CR#4 Who We Serve and Why
What? (from the Context Worksheet)
The organization that I work with is Health Hubs, a program that is held at the Marin Community Clinics in San Rafael. Their stated mission, according to the MCC website is, “Building Health and Community”, which suits Health Hubs quite well. They provide bilingual services, including food distribution from the San Francisco Food Bank, along with Extra Food, a local non-profit organization. One of the things that makes Health Hubs stand out from a typical food distribution site is their free health screenings and nutrition education. Their targeted issues are healthier food accessibility for lower-income communities and education on, or access to, healthcare and health insurance. Their target population are low-income families, most of them being Spanish-speaking, however there is a rather large percentage of Vietnamese people and other ethnicities that Health Hubs serves as well.
Some of the qualifications for volunteers is to be friendly and kind towards those who come by the food distribution, even if you don’t speak their language. Being committed to the organization and to service for the people is also very important. The willingness to learn and connect with the community is one of the greatest takeaways from this experience. You do not have to be bilingual and you do not have to be part of the community, however being an open-minded individual with a passion to get to know the people in that community on a personal level is great knowledge indeed.
Marin County has one of the biggest wage gaps in all of the nation. In fact, the discrepancy is so large that “ the top fifth of Marin taxpayers take home about 71 percent of the county’s total income. The bottom fifth earns 1.3 percent of the total income” (“A Portrait of Marin 2012”). The lower-income households can barely afford rent, generally working two or even three jobs to stay on top of things. Marin is no doubt a rich county, with a median price of real estate being worth at $1,350,000, according to Marin County Real Estate.
With the cost of housing being so high, the other necessities for life have been completely cut out of the budget. Cheaper food options are available, however they come at the cost of health, heart disease, and diabetes. Health Hubs is an organization that is providing healthier food options for these communities, promoting healthy eating and providing the education and ingredients to make it easier. It’s important to educate the population and give them opportunities to live a well-deserved, healthy lifestyle.
The county’s populations is 85.6% white, 2.8% black/African-American, 1% Native American/Alaskan Native, 6.4% Asian, 0.3% Native Hawaiian or Islander, and 16.1% Latino or Hispanic. The county is made of 51.1% female and 48.9% male. 21.6% of Marin’s population is 65 or older. 20.1% are under the age of 18, leaving 56.3% being between the ages of 18 and 65 (U.S. Census Bureau).
Health Hubs in San Rafael primarily serves the Canal area in San Rafael. They serve around 250 to 300 families, which does not scratch the surface of the Marin population of 252,409. They serve less than one percent of the Marin community, just 0.12%.
So What? (From the Context Worksheet)
Though the Canal community is considered to be a low-income area, I’ve noticed that they have a lot of outside and inner support. Their community has structure and programs geared towards helping the families living within that community. In many other places in Marin, that support and those opportunities doesn’t exist, or perhaps they do but I’m not aware of them in my own community. When I walk through other parts of Marin, I don’t see these lower income communities, I see docks filled with sailboats and yachts and I see nice houses and huge mansions on hills. I see people living in luxury and I see people living okay. What I don’t normally see in Marin are people struggling to make ends meet. I thought I was the only one living between okay and struggling, but there are a lot of households out there as well.
The real estate here is incredibly expensive and skewed towards the rich. Not long ago, and even to this day, whites were the only ones capable of moving into such a place like Marin. This has played a role in the population composition. Another possible explanation, according to KQED is due to the lack of public transportation in the North Bay that connects to the other parts of the Bay Area like BART. With the environmentalist movement, a lot of land in Marin was set aside for preservation or conservation, limiting the amount of housing that could be built, including affordable housing projects.
Yes, there are things in my findings that can cause resentment or harm in certain populations. The fact there is a disparity between those at the top and bottom of the economic ladder infuriates people, especially those who have the short end of the stick. Living comfortably is all anyone could ever want and affording the basic necessities, like healthy food choices, seem like luxuries to lower-income homes when they shouldn’t be. This anger is directed at the county or the city, specifically those in power like the Board of Supervisors or the mayor. This anger can also be directed at the rich, and with most of them being white, may resent white people as a whole. This anger will trigger anger and build tension between both parties. The emotions involved is mostly anger, frustration, impatience, and intolerance on both sides.
Now What? (From Census 2020 Make Marin County)
One of the key issues, or rather issues that census participants have with the census, was the citizenship question. As mentioned by one of the speakers, under this administration cracking down on immigration, immigrant people and families are afraid of being deported. The fact that there is not a ‘decline to answer’ checkbox and that not answering the question could trigger government suspicion is an incredibly scary thought. However, if they don’t participate in this census, then their communities would not be receiving all of the support programs they need. Marin is already viewed as a wealthy county and the lower-income communities would be assumed as such and not given federal funds to fulfill the needs of the community. However, this is not set to be on the census form. In fact, there are several lawsuits to remove this question from the census. The census partners insist that all the information will be kept confidential, however with the online version coming out in 2020 and how internet service providers and social media companies have access to so much of our data already, it’s hard to believe that anything submitted online will be kept safe. It’s incredibly ironic that confidentiality was supposed to be a reassurance when immigrants want to keep their citizenship status confidential from the government as the government bureau is attempting to collect data. However, the census is incredibly important to know how many people are in hard to count areas so that funds, programs, and support sent to these communities are sent to the places that need them. Most of the organizations that the Canal has been working with have been very local, mostly constricted to the Bay Area. Health Hubs is partnered with Dominican University, the San Francisco Food Bank, and ExtraFood, a Marin county non-profit. From what I know, Health Hubs has not been receiving any federal government aid and I assume that not many local organizations like Health Hubs has been either which is why it’s important to fill out the census form. Either way, whether people choose to fill it out or not, it’s a lose-lose situation for our immigrant communities who are simply trying to live out their American Dreams if the citizenship question remains on the 2020 census.
The online census will make it more accessible, however not everyone has access to the internet or a computer (or even know how to use either of those things) such as the homeless, young children, and seniors, three of the hard to count populations. Though, the language options on the online census form may be more useful in contacting people of different ethnic groups.
The Canal neighborhood is primarily a Spanish-speaking community, so offering an online census form may be plausible. Often, Florencia, the Health Hubs coordinator, will change between two languages — English and Spanish — to reach a wider audience. From hearing conversations between those standing in line and greeting them, I understand that most of these individuals don’t speak much English. The languages available on the census includes most of these languages spoken in the Canal such as Spanish and Vietnamese. Though I will not assume that not everyone in the Canal neighborhood are citizens, I do know that the citizenship question will definitely affect the census responses from the Canal community and communities similar to this. Not only this, but these families are incredibly busy and are often found working and trying to provide for their families. The census will most likely slip out of their minds. With the distrust of the federal government and discriminatory language being used by the President himself, it’s not easy to regain the trust of minority populations as a government agency.
