spotlight

My first contact with ALRP was brief. It was the mid-nineties and the first tech boom was going full steam – a modern day Gold Rush. Landlords were cashing in by forcing out long-term residents by any means necessary. During those years I was acutely sick, and one day I came home from receiving a treatment at Davies Medical Center to find an eviction notice taped to my door telling me to vacate the premises in 30 days.

ALRP client Trieu has been living in downtown San Francisco on the same street, in the same building, and in the same apartment since escaping from a war-torn Vietnam in 1979. Trieu recently experienced pressure to vacate his home of 36 years when he received a 3-Day Notice to Pay Rent or Quit.

When Angela Bean agreed to take on Mario’s immigration case, she knew it was going to be complicated. Mario was a Cuban immigrant who had come to the United States via boatlift in the 1980s. He was an HIV+ gay man in his late fifties, and had an unclear immigration status. Over the last several years he had been referred to multiple immigration attorneys but due to his very low income and a series of personal problems, he had been unable to make a connection.

“From the very moment I heard the details of Gabriel’s story, I knew it was going to be a tough case,” said Katherine Larkin-Wong, an Associate in the Litigation Department of Latham & Watkins. “But working with Gabriel and ALRP on this case was an incredible opportunity to really help someone.”