Caltrans agreed in February to pay $5.5 million to settle claims that the agency illegally removed and destroyed the belongings of homeless residents camped on its land — including $1.3 million directly to the people affected. Since then, more than 720 people potentially eligible for payouts have contacted the lawyers on the case, and the legal team has completed at least 300 claims.

“We’re engaged in this monumental process trying to get compensation to all these homeless people,” said attorney Osha Neumann of the East Bay Community Law Center, who represents the homeless plaintiffs in Sanchez v. Caltrans. “I think it’s unprecedented. I’ve never heard of anything similar happening.”

Oscar Lopez, at the East Bay Community Law Center, in Berkeley, Calif., is another recipient. He has directed the Skadden grant money to make sure students get access to adequate education.

Legal issues sparked by Covid are layered on top of other educational problems such as students who have been unable to resolve pending disciplinary proceedings that could hinder attending school.

On Monday, September 28, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law AB 2463 (Wicks), effectively stopping the unjust practice of forcing the sale of family homes over small, unsecured debts. East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC) celebrates the passage of this long-overdue legislation, which will prevent a statewide foreclosure crisis by expanding consumer protections for all Californians.

AB 1869 eliminates 23 adult criminal fees, cancels $16 billion in existing debt, and divests our state’s precious resources from an inherently violent criminal legal system.

Breonna Taylor lived as a beloved family member, an essential healthcare worker, and a community builder. Photos of her reveal how much she had to offer the world. The mural tributes of her in downtown Oakland and across the country evince that she has changed it.

Every day, we partner with undocumented students, essential workers, parents and community members, to take on a legal system entrenched in racism and dehumanization. Thus, we emphatically condemn reports of immigrant women enduring coerced hysterectomies in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers.

The legislature’s budget action proposes to permanently repeal 23 fees, including various probation-related fees and public defender fees, across California, in AB 1869/SB 824!

In making its eviction ban one of the longest and strongest in the United States, Alameda County will prevent a tidal wave of evictions and protect the low-income Black and Brown families most impacted by COVID-19 from losing their homes during the pandemic.

Varying degrees of protection exist throughout California, depending on the jurisdiction. “There’s very, very little that’s been done on a statewide level,” said Marc Janowitz, a staff attorney with the East Bay Community Law Center. “Counties have responded in a much better way, and cities in a much better way.”

The 11 grant partners are: Black Organizing Project, Urban Peace Movement, Young Women’s Freedom Center, East Bay Community Law Center, Youth Law Center, Dignity in Schools Campaign California, Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice, Justice Reinvestment Coalition, Flourish Agenda, Burns Institute and Forward Change.

The money is intended to help these grantees, led by people of color, keep working to cultivate the power of youth and families who have been “criminalized by the education and juvenile justice systems” — and to hold public officials to account.