Nhien Tra Nguyen

With rising prices and the stress of stretching a fixed income, seventy-seven-year-old Luong Nguyen and his wife struggle to stay afloat. Their story reflect a growing crisis among Vietnamese seniors in Orange County who rely on food distribution centers as a lifeline to access nutritious food as a daily and medical necessity.

For many CalFresh recipients across Orange County with large concentrations in immigrant neighborhoods like Santa Ana, Garden Grove, and Westminster, November arrived with empty EBT balances, stalled benefits, and no clear answers.

Nicky Cao is Vietnamese, queer and trans. She calls it being a minority within a minority at a time when her identity is hyper-politicized and under attack in policy, rhetoric, and in practice.

For Vietnamese seniors living in a mobile home park in Santa Ana, limited English proficiency make navigating leases, code enforcement, or eviction notices difficult to understand. They teeter on the edge of eviction for failure to comply with the numerous demands from the management.

Unhoused and Housing unstable Vietnamese seniors gather on the streets in Little Saigon, communing with each other and preferring that "freedom" over shelters. Severe rent burdens, an aging population, and low labor force participation are factors that have increased homelessness risk in this population.

Embracing a queer identity while being part of the Vietnamese diaspora presents significant challenges. However, when there is acceptance from family, the road to self-expression and an emotionally healthy life is within reach.

With much misinformation prevailing across immigrant communities about autism, Vietnamese parents raising children with Autism Spectrum Disorder face a number of significant challenges rooted in cultural beliefs, social stigma, and limited access to resources and services.

In California's Vietnamese American community, caregivers silently endure their own health crisis while tending to disabled or elderly family members, trapped between cultural expectations of filial duty and the crushing reality of round-the-clock care.