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== External Links ==
* [https://omeka.binghamton.edu/omeka/items/show/1198 Interview with Randy Shaw] by Stephen McKiernan, Binghamton University Libraries Center for the Study of the 1960s, November 23, 2010


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Revision as of 20:39, 6 January 2020

Randy Shaw
Born(1956-08-19)August 19, 1956
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation(s)Attorney, Author, Activist.
SpouseLainey Feingold

Randy Shaw is an attorney, author and activist who lives in Berkeley, California. He is the executive director of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, a non-profit organization in San Francisco that he co-founded in 1980. He has also co-founded and is on the Board of Directors of Uptown Tenderloin, Inc., a nonprofit organization that spearheaded the creation of the national Uptown Tenderloin Historic District in 2009. Uptown Tenderloin, Inc. is also the driving force behind the Tenderloin Museum, which opened in the spring of 2015.[1] Shaw is also the editor of Beyond Chron, and has written six books on activism.

Biography

Education

Randy Shaw grew up in Los Angeles, where he attended University High School. After graduating he attended the University of California at Berkeley, where he graduated in 1977. Shaw began Hastings Law School in the fall of 1979, and received his J.D. in spring 1982. He was admitted to the California Bar in December 1982.

Early Activism

Working on tenants rights campaigns in Berkeley, led to helping open the Tenderloin Housing Clinic (THC) in 1980.[2] where he quickly became active in tenant rights, particularly the Tenderloin's struggles against luxury hotel development and the conversion of single room occupancy hotels (SROs) to tourist use.

"Heatless" Hotel scandal

Upon graduation from Hastings, he was awarded a $12,000 grant from the Berkeley Law Foundation[3] and became Tenderloin Housing Clinic's first full-time staff attorney and executive director. In 1982, the "heatless hotel" scandal was exposed whereby thousands of San Francisco's SRO tenants were living without heat. The story rocked the city and was front-page news for a week, ultimately resulting in the emergency enactment of tough new heat and hot water laws which he helped author.

Protecting Low-cost Housing

Randy then went on to work with tenants to win new police rules preventing illegal lockouts of tenants in lieu of legal evictions. In 1984, he launched a campaign against Guenter Kaussen[4] , known as the "worlds biggest slumlord." Kaussen's overcharging rents to Cambodian immigrant tenants in the Tenderloin led Shaw to bring in media to investigate the West German-based real estate mogul. At the time Kaussen was the Tenderloin's largest apartment owner; the campaign led to a story on 60 Minutes and Kaussen's suicide.[5]

New San Francisco Homeless Strategy

In 1988, Randy proposed San Francisco to adopt a modified payments program (MPP), enabling homeless single adults receiving welfare to obtain permanent housing. He talked to hotel owners and found that many would be willing to charge rents affordable to welfare recipients if they could ensure rent payments. Under the MPP, welfare recipients agreed to have their checks "modified" so that THC was also named on the check. These two-party checks would be delivered to THC's offices, and THC would then deduct the rent from the check and give the tenant the balance.[6]

The incoming Mayor Art Agnos Administration said to implement the MPP on a trial basis, and that if it worked the city would fund it. With a small grant obtained for THC to start the program in 1988, it proved successful. By 1989, over 1,000 formerly homeless single adults were living in permanent housing through enrolling in the MPP. The program is still used by housing providers throughout San Francisco's extensive supporting housing system today.

In May 1999, an innovative approach to housing homeless single adults was launched through the Department of Housing Services, called the hotel leasing program [7]. THC became the City's leading provider of permanent housing for homeless single adults, and the leasing program was the foundation of the San Francisco's Care Not Cash program which began in 2004.[8]

THC currently leases and manages 23 SROs (over 1,800 units) for homeless single adults and owns and manages the Galvin Apartments at 785 Brannan Street.[9]

Legislation Drafted

In addition to authoring San Francisco's heat and hot water laws, key city ballot measures were drafted, and state laws strengthening rent control and housing code enforcement.

Prop H: Rent Control

After the major defeat of a pro-tenant ballot measure in San Francisco's November 1991 election, Randy committed to rebuilding and restructuring the city's tenant movement. By working with other tenant counseling groups to hold a series of neighborhood tenant conventions designed to solicit input for a tenant initiative for the November 1992 ballot. This process led to drafting Proposition H, which would cut annual rent increases in half. The Prop H initiative became the first tenant ballot measure to prevail in San Francisco, despite tenants being outspent 10-1.

