A Bridge Between San Francisco andIts Immigrant Families

In 1969, San Francisco police arrested seven young Central American immigrants for the killing of an officer, based on no credible evidence. The Mission’s established nonprofits, funded by the city, stayed silent. The community didn’t. Eighteen months later the seven, known as Los Siete de la Raza, were acquitted of all charges, and out of that fight came La Raza Community Resource Center.

“This was San Francisco’s Chicano Movimiento. All the grassroots Latino organizations came together for one goal, justice,” says Gabriel Medina, La Raza’s executive director, “and we’re still doing that today. We’re working through over a dozen coalitions, on a daily basis.”

The agency’s history since, says Medina, who himself was born and raised in the Mission, “is to always be responsive to the needs of the community.” When asylum seekers arrived in the caravans, La Raza increased legal capacity to their immigration program. To add capacity for this Federal Administration, they became Recognized by the Department of Justice (DOJ) with their first Accredited Representative.

As Latinos were among the hardest hit by COVID, its food pantry grew from feeding 150 families a week to 900 today, and the agency issued $10 million in rental assistance to keep families in their homes. As immigrant gateways like the Mission closed due to affordability, forcing working families to live in RVs on Zoo Road, the office went to them, offering immigration consultations, food, housing help and advocacy. All 29 RV households were subsequently moved into more permanent housing.

Today La Raza’s bilingual, multi-service center runs on three pillars: 1) Immigration legal services, handling more than 320 consultations, 133 asylum cases, 61 naturalization applications, and 55 DACA permits just last year. 2) The Family Resource Center wraps families in case management, parenting classes, women’s support groups, and over 300 affordable housing applications per year. 3) The Basic Needs Center runs San Francisco’s first community-led food market, which serves 45,000 families and 50,000 diapers a year, along with rental assistance that has topped 2,000 households since the program began. 

Offering More to Reach More

The need is compounding. Federal immigration crackdowns have rippled through the Mission causing skipped consultations and a steep drop in families picking up free food.

So La Raza built a special fund for families in crisis. The Service Connection Emergency Fund pairs case management with grants of $700 to $1,000, with checks in hand in a matter of days. “It’s one thing to give a family a plan of action,” Medina says, “but as resilient as our families are, $500 can be a daunting barrier.”

Next for La Raza comes offering more to reach more: a food market open five days instead of three, and a commercial kitchen to prepare ready-to-eat meals for families living in vehicles.

In the face of growing challenges, La Raza Community Resource Center continues to serve the most vulnerable communities and help them thrive.