COVID has affected our economy in untold ways, and we will feel the impacts of this crisis for years to come. While millions of Californians have been unemployed for almost a year, communities of color and immigrant communities have shouldered the heaviest burden.
The persisting economic crisis has been particularly acute for the workers in the hospitality, tourism, and service industries. Immigrant workers and workers of color often make up the vast majority of those workforces.
Normally, unemployment insurance would provide a crucial safety net to help workers weather the storm, but the challenges at California’s unemployment agency have made securing unemployment benefits very difficult. We have seen rampant fraud, and millions of Californians have struggled to get the benefits they are legally owed. The Employment Development Department (EDD), the agency responsible for distributing unemployment insurance, has failed to meet the needs of millions of Californians during this economic crisis. While problems at EDD have existed for decades, they have been especially obvious and painful during this time.
Getting access to unemployment benefits can be a difficult, frustrating process for any person, but these problems are compounded for monolingual Californians whose primary language is not English. In fact, the challenges are so significant that a strike team report commissioned by our Governor concluded that EDD claimants who do not speak English face “insurmountable barriers” to receiving benefits. While EDD provides some forms and services in Spanish, those services are not nearly comprehensive enough to be effective.
Normally, unemployment insurance would provide a crucial safety net to help workers weather the storm, but the challenges at California’s unemployment agency have made securing unemployment benefits very difficult
This past year, my office has helped hundreds of constituents navigate the unemployment insurance process, obtain critical updates, and ensure that folks get the life-sustaining resources needed to get them through this exceptionally difficult time. My bilingual staff has assisted many constituents whose first language is not English and who face extraordinary challenges in attempting to access the unemployment benefits they are legally owed. Many have tried calling the Spanish phone line, but EDD rarely answers. We have seen Spanish-speaking constituents who have not been paid in months, who are on the brink of homelessness, and who are unable to put food on the table.
As the son of immigrants and a former civil rights attorney, it has been very upsetting to me to see how critical government services have not been accessible to all. There are seven million Californians with limited English proficiency who call California home. In San Francisco, one out of every ten households speaks Spanish, and of those, one-third have limited proficiency in English. In California and San Francisco, the need for culturally-competent language access in public services has been enormous, particularly during this time of crisis. A lack of language access in public benefit agencies has further exacerbated the existing disparities we have seen throughout the pandemic.
For all of these reasons, my colleagues and I recently introduced a package of bills to reform the EDD. To ensure crucial public benefits are accessible to all Californians, I am authoring Assembly Bill 401 to address language access at EDD. AB 401 would require the EDD to proactively identify an applicant’s language needs; provide expanded translation of EDD applications, vital documents, and notices; communicate with claimants in their preferred language in a timely manner; increase multilingual phone lines; and establish a community review process of the EDD’s translation efforts to ensure accessibility. We are working with a broad coalition of advocates on this effort, including Legal Aid at Work, Center for Workers’ Rights, Asian Americans Advancing Justice-California, and Mixteco Indígena Community Organizing Project.
The problems at the EDD are vast and will require extensive legislative review and input. However, should AB 401 become law, it would work to fill a significant gap in services for San Franciscans and Californians with limited English proficiency.
It is often said that the measure of a society’s greatness is how it treats those with the least in our communities. It is our hope that in passing AB 401, we will move our state forward so that all people — regardless of culture, heritage, or language capacity — can count on their government to help when things get hard.
In the meantime, if you need assistance with EDD, please do not hesitate to reach out to my office. You can reach us Monday-Friday from 9:00 a.m.- 5:00 p.m. at 415-557-3013.