Bay Area immigrants struggle with housing and healthcare

Lack of affordable housing and dwindling access to healthcare are the top issues plaguing the lives of both Bay Area immigrants and citizens, according to a recent report.

Services, Immigration Rights and Education Network (SIREN) and the San Jose State University Human Rights Institute conducted a recent survey of about 300 immigrants and those in the Latino community in the Bay Area and Central Valley to understand how they feel the federal government is performing, barriers to services and how immigration policies are affecting them. Nonprofit SIREN hosted separate discussions with focus groups totaling 22 people to dive deeper into survey questions.

Participants said President Donald Trump’s policies of targeting immigrants and people of color, mass deportations and warehousing people in immigration detention centers has caused significant impact on their mental well-being. Financial issues and concerns about being able to access healthcare are destabilizing the community.

“Health isn’t just (about) physical health,” Michael Dao, director of the Human Rights Institute, told San José Spotlight. “It’s this communal health, it’s housing security, which really plays into mental health, emotional health, communal health, physical health. It’s really this holistic overall well-being that particularly those who are living in marginalized communities are facing.”

A majority of the participants live in the Bay Area, with more than half originating from Mexico and one-third from the U.S. Nearly all — roughly 89% — have lived in the U.S. for more than 15 years. Participants span the spectrum of status — from undocumented, pending status, permanent resident and citizen. Participants also varied widely in income level, from making less than $24,000 a year to more than $200,000.

When it came to the federal government’s response to the top issues of affordable housing and access to healthcare, survey participants felt the federal government performed somewhat poor to neutral.

However, undocumented immigrants and permanent residents on average said the government is doing well when it comes to handling criminal justice, community safety and economic inequality.

SIREN Executive Director Huy Tran said they are still exploring the reasons behind this findings. One possible explanation could be these immigrants are fleeing more dangerous situations in their country of origin, he said.

“The interesting dynamic here is that when we went into focus groups, our participants opened up about how much fear they have to deal with from the federal government,” Tran told San José Spotlight. “Our focus group participants included impacted and at-risk individuals. This leaves the impression that there is at least some conflict.”

Immigrants in the focus groups voiced dismay at how they’ve felt dehumanized by the federal government,  and not listened to by local elected officials.

“How is it possible that incarcerated people are treated better than those of us in detention centers?” one unnamed Bay Area immigrant said in a focus group. “And personally, I’m scared. Because what if they take you to one of these places, you get sick and then they don’t treat you?”

Immigrants have been placed in precarious positions due to Trump’s policies, including the “One Big Beautiful Bill” passed last summer, also known as H.R. 1 which cut funding for social safety net programs for food stamps and Medicaid, known as Medi-Cal in California.

H.R. 1 slashes funding for Medicaid by $1 trillion over the next decade, lowering reimbursement rates for providers and undercutting access to services for the region’s poorest residents. California expanded Medi-Cal in 2024 to provide healthcare for all low-income residents, including undocumented people. However, it stopped accepting new undocumented enrollments at the beginning of the year.

Bay Area residents have felt the weight of these policies, and say their greatest hindrances are the long wait times, cost of services and restrictions around meeting eligibility requirements, according to the report.

San José Spotlight has previously reported how immigrants have experienced delays in services, medication cuts, difficulties navigating the new healthcare landscape and uncertainties about available services. Others have dropped coverage completely for fear of having their information exposed to the federal government. They are increasingly relying on mobile clinics, nonprofits, county programs and alternative medicine to get by.

“(The impacts are) very severe,” Dao said. “We haven’t seen the worst yet. It’s going to be until close to the end of this year that we’re going to see how these lack of resources really play out.”

Affordable housing is also top of mind for the Latino community.

Latino residents live in poverty at double the rate of other families in Santa Clara County, according to a recent county health assessment report. From 2017 to 2021, Latinos’ per capita income was $31,662, less than half of what it was for all county residents. In addition, Latino renters were more cost-burdened, at 57% compared to 45% of all households renting. Fewer Latinos said they lived in a stable environment.

The Latino homeless population has exploded over the years. In 2007, Latinos made up 28% of Santa Clara County’s homeless residents. It’s now peaked at 50% of the homeless population, according to a 2025 point in time count.

“Compounding financial issues have made it extremely difficult to live and have a healthy life,” the report reads. “The consensus is that the health of immigrant communities was inextricably intertwined with the ability to live a life that is secure and with access to social services.”

The report indicated that understanding the areas that Latino communities care about most will help predict election outcomes. The report gave several recommendations, including for local officials to engage more with the immigrant community and to advance affordable housing policies. The report indicated that financial assistance for healthcare is imperative, as well as changing the narrative to humanize immigrants.

“We plan to use these findings to inform policy priorities and strengthen advocacy efforts focused on expanding access to affordable housing, healthcare and mental health support,” Mariam Arif, spokesperson for SIREN, told San José Spotlight. “The data highlights a growing mental health crisis driven by fear and immigration enforcement, persistent barriers such as cost and eligibility restrictions and ongoing experiences of discrimination and exclusion. These insights will help guide our strategies to better support and advocate for the communities we serve.”

Contact Joyce Chu at [email protected] or @joyce_speaks on X. 

Editor’s note: Michael Dao is a San José Spotlight board member.