Sydney Smanpongse

Sydney Smanpongse (they/them) is a Master of Public Policy student with a concentration in labor and social policy. They graduated from UC Irvine in 2020 with bachelor’s degrees in sociology and political science. They are currently conducting research on an Asian American racial justice project with the UCLA Labor Center under Director Kent Wong. Sydney’s passions are in worker rights, housing justice, and union organizing. They have also served on the UCLA Luskin Public Policy Leadership Association Board as advocacy director.

Sydney is working on this project alongside students Jack Kearns, Gloria Magallanes, Andrew Rock, and Ana Rodriguez.

Project Overview

Our projet is focusing on the intersection of housing and labor. Our client, Unite Here Local 11 (UH11), has made the housing crisis central to their work, advancing a range of strategies to make housing more affordable, stable, and proximate to work for its members and the rest of the working poor. The project’s research questions include: How can UH11 advance initiatives to transition small hotels and motels into temporary, emergency, or permanent housing or addiction treatment centers in the Los Angeles metropolitan area? And how should UH11 structure initiatives to purchase housing that can be turned into cooperatives to be rented or owned by the union’s members in the Los Angeles metropolitan area?

Why is this topic, specifically, important to you?

Living in a city with some of the highest rates of homelessness in the county, I feel that it is crucial to focus our priorities on housing the citizens of Los Angeles. My passion for this topic is born out of anger and disappointment. I am angry that so many Angelenos are unhoused while landlords and CEOs profit. I am angry that instead of using funds that could help the unhoused the city increases the police budget that is already unnecessarily inflated. I am angry that low-wage workers work inhumane hours and still are unhoused or rent burdened. I am angry that there are so many solutions, yet the housing crisis is treated as something that is  impossible to fix. 

Who are the partners involved in this project and how will you be working with them?

We will be working with Unite Here Local 11 to address housing issues impacting their members. This will involve leveraging available institutional data and member knowledge.

Victor Narro, Project Director at the UCLA Labor Center, and Gary Blasi, a public interest lawyer and affordable housing advocate, will be advisors on the project and help guide our research. 

How do you hope that this project will impact the field moving forward?

Housing is not typically a direct part of union contract negotiations, as unions primarily focus on wages, benefits, working conditions, and other workplace-related issues. However, housing issues are at the forefront of many low-wage workers’ minds; access to affordable and suitable housing is crucial for employees’ physical and mental well-being. I hope this project will continue the conversation that acknowledges housing as a fundamental necessity for all workers.

Focusing initially on union workers allows us to set a precedent and showcase the impact of addressing housing concerns for this group. I hope that our project will help push a narrative where securing adequate housing becomes as pivotal as fair wages and safe working conditions and set a new standard for worker support across all sectors.