Prop G: Housing Code Enforcement

After spending years trying to get city officials to enforce the housing code, a ballot measure in 1994 was authored to improve housing code enforcement by creating a new department under a public commission. The measure (San Francisco City Charter Section 4.121) [10] creating the Department of Building Inspection passed in November 1994, and San Francisco's housing code enforcement has dramatically improved since that time.

State Laws

In 1999, working alongside California State Senator John Burton legislation was drafted to strengthen tenant protection under the state Ellis Act (Cal. Gov't Code 7060) and prevent the Act from preempting local land use laws. The measure passed the Legislature and became law. In 2003, working alongside Assembly member Mark Leno, AB 1217 was passed,[11] which exempted SROs from the Ellis Act; this bill also became law.

National Housing Advocacy

In 1999, Housing America (HA) was founded to build national pressure for increased federal affordable housing funds and co-authored the study, There's No Place Like Home: How America's Housing Crisis, Threatens Our Children,[12] which generated several widespread media coverage.

Later in 1999, the HA teamed with Religious Witness with Homeless People in getting what The New York Times described on September 10, 1999 as "an unusually broad coalition of religious leaders" to send a letter to President Bill Clinton urging the issuance of 200,000 new Section 8 housing vouchers. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Andrew Cuomo, later credited the letter with securing 50,000 more vouchers.

In June 2000, the first national study was co-authored urging Congress to allocate Federal Housing Administration (FHA) surplus to create a National Housing Trust Fund. "A New Direction: How FHA Surpluses Can Solve America's Housing Crisis" provided a city-by-city analysis of the impact of FHA suppliers on ending the national's affordable housing shortage.

In 2000, "There's No Place Like Home" was authored for In These Times. The study on how the U.S. media ignores the nation's housing crisis was voted the 9th most censored study for 2003 by Project Censored.[13]

As an Author

Six books on activism and social change have been authored.

Generation Priced Out: Who Will Live in the New Urban America?

In 2018 Randy published a book on the urban housing crisis talking about how skyrocketing rents and home values are pricing the working and middle classes out of urban America. [14][15]

The Tenderloin: Sex, Crime and Resistance in the Heart of San Francisco

The Tenderloin: Sex, Crime and Resistance in the Heart of San Francisco offers an incisive history of one of the nation's most under-appreciated neighborhoods. From its wild swings through vice and repression, surprising presence at the heart of the domestic Cold War, unique role as the locale where today's transgender movement began out of a strange mix of federal anti-poverty programs and faith-based political organizing, and as the landing pad for refugees from U.S. wars in Southeast Asia, San Francisco's Tenderloin is an historic neighborhood whose stories unfold at an astonishing pace. [16]

The Activist's Handbook, 2nd ed.: Winning Social Change in the 21st Century

A completely revised and updated edition of the original book, bringing the principles of activism into the Obama era. The book describes the tactics and strategies of the immigrant rights, marriage equality, and other movements that grew in strength in the 21st century. "Randy Shaw’s Activist’s Handbook[17] is a book with legs. First published in the early 1990s, it has now been updated as a guide to “winning social change” in the new millennium. If you’re a long distance runner in any U.S. social movement—or trying to figure out how to become one—this is the training manual for you and your track team." [18]

Beyond the Fields

Described by UFW community and labor organizer Fred Ross Jr. as a "powerful and moving account of how the UFW transformed people's lives, instilling a lifetime commitment to social justice,[19] Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century also traces the roots of Barack Obama's 2008 election outreach model to the UFW campaigns of the 1960s and 1970s, and the electoral strategies that UFW alumni brought with them to 21st Century campaigns.

Reclaiming America

Reclaiming America: Nike, Clean Air, and the New National Activism (UC Press 1999) argued that local activists needed to also focus on the national issues that increasingly shape local communities. Medea Benjamin, political activist and Co-Director of Global Exchange, said of the book "Randy Shaw provides the definitive account of the historic national campaign to reform Nike's labor practices. Reclaiming America is a must read for everyone seeking to achieve greater social and economic fairness in the 21st Century."[20]

The Activist's Handbook: A Primer for the 1990s and Beyond

A guide to making social change happen, The Activist's Handbook: A Primer for the 1990s and Beyond (UC Press: 1996, 2001, 2013) is described by Howard Zinn as "enormously valuable for anyone interested in social change. It is practical in its advice, and inspiring in its stories of ordinary people successfully confronting powerful interests." [21]

Other Writings

"Tenant Power in San Francisco" appears in the anthology, "Reclaiming San Francisco" by James Brook, Chris Carlsson and Nancy J. Peters.[22]

Building the Labor-Clergy-Immigrant Alliance is included in the book "Rallying for Immigrant's Rights" (UC Press 2011)[23]

