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EQUAL JUSTICE WORKS FELLOW, CLASS OF 2009
Name of Host Organization: Public Advocates Inc.
City, State: San Francisco, California
Issue area: Housing - Affordable Housing/Microfinance, Environmental Justice
Sponsor: Hewlett-Packard Company, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP
THE INSPIRATION
When my family came to the U.S. many years ago, we were fortunate to live in centrally-located, affordable housing among families of diverse backgrounds. I learned firsthand how critical such housing can be to families with limited resources. With my project, I can help more families meet their housing needs by aligning the shared interests of climate-change advocates and low-income communities. Together, I believe we can achieve much more than we would working separately.
THE PROJECT
My goal is to increase affordable housing for low-income workers and their families in the Bay Area. California has enacted climate-change laws mandating decreased carbon emissions and higher density land-use. These laws present both a danger that low-income voices will be excluded from the table and a distinct opportunity to promote housing equity. Through coalition building, state policy advocacy, and local administrative and legal action, I will leverage climate-change laws to secure greater workforce housing near quality jobs and public transit.
BIOGRAPHY
Hometown: | Austin, Texas |
Law school: | |
Making the connection: | I went to law school because of my interest in social justice. I am thankful that I was at a school and in a city that offered many opportunities to serve the community and organize with others pursuing similar goals. Now that I am a judicial clerk, it is even more clear to me that greater access to legal resources is vital to our justice system. |
Surviving law school: | I sought out every opportunity to begin working with real world clients. I participated in clinics, including my law school's Immigrant Workers' Rights Clinic and the Immigration Clinic. I learned more than I can say here from our clients, and my time with them only increased my interest in practicing public interest law. I also worked with my peers to campaign for the establishment of a loan repayment assistance program at our school. Being surrounded by students with public interest ambitions, as well as inspiring professors, was incredibly helpful. |
Words to live by: | "We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly." - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. "Interdependence is and ought to be as much the ideal of man as self-sufficiency. Man is a social being. Without interrelation with society he cannot realize his oneness with the universe or suppress his egotism. His social interdependence enables him to test his faith and to prove himself on the touchstone of reality." - Mahatma Gandhi |