To get people represented, but nonetheless, hundreds fall through the cracks that they're simply not the human resources to deal with.

There is a private bar, there is movement legal, about which I hope we will hear from Leah, and the fabulous work that they do there.

And there are other organizations that mostly represent tenants in affirmative lawsuits when tenants are not defendants and defending lawsuits, but are plaintiffs in suing housing providers when, as I like to say, when they need to be sued.

Don't get me wrong.

Housing providers where would we be without them?

And of course, I only see, we only see uh the worst cases, and I know from decades of experience that the overwhelming majority of housing providers do a really good job and uh in sometimes difficult circumstances with all the economics involved.

So there are two sides.

There are the eviction defense sides of the resources that I just mentioned.

Legal assistance for seniors is one that I did not mention.

Each of these organizations has their niche.

Some are generalists like us, and like Bay Community Law Center, and uh Eventually Defense Center, uh, that take a huge variety.

Um, others have their specialties, Bay Area Legal Aid, they do mostly subsidized housing, eviction defense, um, and eviction uh legal citizens for seniors represents as the name might imply seniors.

But I'm here to tell you it's not enough.

And that's why programs like the City of Alameda operates and like this program for education are so important.

I would refer you to the resource sheet that is out in the in the lobby and handouts from our office, um, which has a wide variety of resources on it from local house city housing um inspection departments, which are very, very important, and I would say generally underfunded, generally do not meet the needs of our clients that I see.

But so that's a public policy issue in re expenditures of resources that I would I would urge everyone in attendance with some influence in that area to fund because that prevents larger larger problems in the future.

But there's a wide variety of resources available on this two-page sheet.

And I would urge you all, regardless of what side of the equation you're on, to take it and hold it close and distribute it widely.

Just summarize the uh the areas that the East Bay Community Law Center uh works in because it's not only housing.

Uh we do immigration, immigrants' rights, the full panoply of of uh rights related to immigrants and services to the immigrant community.

Um in our practice area of housing, we also do um homeless advocacy.

We we've done huge work in the um in the homeless encampments and uh working trying to make that a uh more humane circumstance uh for everyone.

We have a youth defense program which uh steps in to try to assist young people who are either in trouble with the law, which spills over into schools, or they have a problem in schools, which spills over into a law enforcement issue.

Um the school to pipeline, uh the school the prison pipeline uh interruption is what that program is about.

It it's amazing the the kinds of uh circumstances that they intervene in with often great outcomes.

We have a social work component, which is relatively new, which is actually one of our most valuable, because you know what all of us do, we were all engaged in a lot of social work.

Uh and so we are very, very fortunate to have uh just a few social workers on our team, and they work in all of our areas, and they their social worker skills and knowledge that they bring to the table are invaluable to help resolve our our sometimes very intractable, really, really difficult situations.

And then we have a our health and economic security um unit at East Bay Community Law Center, which which provides a variety of services hooking people up with their with their public benefits if they're not already on them.

A lot of people come to us, they don't they don't have public benefits, they don't realize that they're qualified for public benefits, and as long as in this country we still have a few of them, we might as well grab them uh if we are eligible.

So those are some of the uh programs we offer.

As I said, all of our sister agencies do different things, but they're all on the resource sheet.

I repeat that we are lucky that in this part of the world where we have these resources, but they're not enough.

And on that cheerful note, I thank you very, very much for being present.

Thank you so much, Mark.

And um, as he says, there are there are a lot of resources and organizations in the Bay for people who need help, and it can get confusing.

It gets confusing to us sometimes.

But we want to encourage folks to call RICO at City Hall or get in touch by email if you're wondering how to how to resolve your issue, because one of the services we provide is to guide people to the right agency, um, hopefully to meet their needs.

And that includes legal aid, because there are a number of those offices.

Our next speaker is Gary Rhodes.

He's a renowned fair housing attorney, um, long time practicing in California.

Um Gary is a civil rights attorney and also a writer.

He was a Santa Monica Deputy City Attorney for 16 years, working on cases of housing discrimination and consumer fraud.

He has successfully litigated over 100 fair housing and consumer protection cases and has published numeral numerous articles and two manuals on housing discrimination and related issues.

