Mariana Duran
Reporter
Reporter
Mariana Duran is a bilingual reporter for El Tecolote through UC Berkeley's California Local News Fellowship. Her work has also been featured in the Los Angeles Times and the San Luis Obispo Tribune.
G.H, a 51 year old immigrant applying for legal status, fears that the coming healthcare policy changes might impact her ability to afford the medical care she needs. California, facing its own budget crisis, has already scaled back parts of its Medi-Cal expansion program, and along with the federal spending bill, people like G.H. might find themselves excluded from getting basic healthcare needs met.
A project that started during the pandemic to provide people with free groceries eventually grew to become Somos Esenciales, a San Francisco Mission District participatory intervention project where community "researchers" are trained to be full-time mental health advocates to promote health equity and lasting change for Native, Latino and Black communities in San Francisco.
Dozens of homeless families face evictions due to a controversial city policy that limits family shelter stays to 90 days.
Funded by a city grant, nine unhoused families at Everett Middle School receive a guaranteed monthly income of $1,000 — part of an experimental program aimed at helping families escape homelessness. This financial aid, the school hopes, will help improve students' mental health and academic performance.