COVID-19 Resource & Action Guide, Part 3

Coronavirus Resource And Action Guide

Joseph Smooke, Dyan Ruiz | 06/08/2020

Building Community!
& New COVID-19 Resources

Check out what People Power Media has been up to! And, if you missed our previous resource & action guides, you can view the 2nd one here, and the 1st one here.

RESOURCES

Bay Rising has just released a comprehensive, up-to-date website of resources. Please share this! They even have a beautiful & inspiring COVID-19 coloring book!

UCSF Medical students have created this important mythbusters website about COVID-19. Get the up to date facts!

TENANT PROTECTIONS

Take action! Call your Congressional Representative & tell them to support Rep. Ilhan Omar's (D-Minnesota) bill, HR 6515, our best chance to truly cancel rents and mortgages, provide financial relief, prevent against evictions, and more!

The patchwork of tenant protections has been incredibly confusing. The Anti-Eviction Mapping Project has compiled all of the protections into a global interactive map- so no matter where you live in the world, you can see what protections are currently in place if you can't pay the rent. You can also see where tenants are holding rent strikes around the world.

SHELTER FOR HOMELESS

Take action! There are constant calls for the Mayor to act in compliance with the Board of Supervisors' legislation requiring the city of San Francisco to move homeless into hotel rooms. How can you make a difference? Two organizations to contact and follow are the Western Regional Advocacy Project and the Coalition on Homelessness.

WHAT WE'VE BEEN UP TO

Take Action - Help Us Deliver Food!

Every Wednesday, we pick up a dozen bags of groceries from the San Francisco Neighbors Solidarity Network and deliver to seniors and immuno-compromised residents. The Network delivers all over the city. Contact them if you want to donate or help with deliveries.

The City's First Online Candidates Forum
We co-sponsored the first virtual candidates forum in San Francisco which was broadcast simultaneously on Zoom and Facebook. The race to succeed Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer in SF's District 1 is heating up. Richmond District Rising pulled together a number of community and neighborhood political organizations to sponsor this forum. You can watch it here.

May Day Reporting

At this year's May Day rally, tenants and unions came together in solidarity to demand relief especially for workers who have lost their jobs. Check out our photographs on social media (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook). We also produced audio of tenant testimonials to be played in the cars participating in the rally. See our photos using the links above, one of which was even picked up by KQED for their fundraising pitch!

Using Housing For Homes
SF Supervisor Aaron Peskin sponsored pioneering legislation to regulate corporate rentals. People Power Media contributed research to this legislation which gained unanimous support from the Board. New tech companies funded by hundreds of millions of venture capital dollars have emerged that take over housing units for "intermediate term" rentals. These units are not regulated as "short term" like AirBnB because they're longer than 30 days, but they're also not providing residential housing. These units are used primarily by corporations for executives, staff and consultants and are taking over many thousands of units. Stay tuned as People Power Media will be publishing an exposé that reveals in depth the scale of this threat to our housing.

Tenant Outreach Campaign
People Power Media did massive outreach to tenants in English, Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese via social media and on English and Spanish radio to inform them of their rights and responsibilities if they're unable to pay rent. If you know of a tenant who needs support in San Francisco, please direct them to the San Francisco Anti-Displacement Coalition.

REJECT RACISM

Take Action and Report Racism! If you or someone you know has faced discrimination in any form they should file a complaint right away with the SF Human Rights Commission. If the abuse is physical, call 911.

Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA) has established a reporting center and they, along with other organizations, will provide resources for impacted individuals and develop education and media campaigns to curtail racial profiling.