Affordable Housing
At the beginning of the year, Ubaldo Hernández met a friend he hadn't seen in a while.
The last time you saw each other, your friend mentioned his concern that the owner of his residential community suddenly asked all the tenants to sign a one-year lease. Ubaldo's friend has lived in a mobile home park in the northeast of White Salmon for 10 years. Some families have been there for more than two decades. They had never been asked to sign such documents.
“When residents asked why, the owner said there was nothing to worry about, he just wanted to keep track of how many people lived there,” Ubaldo recalled. "I wanted to ask my friend again since it didn't sound right." Two weeks after signing, his friend and others Residents were given an eviction notice ordering them to leave the mobile home park in a year, by the end of 2020. Ubaldo's friend said the residents were fighting the eviction, and Ubaldo offered the help of his organization.
With leadership from Ubaldo, Senior Organizer of the Columbia Riverkeeper organization, Comunidades was formed in 2018 as a Latino/a/x environmental and social justice organization in the Columbia River Gorge. Comunidades works to amplify voices for social and environmental justice, while increasing the commitment and leadership of the Latino/o/x community in the Gorge. Currently, Ubaldo provides staff support for communities, which would otherwise be led by volunteers.
“Any time an environmental injustice occurs, it is reflected in our community as a social injustice,” Ubaldo said, adding that, for communities of color, environmental issues are very personal. “For native communities, salmon conservation is about their livelihood, their way of life, their traditions,” he offered as an example.
“For the many farmworkers who they are Latino, it is about how their health is suffering from exposure to pesticides.” Communities is not a tenants' rights organization, but Ubaldo believes that this eviction is a direct result of the environment in which they reside. White Salmon, the second largest city in Klickitat County, has become a popular tourist destination for outdoor recreation. Real estate companies are buying properties, raising rents and creating affordable housing shortages. the owner of the mobile home park wanted to charge, Ubaldo said.
The eviction triggered a series of difficult decisions for residents, many of whom are immigrants from Mexico and Guatemala who work on farms or in food processing plants. Even with a year's notice, it would be nearly impossible to find affordable housing in White Salmon. Residents must not only find a new home, but they may also have to do so in a new and unfamiliar city. For some, this it meant taking their children out of the only school district they knew. In addition, the property owner ordered residents to remove their homes themselves or pay the owner to do it.
“These trailers are very old,” said Ubaldo. “Many of the residents were not the original owners and they were bought from someone else when it was already on the lot. Asking families to separate them meant they would be exposed to chemicals, lead and asbestos. You need a professional for these kinds of moves, but many families didn't have the $7,000 it would cost to do it."
Communities coordinated the weekly meetings on Saturdays for residents of the mobile home park. Ubaldo invited the mayor and council members to some meetings so he could speak directly with residents. He also brought Northwest Justice Project for legal help and Washington Gorge Action Programs for food assistance.
“In meetings, we talk about how to get organized. We ask residents, 'How are you feeling?' 'How active do you want to be?' and they said they want to stay and fight and protect their rights,” shared Ubaldo. The residents decided that they wanted to advocate for themselves at the next city council meeting. Communities offered public testimony training to those who needed it. Communities and about 15 residents attended the February city council meeting. Residents were hesitant at first, so Ubaldo spoke first to set the stage. After Ubaldo, a resident stood up and shared with the council her experiences of being homeless, having difficulty finding housing, including paying the fees associated with relocation.
Afterwards, residents were encouraged and wanted to be better prepared for the next meeting. continued meeting every Saturday to practice and organize with your attorney. The March city council meeting was a full house. “It was empowering to see these moms, Latinas, tell their stories in their own language, in Spanish. They spoke about how the evictions have harmed their families and called on the city council and to the mayor to prevent this situation from repeating itself,” said Ubaldo.
Shortly after the March meeting, the state issued a shelter-in-place order in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Access to technology made it difficult to continue organizing, but in their two months of work, residents made a lasting impact, Ubaldo said. Earlier this month, the White Salmon City Council approved code changes for residential communities. to preserve affordable housing options in White Salmon, including prohibiting homeowners from building integrated homes in areas zoned for mobile homes. In addition, landlords must pay relocation costs for residents they evict.
These rules did not happen in time to help the residents who organized for them. Still, many were happy having made a difference for mobile home park families in the future. Many of the residents who organized had been living in White Salmon for decades and some had been evicted once or twice before. Ubaldo said he feels uncomfortable not being able to do more for residents. Everyone has moved on, with many leaving White Salmon to find new places to live. The situation has also broken up some homes because some family members did not want to leave. “It's really frustrating because, as a community organizer, you encourage people to participate, to organize, to participate in the civic process,” said Ubaldo.
"But sometimes I felt like I was lying to them because no matter what they did, the tenant laws didn't protect them." He is taking into account the gains they made. The city council meeting in March was very emotional for Ubaldo, who moved to White Salmon from Mexico City in 1994, because he had never seen so many people from the Latino/a/x community at a city council meeting. city. They were able to change in a few few weeks what took special interest groups years to implement.
“Before the neighbors came along, the only people who came to town hall meetings were developers, real estate agents and people who owned a lot of property,” Ubaldo said. “It is how systemic racism persists and how discriminatory practices against low-income people occur. and people of color.” Communities will soon hire its first full-time staff member. Inspired by his friend and the other residents, Ubaldo said they are discussing plans to form a tenants' rights organization. Comunidades is one of the organizations that received a Community Learning Grant in 2019. Stay in touch with Comunidades by following us on Facebook.