Gary's past honors include Fair Housing for Our Futures 2024 Fair Housing Hero Award, California Lawyer Magazine's award as California Lawyer of the Year, and UC Davis School of Laws, Martin Luther King Jr.

Public Service Award.

And Gary's going to update us on what the hell is going on in the world of fair housing today.

Please welcome Gary.

Thanks, Adam.

Um I want to add on on the issue of the importance of cities uh in their uh their resources and enforcement work.

Um my wife and I moved to Kansas City, Missouri, which is actually my uh true hometown after I retired from the city attorney's office.

We moved there back in 2023.

And just following the the great example of this city and the the city of Santa Monica where Adam and I worked for a long time and and cities like Berkeley I knew it was important to get involved with the city and and last month Mayor Quentin Lucas named me to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund Board of that city.

So I'm I'm I'm still inspired by the example of the importance of municipal work in this in this field.

I am also inspired by this by this group I've I think I've come back here now this is my fourth year and I I just think there's something really special about tenants and landlords and advocates and property managers and attorneys coming together to learn about these fair housing laws.

I think on in my handout you saw some of the history of the Fair Housing Act we we have these Alameda host this in April because it's National Fair Housing Month it's the month that the Fair Housing Act of 1968 was passed and largely do the work of Dr.

King and other civil rights advocates of that time and also President Lyndon Johnson those people and Dr.

King would be amazed I think to see this happening that you know landlords and tenants coming together to learn about these laws in these forums so I think and especially these days where uh in my red state of Missouri uh where there's virtually no fair housing enforcement uh or gatherings like this you all are are uh right now in this storm a keeper of the flame a keeper of the fair housing flame so uh I my my hat is off to the city and for you all to come together like this so uh last week uh my wife and I attended a housing rights organiz uh housing rights event in Kansas City uh called the rent is too damn high and uh the speakers were uh tenants organizers uh uh scholars and there was even a very famous uh sociologist uh there live that night but uh the the person I want to talk about was a speaker uh uh uh a speaker named uh tenant named Diane and she actually what she had to say inspired me to write a whole new presentation uh which I did on the plane right here last night and then early this morning so bear with me uh you know I've got I'm gonna be reading from my from my notes here uh quite a bit um but I want to tell you what's happening in Kansas City Missouri uh as the new federal actions of the past couple years start to hit and I'm gonna compare that and contrast that with what you have here in in California to kind of give you to guide kind of give us a bird's eye view of of these uh federal actions so uh Diane is a working mother she is a tenant and she's a black tenant in a town that has historically subjected its black tenants to some of the worst segregation and discrimination in the country.

In fact Kansas City was one of the exhibites for the for Congress and President Johnson back in 1968 when they passed the Fair Housing Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1968 58 years later that starts quietly with repairs not being made in her apartment building that's owned by a corporate landlord and it ended in a storm more rent increases more repair issues and families getting pushed out of their homes once you're pushed out Diane points out the next place that will accept you is always worse because you have less money fewer options and fewer landlords willing to take a chance on you.

I'm gonna be talking a little bit about uh the use of algorithmic tenant screening uh programs where uh a an algorithm or an AI generated program sees you know what neighborhood you just came from and that you've left suddenly and you're gonna get a lower score because of of uh what just happened that was you know uh unfairly done to you in the in the in the uh your living situation before now I want to say uh something here because there's landlords and tenants in this room most landlords are not trying to discriminate and and certainly those of you that are here today here to learn more about your fair housing obligations and your and your tenants' fair housing rights uh you're not you're not part of this problem uh landlords are landlords are trying to manage risk follow the law and keep their properties running the problem is that some of the tools and policies being used today especially at scale by the landlords the the corporate landlords that now own more and more of the rental units uh can either intentionally or unintentionally uh produce discriminatory outcomes as this is happening our fair housing enforcement is disappearing in America especially in states like Missouri important housing fair housing tools like the disparate

The problem is that some of the tools and policies being used today, especially at scale by the landlords, the the corporate landlords that now own more and more of the rental units uh can either intentionally or unintentionally uh produce discriminatory outcomes.