessions from developers.

Whether AB 1449 and a handful of similar bills become law is now up to Gov. Gavin Newsom. Supporters have reason to be optimistic. The Newsom administration is pushing local governments to approve an unprecedented 2.5 million additional homes by 2030, he called the CEQA process “broken” and in the spring he rolled out a package of bills aimed at speeding up environmental challenges to projects — though housing was not included.

He has until Oct. 14 to sign or veto the bills now sitting on his desk.

A patchwork of carve-outs

The Alvarez-Wicks bill isn’t the first legislative effort to grease the skids for new affordable housing.

Two others, both authored by San Francisco Democratic Sen. Scott Wiener, would force local governments to automatically approve apartment buildings in housing-strapped parts of the state and most affordable housing projects on the properties of houses of worship and nonprofit colleges, so long as they comply with a list zoning, affordability and labor requirements.

A third piece of legislation by San Jose Democratic Sen. Dave Cortese exempts the decision by local governments to fund affordable housing projects from environmental challenges, too. Newsom already signed it.

“We want to see housing being produced.”
— Assemblymember David Alvarez, Democrat, Chula Vista

Still awaiting the governor’s pen are a handful of bills that make it more difficult to stall housing projects though environmental lawsuits in general. That includes a bill by Sen. Nancy Skinner, a Berkeley Democrat, that would make it easier for courts to toss out environmental challenges they deem “frivolous” or “solely intended to cause unnecessary delay.” Another by Assemblymember Phil Ting, a San Francisco Democrat, would give local officials a deadline by which to approve or deny a project’s environmental review.

The Ting proposal was fiercely opposed by many environmental activists and the State Building and Construction Trades Council, an umbrella group that represents many unionized construction workers. The bill would also make it more difficult for courts to award legal fees to groups that sue to block projects through CEQA.

J.P. Rose, a staff attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, which regularly brings such suits, called that provision “the largest weakening of CEQA in recent history.”

The fact that this long list of bills passed the Legislature — some by healthy margins — amounts to a notable political shift, said Christopher Elmendorf, a law professor at UC Davis who advised Ting on the bill.

“I think it illustrates that a sea change is underfoot in how people are starting to think about these environmental review laws,” he said, though he noted that the shift in California is still modest compared to those underway in other states.

Earlier this year, the Washington legislature nearly unanimously passed a law to exempt virtually all new urban housing from that state’s environmental protection law.

The grand bargain continued

Many of the California bills build on a law passed last year that streamlines affordable housing construction along commercial corridors.

In cobbling together the law, its author, Wicks, struck a compromise: In exempting certain housing projects from environmental challenge and other local hurdles, developers would pay workers a higher minimum wage, provide them with health care benefits and abide by other stricter labor standards. That trade was the key to winning the support of the state carpenters’ union and breaking up a legislative logjam that had stymied housing production bills for years.

It also provided a template for Wiener’s two streamlining bills this year, along with the Alvarez-Wicks CEQA exemption proposal.

“That really laid the foundation for those of us who did work in the housing space this year,” said Alvarez.

“Our communities rely heavily on CEQA to be able to get more information about proposed developments that might be contributing to further pollution.”
— Grecia Orozco, staff attorney, the nonprofit Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment

Not every pro-housing advocate or CEQA critic is so content with the bargain.

“A lot of these bills help a little,” said Jennifer Hernandez, a land use attorney at the law firm Holland & Knight, who has catalogued CEQA challenges to housing projects for years. But she notes that swapping out the threat of environmental litigation with higher payroll expenses just replaces one cost with another.

In practice, she said, these exemptions are only likely to clear the way for substantial new housing construction in higher cost areas where developers can make up the difference by charging higher rents to non-subsidized residents. “You really need premium rentals to pay for those higher labor standards,” she said.

But for many affordable housing developers, it’s still a trade worth making.

“You’ve got really strong laws, clear exemptions, and an attorney general who’s willing to step up and say you got to build it,” said Mandolini with Eden Housing, who has been working on housing in the state for more than two decades. “This is the best it has been in California…If this had all existed 20 years ago, we might have built a lot more housing a lot faster.”

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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.