Contribution to the section on SROs to the 2012 Encyclopedia of Housing (Second Edition, SAGE Publications).[24]

Uptown Tenderloin Historic District

In 2007, Randy initiated the effort that resulted in the creation of the national Uptown Tenderloin Historic District, which is included in the National Register of Historic Places. The District covers over 31 city blocks and over 400 contributing structures. Shaw helped form Uptown Tenderloin, Inc. to help economically revitalize the neighborhood, and is currently its executive director. Uptown Tenderloin has restored historic advertising signs, developed murals on neighborhood history, gotten nearly 100 historic plaques on Tenderloin buildings, and installed nine "Lost Landmark" plaques on Tenderloin sidewalks. See uptowntl.org for more details.

Founder/Editor of an Alternative News Source

Founded in April 2004, Randy is the editor of the online daily news service Beyond Chron which covers local, state and national politics.

References

  1. ^ "Tenderloin Museum". tenderloinmuseum.org. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  2. ^ "History of THC". thclinic.org. Retrieved 23 January 2015.
  3. ^ "Randy Shaw's Power Plays". sfweekly.com. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  4. ^ "Slumlords and Terror". foundsf.org. Retrieved 23 December 2019.
  5. ^ "W. German Landlord, Deep in Debt, Kills Self". latimes.com. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  6. ^ "Randy Shaw's Power Plays". sfweekly.com. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  7. ^ "Shelter Availability and Services Final" (PDF). sfbos.org. Retrieved 23 December 2019.
  8. ^ "San Francisco Proposition N (2002)". en.wikipedia.org. Retrieved 23 December 2019.
  9. ^ "Housing Portfolio". thclinic.org. Retrieved 23 December 2019.
  10. ^ "San Francisco City Charter section 4.121". The City and County of San Francisco. Retrieved 27 May 2009.
  11. ^ "AB-1217 Home Care Services Consumer Protection Act". State of California. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  12. ^ Sandel, Megan; Sharfstein, Joshua; Shaw, Randy (March 1999). "There's No Place Like Home: How America's Housing Crisis Threatens Our Children" (PDF). Housing America. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  13. ^ "Project Censored Top 25 for 2003". Project Censored. Retrieved 15 May 2009.
  14. ^ Krasny, Michael (2018-11-27). "Activist Randy Shaw Takes on San Francisco and Urban America's Housing Crisis". KQED. Archived from the original on 2018-11-29. Retrieved 2019-06-24.
  15. ^ Torres, Blanca (2019-01-29). "Five reasons why booming cities are squeezing out the middle class, according to this Tenderloin activist". San Francisco Business Times. Archived from the original on 2019-06-24. Retrieved 2019-06-24.
  16. ^ Shaw, Randy (21 April 2015). The Tenderloin: Sex, Crime and Resistance in the Heart of San Francisco. San Francisco, California: Urban Reality Press. ISBN 0692327231.
  17. ^ Shaw, Randy (26 August 2013). The Activist's Handbook: Winning Social Change in the 21st Century. Oakland, California: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520274051.
  18. ^ "ZNet". zcomm.org. Retrieved 30 January 2015.
  19. ^ Shaw, Randy (28 Sep 2010). Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW, and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century. Oakland, California: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520268043.
  20. ^ Shaw, Randy (7 June 1999). Reclaiming America: Nike, Clean Air, and the New National Activism (1 ed.). Oakland, California: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520217799.
  21. ^ Shaw, Randy (1 June 1996). The Activist's Handbook: A Primer for the 1990s and Beyond (1 ed.). Oakland, California: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520229280.
  22. ^ Shaw, Randy (1 January 2001). "Tenant Power in San Francisco". In Brook, James; Carlsson, Chris; Nancy J., Peters (eds.). Reclaiming San Francisco: History, Politics, Culture (1 ed.). San Francisco, California: City Lights Publishers. ISBN 978-0872863354.
  23. ^ Shaw, Randy (6 July 2001). "Building the Labor-Clergy-Immigrant Alliance". In Voss, Kim; Bloemraad, Irene (eds.). Rallying for Immigrant Rights: The Fight for Inclusion in 21st Century America. Oakland, California: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520267558.
  24. ^ Shaw, Randy (13 June 2012). "Single Room Occupancy Housing". In Carswell, Andrew T. (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Housing, Second Edition. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications, Inc. ISBN 978-1412989572.
  • Interview with Randy Shaw by Stephen McKiernan, Binghamton University Libraries Center for the Study of the 1960s, November 23, 2010
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