COVID-19 Fund for Immigrants & Black Housing Union

We are raising emergency donations to support two frontline groups in Oakland and around the U.S. whose lives and families are being devastated by the coronavirus crisis and shutdown: our undocumented immigrant neighbors and Black working-class community members.

All donations will go to the Immigrant Worker Safety Net Fund , which is providing direct financial support to immigrants not covered by the federal stimulus, and the Black Housing Union , which is fighting to stop the mass displacement of Black people from the Bay Area and combating the disproportionate effects of COVID-19 in this moment of need.

What is the Immigrant Worker Safety Net Fund?

While most of us can turn to existing safety net programs, including unemployment insurance, public benefits, and new federal relief efforts –  undocumented workers are largely excluded from those programs. Despite paying taxes, undocumented immigrants are not receiving the $1200/person federal stimulus check. And while the state of California is offering some relief, it’s not enough – especially not in the brutally expensive Bay Area. People are losing their jobs and businesses, facing potential eviction, and Trump’s anti-immigrant hatred and ongoing ICE raids loom over everything. Led by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), the Immigrant Worker Safety Net Fund addresses this inequality by directly supporting excluded immigrants and refugees here in Oakland and around the country in places like New Orleans, Chicago, Phoenix, New York City, Washington DC, Milwaukee, and more.

What is the Black Housing Union?

The Black Housing Union (BHU) is a project of ACCE Action committed to stopping the mass displacement of Black people from the Bay Area through organizing, education and direct action. Right now in this COVID-19 crisis, black residents all over the country are being hit disproportionately hard due to the legacy of anti-black racism that creates and exacerbates inequities in healthcare, income, and housing for African Americans. The Black Housing Union is calling on Oakland’s Black residents, faith-based institutions, businesses, nonprofit organizations, allies and all those who love life and value diversity to demand that Gov. Newsom, elected officials, and systems leaders expedite the executive order and truly “protect homeless Californians from COVID-19”. By caring for Oakland’s unhoused population, 70% of whom are Black, we are also protecting ourselves. BHU and ACCE are also strong supporters of Moms 4 Housing , and provides technical, strategic and legal assistance to the moms in their struggle to assert their right to housing for themselves and their children.

WHO ARE WE?

We (Josh Healey, Yvan Iturriaga, and Calvin Williams) are artists, organizers, and Oakland residents who love this beautiful, troubled city – and wanted to do something to support our most vulnerable neighbors during this crisis.

We have worked closely with both NDLON (organizing the Immigrant Worker Safety Net Fund) and the Black Housing Union in the past -- we are proud supporters and allies of their work.

100% of all donations will go directly to the two organizations, split evenly between the two, to support their members in this time of need. Josh Healey is in touch with both groups (Ishell Linares at NDLON and Carroll Fife at BHU) and will immediately disperse all funds to the groups when this campaign reaches its goal. If there any questions, please contact Josh for more information.

ARTISTS COMING TOGETHER

Through our work with Offsides Productions and The North Pole show, we connected with our network of local and national artists who are coming together on May Day (May 1st)  to put on a digital show to support this fundraiser.

Rosario Dawson, W. Kamau Bell, Fantastic Negrito, Las Cafeteras, Donte Clark, Yosimar Reyes, Alphabet Rockers, and Davey D are all participating in the Six Feet Away and Rising showcase and digital fundraiser.

RSVP here for the May Day Show and Watch it Live on May 1st 

OUR GOAL

We hope to raise at least $20,000 to split evenly between the  Immigrant Worker Safety Net Fund and the Black Housing Union. The truth is, especially here in the Bay Area where there is so much wealth amidst the poverty, we hope to raise even more than our initial goal.

Are you receiving the $1200 federal stimulus check and don’t need it all? (I mean, we all could use some extra cash, but do I really need that third organic hammock?) If you still have stable income, housing, health care, etc….there is a national movement asking people to #ShareYourStimulus. Here is a great way to make that happen. 

Whether you can give $12 or $1200…whatever you can offer is love.

That’s what this is all about.

Love for our peoples.

Love for all peoples.

Let’s spread the love & spread the wealth.

Thank you and we wish you nothing but health and justice in these crazy times.

Black Housing Union members and partners organized a “Vehicle March and Sound Action" in Oakland to highlight the disproportionate damaging effects of COVID-19 on black communities.

Immigrant families in the Bay Area and across the U.S. will benefit directly from the Immigrant Worker Safety Net Fund.

* Photos Credit (Black Housing Union): Brooke Anderson
* Art Credit (Immigrant Safety Fund): Ernesto Yerena