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Public Advocates

Nonprofit law firm and advocacy organization that partners with grassroots community groups to fight poverty and racial discrimination.

06/18/2026

Proud of our own Tahirah Dean and Skylar Spear for presenting at East Bay Housing Organizations Leadership Academy this week! 🏘️

They led a session on land use and planning—and this year added a brand-new section on social housing. 💡
For 10 years, EBHO’s Leadership Academy has offered free housing policy and organizing education to affordable housing residents and staff across the East Bay. Exactly the kind of grassroots capacity-building that moves the needle on housing justice.

Big thanks to EBHO for including Public Advocates in this incredible community program. 👏

CommunityPower

06/18/2026

Transit systems across the country are stuck in a “death spiral”: cut service → lose riders → cut more service. It’s not an accident—it’s a playbook. 📉

But communities are fighting back. In Illinois, organizing won $1.5 billion in new transit funding. In Rhode Island, bus drivers and riders packed state hearings together.

Here in the Bay Area, the Connect Bay Area ballot measure could bring in almost $1 billion a year for transit—and the coalition just secured 305,000 signatures to get it on the November ballot. 🙌

Read more about the fight for transit funding nationwide—link in bio.

06/17/2026

🚨 This just became urgent.

After our Senior Transportation Policy Advocate Laurel Paget-Seekins broke down why disparate impact analysis matters on the podcast, USDOT made her point for her rescinding the Title VI rule that required transportation agencies to even LOOK at who their decisions harm.

On the podcast, Laurel walked through the exact case that proves why this matters: BART’s Oakland Airport Connector. A rail line through a 97% people-of-color, 80% low-income neighborhood, charging a premium fare, with stops that skipped the people who lived there. Federal civil rights law forced BART to account for that harm.

Now? That tool is gone.

“Disparate impact analysis is what turns that pattern from invisible to undeniable—and it’s what forces agencies to find a better way. Without it, the harm doesn’t disappear. It just becomes impossible to challenge.”
— Laurel Paget-Seekins

🎙️ Listen to the full episode (link in bio)

📰 Read our statement on the rescission (link in bio)

06/15/2026

California’s housing bond is moving fast—and one critical program is essential to helping our communities.

CAPP (the Community Anti-Displacement and Preservation Program) is included in the $10 billion housing bond (AB 736 / SB 417) heading to California voters this November. CAPP was specifically added to address something the other programs can’t: saving affordable homes from being bought up and flipped by investors.

With $500 million in the bond, CAPP could preserve roughly 2,000 homes and protect affordability for an estimated 22,000 households over 55 years.

Here’s what you can do: 📢 Share this post ✉️ Contact your state legislators 🗣️ Tell them: Fund CAPP in the bond

06/13/2026

There’s a lot in the headlines these days, but this is a NATIONAL news story worth pausing for—because it impacts everyone. 📣

NPR covered the Trump administration’s elimination of Title VI disparate impact protections—the civil rights tool that’s protected transit riders from discrimination for decades.

Our Senior Transportation Policy Advocate, Laurel Paget-Seekins, told NPR it’s “devastating” to see this tool taken away, given the long history of inequity baked into U.S. transportation infrastructure.

Making sure stories like this reach a national audience is part of how we hold power accountable and make rights real—and we’re proud to help give voice to what’s at stake for communities who depend on equitable transit.

Link in bio (listen at the one minute mark)

06/11/2026

The Trump administration just eliminated a civil rights protection that has shielded transit riders from discrimination for decades.

Today, U.S. DOT Secretary Sean Duffy rescinded disparate impact regulations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act—stripping the federal requirement that transit agencies consider whether their decisions disproportionately harm communities of color and low-income riders. No more required equity analyses for fare hikes, service cuts, highway projects, or language access. As long as discrimination isn’t explicit, agencies are off the hook.

Our Senior Transportation Policy Advocate Laurel Paget-Seekins called it what it is: “a major rollback of civil rights protections.”

California has its own Title VI protections—but whether state agencies will continue doing equity analyses voluntarily, and whether the state will require it, is now an urgent open question.

KQED covered the story today, including a look at our landmark 2009 BART complaint. Learn more about what these protections made possible…and what’s now at risk.

Read our statement and the full KQED story at the link in bio

06/11/2026

Today, SB 1091 passed out of the Assembly Housing Committee 9-1. 🏠

Watch Sacramento Community Land Trust Executive Director, AND Public Advocates alum, Tamika Lacluse explain exactly why it matters—and why the clock is ticking.

Sacramento County alone has 23,000+ affordable homes at risk of becoming unaffordable within five years. 57% of the county’s unsubsidized affordable stock. Tens of thousands of families.

Preservation is faster. It’s cheaper. And it keeps communities whole.

Today was a big step. But CAPP must remain in the $10 billion housing bond to become real. It’s been on the chopping block before. Let’s keep going so more Californians can thrive!

Keep CAPP in the bond. PreservationNow CaliforniaHousing

06/09/2026

Half Moon Bay’s farmworkers feed California. They deserve a place to call home. 🌱

555 Kelly Ave. has sat vacant for years—despite a plan to build 40 units of affordable housing for retired farmworkers. After a 2023 mass shooting exposed their deplorable living conditions, the community demanded action. Now, a referendum effort threatens to block the project before a shovel hits the ground.

California has a housing crisis. Half Moon Bay has a housing mandate. And the farmworkers, seniors, and families who keep this community running deserve a real shot at stability. 🏡

We stand with , , and advocates across the Bay Area who believe diverse, thriving communities are worth fighting for. ✊

06/04/2026

San Francisco just sent a message to Sacramento 🏙️

The SF Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution, yesterday, urging state lawmakers to support SB 436—the Keeping Californians Housed Act.

What does SB 436 do? It extends California’s pay-or-quit notice from 3 days → 10 days before eviction proceedings can begin.

California’s 3-day window was set in 1863. More than 20 states already require at least 14 days. Seniors, single parents, and working families deserve more than 72 hours to find help and stay housed.

The SF BOS said yes. Now it’s Sacramento’s turn. We urge to support SB 436.🏠

06/03/2026

California is in the middle of a housing crisis—and not just because we haven’t built enough. We’re also losing the affordable homes we already have.

In just the last 5 years, 268,000 homes that rent at affordable levels on the private market—the kind that low-income families actually live in—lost their affordability to rent hikes and speculation.

CAPP (the Community Anti-Displacement and Preservation Program) is designed to fix this by acquiring at-risk homes and preserve them as affordable for generations.

➡️Tell your legislators: Fund CAPP in the bond.

CaliforniaHousing

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131 Steuart St, Ste 300
San Francisco, CA
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Monday	9am - 5pm
Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm

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http://www.publicadvocates.org/

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