We include here personal accounts from members and allies of Black Rose/Rosa Negra across the U.S. speaking on the direct impacts and responses to the coronavirus crisis underway. Some have been directly affected as healthcare workers, laid off service workers, or having to undergo self-quarantine. Others are on front the lines of the responses through organizing tenants or mutual-aid efforts.
Compiled by Adam Weaver
Chrysanthe, Los Angeles
So far five of the dozen neighborhood based chapters of the Los Angeles Tenants Union (LATU), including the Vermont Beverly chapter that I organize with, have endorsed a list of demands which includes an immediate moratorium on evictions, an immediate suspension of rent collection, demand for housing to the unhoused, and suspension of ICE enforcement. The demands originated last week when the Hollywood chapter drafting a statement responding to the situation with other chapters signing on and suggesting amendments.
Local chapters are assessing the current and projected impact on members and community, such employment, evictions, food, medical care access, isolations, and general well being. In my chapter each organizer is following up with the tenant associations and members that they’ve worked with.