Monday, August 17, 2015

Gentrification and Human Rights in East Palo Alto

Palo Alto, California, home of Stanford University and headquarters to dozens of technology-related companies, is one of the most expensive cities in the world.  The Stanford University paper reports that some employees receiving a so-called living wage commute up to three hours each way in order to find affordable housing that they can afford. 

One group of modest income workers, however, found an affordable alternative in East Palo Alto: the Buena Vista mobile home park.  Home to 400 largely Latino residents, this low income community, set amidst immense the wealth of the tech industry, has shown remarkable success and resilience.  Many residents have lived in the mobile home park for generations.  Buena Vista students attend Palo Alto public schools and, according to press reports, 100% graduate from high school.  Many aspire to college and some have even attended Stanford.

Yet despite Buena Vista's legacy and its important role in enhancing community diversity, earlier this spring, the Palo Alto City Council approved the Buena Vista property owner's proposal to sell the 4.5 prime acres to a developer to build high rises.

The move had been in the works some time, and as early as March 2013, the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley weighed in against the sale.

However, despite the City Council's approval, a grassroots movement of Buena Vista residents, Stanford students and affiliates, and concerned Palo Alto residents have so far succeeded in forestalling evictions.  Recent news reports indicate that a non-profit, Caritas, has made an offer to purchase the property and continue to operate it as a trailer park site for low income residents.  The owner is currently weighing the offer.

The human rights aspects of this controversy have so far been below the surface of the public debate.  Yet clearly, the human right to affordable housing, the right to education, and the emerging right to the city are all impacted by the mass displacement of Latino families from an oasis of affordable housing in a city that is otherwise beyond the reach of any modestly paid worker.   And human rights is a particularly useful frame for drawing connections between the gentrification in Palo Alto with that in Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia and every other US city facing a housing affordability crisis.

Stanford University's Teaching Human Rights consortium strives to illuminate these connections, and it has recognized the human rights implications of the Buena Vista eviction.   For more information on EPA and the Buena Vista controversy through a human rights lens, visit Stanford's Teaching Human Rights website.

 

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/human_rights/2015/08/gentrification-and-human-rights-in-east-palo-alto.html

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