High Rents and Low Wages Trap Chinese Immigrants in SROs

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Lee Ming Dang lives in a 7-by-7-foot room in San Francisco's Chinatown with her husband, teenage son and daughter. Photo by Melanie Young/KALW

By Melanie YoungKALW/New America Media

Tenants are facing a tough time in San Francisco. The city has some of the nation’s highest rents, and laws like the Ellis Act have made evictions front page news. But there are pockets of affordability, like in Chinatown, where the average rent is one-third as much as in other neighborhoods.

But the neighborhood is also one of the country’s most overcrowded, and tenants claim that landlords violate health and safety codes.

In response to rising rents and shoddy housing, a group of low-income, mostly elderly Chinatown renters have crossed language and cultural barriers to change to their neighborhood. 

Read the complete story at New America Media.

Editor’s Note: This story originally aired on KALW-FM. 

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