Fiona Sullivan
Citizenship, immigration status, or perceived immigration status, should be included as a protected class listed in the Vermont Fair Housing and Public Accommodations act, according to a proposed “Housing Access for Immigrant Families” bill. The bill, if passed, would also abolish landlords’ right to require Social Security numbers on housing applications.
A press conference advocating for the “Housing Access for Immigrant Families” bill was held at the Statehouse on Friday, Jan. 10. The bill states that any government-issued identification would be acceptable on housing applications. Currently some of the protected classes listed in the Vermont Fair Housing and Public Accommodations Act are gender identity, marital status, sex, or sexual orientation.
Vermont needs workers, noted Vermont Rep. Leonora Dodge (D-Chittenden 23) one of the main sponsors of the bill. She said there are currently two vacant job openings for every applicant. The immigrant community, Dodge said, is building the state out of the housing crisis and will be “the answer to our property tax crisis.” They are making the state better for everyone, she said “[they] are the only population that is truly growing.”
Other states such as California, Illinois, Minnesota, and Washington have made similar changes to protect people based on their racial status, Dodge noted. An alternative to Social Security numbers, Dodge said, are tax ID numbers. This bill, Dodge noted, requires no state investment.
When seeking alternative housing, Jose Ignacio de la Cruz, Yari Barabata, and Antonio de la Rosa, members of the nonprofit organization Migrant Justice, all said they could not secure housing until a friend with a Social Security number vouched for them. Translation between Spanish and English at the conference was done by Will Lambek from Migrant Justice, one of the organizers of the press conference.
“It didn’t matter if I had money or not. All that counted was if I had a Social Security number,” said De la Cruz. His family stayed with friends living in an uninsulated attic for a year, scared the heat would impact their newborn’s health. Eventually a friend vouched for them, using their own Social Security number. “The landlord likes us now,” he said, “and wants us to stay. He appreciates our food and culture.”
De la Cruz also said that not being able to rent limits people to having to work for employees who do provide housing.
De la Cruz said he used to work on a dairy farm but now works in construction for a cooperative that builds ecological housing. He said every time he builds a house he feels pride in having put a roof over someone’s head. “With our own hands, our community is building housing for the residents of this state,” he said. “My dream is that these houses will one day be open to our community too.”
Cristian Santos, one of the leaders of Migrant Justice, noted his community is building the houses and hotels in Vermont and yet that very same community is unable to access that housing. Antonio de la Rosa noted his community is working in every sector in Vermont and is helping Vermont move forward and “the only thing lacking is a roof over our heads.”
Yari Barabata, a mother, spoke about her fear and silence during her pregnancy and having dealt with emotional and verbal abuse in her search for housing as well as health ramifications for her newborn. Barabata said she filled out a housing application and paid a fee, but when the time came nobody was at the given address to meet her. After the press release and lobbying lawmakers over lunch at the Capitol’s food court, others related experiences in which they paid a fee for rental applications and received no response afterwards.
Among those who have pledged their support for the bill are Vermont Rep. Esme Cole (D-Windsor 6) and Heather Suprenant (D-Windsor 4.)
During lunch at the Capitol’s food court, conversations between speakers and attendees of the event ranged from the intricacies of car insurance, anxiety over the possibility of being separated from children, and not being able to reenter Nicaragua once having left, where the church, once a place for community gathering, is now a place where the priest is censored in what he can or cannot say in his sermons and risks jail time if he doesn’t comply.
A young Migrant Justice leader, Cristian Santos, described being a teenager and working on a dairy farm in Addison County. He worked on the farm for three and a half years and would work 150 hours in two weeks with no holidays or sick days, he said. He had two days off a month. Santos said he has recently started working in construction and now works 75 hours every two weeks and makes the same amount of money as he did on the farm.
Santos, who said he wakes up at 5 a.m. most mornings, said he has a side job decorating cakes. “When I decorate cakes, it doesn’t feel like work, I don’t get tired,” he said. Asked if he keeps in touch with his previous employers on the farm, he said he received a card from them a couple months ago but that he’s learned that, “The worker can never be the friend of the boss. They don’t think about you; the only important thing is the work.” This is why, Santos continued, so much work is being done to get Hannaford to join the Milk with Dignity program — the program “provides economic relief and support to struggling farm owners,” according to the Migrant Justice website, and the program helps to improve living conditions for farm employees.
