Reflections from the Frontline: Western Addition
Hakika Drisker grew up in the Western Addition neighborhood of San Francisco and now works at the Open Door Legal office there. He’s observed issues with fair housing and fair treatment his whole life. Here’s what he’s seen, and what he’s hoping for next:
From what I’ve read, once elders are uprooted, their life expectancy is diminished significantly. Once a plant is uprooted, it’s going to die faster unless it is planted in better soil. So in San Francisco and other places, when you’re uprooted because you have to be, it’s not to go on to a healthier place. It’s to go.
The elders in my community hold the roots. It’s up to them to pass the roots on. It’s important for them to keep it alive. But as they are separated by displacement and lower life expectancy, the history, those roots, are lost.
I moved to Western Addition in the 80s, when I was just five years old. So much of the world was shielded from me until the earthquake hit in ’89. I started learning about the community as we all had to rebuild and I watched the adults around me readjust.
Growing up in the San Francisco school system, I realized I didn’t have much family compared to others. I just had my single mother while others had generational ties — parents and aunts and uncles. Now I’ve built that here, — I’m happy I’m able to stay in Western Addition and see my friends get older as we watch each other’s children grow.
Western Addition’s demographics have changed drastically. When I was 9, in the early 90s, my friends had to start moving away. Then the small stores that I used to always go to had to leave. Even the bus stops started to change. As a student using the public transportation system, I grew up seeing minorities at the bus stops, knowing that San Francisco was a diverse city. From elementary school I was fortunate enough to have friends of all different nationalities, and thought nothing of it; at a young age, you learn different cultures and it’s just a normal part of learning the world.
That world was kind of taken away. In high school, I began learning the value of money. I started seeing how expensive things are here compared to other cities. I knew that wages were higher here, so at first, it seemed like a fair trade. But things kept going up and my wages were not going up. Buses weren’t 35 or 50 cents anymore, they jumped to $1.25.
My friends started leaving. I noticed it was much less diverse. My community got smaller and more centralized. Those that had to move went to the suburbs, sometimes an hour out. They have to commute into their own city and they feel pushed out. The people who remain feel like they have to hold on tight.
Now, San Francisco has so much market culture, business culture. This was not taught to us in school. As we’ve gotten older, the market is paying people six figures, easily, but you may not have the resources or knowledge to feel like you can compete with the market. People who make six figures can pay 30% of their income on rent, but for others in San Francisco, that is 45–60% of their income.
The businesses here in Western Addition, I have known them for 30 years. These are people who watched me grow up as a child, and now they see me have my own child. Some have been forced to move — to Oakland, or Antioch. Some are fortunate to buy a house somewhere, but it’s not near family or friends.
The best thing about the Western Addition community: we are strong in the best city in the country in one of the best countries in the world. We are in the heart of the city. We have accessibility and knowledge and we can walk to different neighborhoods. Western Addition is very respectful as an inner-city community. We respect each other and our streets. We accept those who are doing worse than us, and those doing better than us, as long as respect is involved. Entitlement has had a ripple effect in our neighborhood. I’m so glad the mayor passed the CAREN Act. We need to see more celebratory events, more murals to show the history of our community. I would like to see the cost of living come down, and for healthy food to be accessible in our community.
I see a lot of housing issues in Western Addition. It feels like corporations want to re-do things and flush people out. There are issues of habitability tied to management companies that don’t care what the community is going through. They threaten lease violations and evictions, like a bullying tactic. And people don’t know their rights.
With Open Door Legal, I’ve seen a few people learn their rights based on information we give them. But more importantly, people need representation. When people come to us, they are already in trouble. They don’t have time for trial and error and to learn something new and try to apply it. It’s important that they have representation and someone to talk to them right away. It helps when we speak for them in a legal manner so they don’t have the stress that builds up, challenging their mental and physical health.
As a Frontline Partner with Open Door Legal, the best part of my job is people’s success stories. People call and are happy to share they’ve won their fight after three years. People come in and say how easy it was once they had a lawyer. I realized people called because they need someone who they feel can actually do something about their problem. They just want to talk to someone who believes them. It takes a weight off their shoulders.
I would like to see more Open Door Legals for more people, all over the city. All over the country! People can walk here, to this office. All the offices are centralized and you can walk up to them. It’s so important that we are in the community, accessible instead of being up the street where there’s no parking.
When something happens you want to fight for your rights. That’s natural, to fight for what you are entitled to. And now, you have legal services to help you fight.
Hakika Drisker is Open Door Legal’s Western Addition Frontline Partner. Every day he helps clients and community members access legal aid.
