@@lolcatjuniorNah, that Cantonese accent doesn't sound Hongkongnese, it doesn't even sound like it's from Guangzhou. I would say they are from a smaller city/town in China.
When we first moved to the US, we lived in small apartments. Took my parents 10 years to save up for a house. Now time is much harder for immigrants with rent being much higher and saving up for a house unattainable for most. Living in Chinatown is a first stop for many immigrants not speaking any English. It allows them to settle down in a familiar community. Once the kids are older and master more English, they can then move out to lower rent apartments outside Chinatown. Not easy but hopefully better step by step.
We Americans all feel that the Chinese are the richest most educated in this country and this docu is showing nope, not all of them. She's still talking in Chinese which means she illegal IMO, because if she's been here long enough and has worked she would know English.
@@Chicago48 If you listen to the program, they have applied for housing and still waiting. If she is illegal, she could not apply for government benefits. And, no, a person could be in the US for 30 years and still not speak English if they stay within their own communities that only speak their languages.
Didn't know ppl still took this route. Back in the days, many chinese left china bcoz of the political turmoil and famine. But now china is much better, albeit still with ccp but is it worth the huge gamble?
I hope this family, and many other hard working families, find homes that makes their lives more comfortable. They certainly deserve better living conditions.
Oh wow 😮 I can’t imagine living in a space that small let alone with my 4 kids and hubby!! These children deserve to have their own rooms to run and play and something they can call their own!! I certainly hope this family receives the Help and Support they so rightly need and deserves🙏🏽
@@PerfectoKiss Uh, no. This is 100% preventable. Ethnic Chinese can tell you that it's most likely that they are trying to have sons but were screwed over in their first 2 tries when they had girls lol!
It’s that $700 in most countries can get them a better place is always shocking to me when I look at homes. I recently watch a TH-camr in Korea who is only paying $500/ month for one bedroom with a living room, kitchen,etc that looks way better and bigger than a $2000 studio apartment in California😅
I pay $1,080/month on my mortgage for a 3 bed/2 bath house with a yard in Washington that I split with a friend. It's not a country thing it's a city thing. Some people choose to spend money on vacations/concerts/partying because that's what their city shoves down their throat of how to live a fulfilling life and some save up money to get a low mortgage rate.
This makes no sense ??? Why would you go to San Francisco out of all places and expect to prosper . They can go to other places and get a bigger place for 700 a month
Because SF has the largest Chinatown in the US and thus a very high concentration of services catered towards Chinese people that are very amenable to working class, low educated Chinese migrants like this family
@@accordiongordon So they live there to get free stuff and then cry and whine when they don't get it. Useless scum don't even speak english or contribute at all.
Feel the same way .. I have 3 kids and got separated of my husband .. he was like a bag in my shoulders, I became single mom and I’m doing way better with my 3 kids.. we aren’t rich but they have their privacy… and I’m back to school. Parents could take advantage of free school and after school program and learn the language .some people just take all these free resources for granted.🤷♀️
@@martinking4842 Because the parents' decision had a direct effect on the livelihoods of others. At some point people need to be held accountable for their actions.
Taiwan government is too poor now they have lost their TSMC semiconductor industry factories to USA and having to buy lots of expensive weapons to defend themselves. Besides when one is in US, one should help oneself - individualism and all. Expecting state handout is socialism.
This is why many asians do well. Esp first generation asians in sf. We have had to struggle to make our bread. We experienced poverty first hand. And then we face racism as they take standardized testing out of the equation because we are doing too well on them. Our efforts at education are worth nothing to you as we try to break out of poverty.
Most likely they will, Asian parents are very invested n their kids education, that come first. That is why many think Asian are smarter, not necessarily, but their certainly are more determined to succeed n their education. Respect to all this parents, I to raise my kids as a single mother, n a really bad neighborhood, not small place because was low income housing. Determined to take them out of the hood, n they succeeded.
@@51colibri While the U.S. and the West subscribe to predominantly Judeo-Christian customs culture (has nothing to do with religion), East Asians go by Confucian customs and culture. One of the values is education attainment. And yes, it has nothing to do with biology... just culture and values.
I lived in San Francisco, there is such richness there, and probably a lot of people that speak the same language as the mother, she is very expressive. I could tell them they could move to the midwest where I live, but things here are expensive too, not as expensive as San Francisco, but not many people she would be able to talk with very easily. I had a lot of fun squeezing into a small place with my friends there.... because there is always something to do, for free most of it! Everyone looks well fed and clean. That must have been awful to sit on stairs with Covid, and also sharing the bathroom must be awful too! Love to all of them!
I’m confused why they kept having kids in those environment. That is so messed up to put children in this situation. They didn’t ask to be her and live in these conditions but they brought them into this world KNOWING the conditions they’d be living in. So selfish. Smh
Not in California you can read whatever you want online but here are the facts. The waiting list are over 10 years. I been on the waiting list 18 years now. I have just given up on affordable housing.
Why should hardworking taxpayers subsidize these people? They chose to have 4 children that they couldn't support. My tax dollars shouldn't go to supporting them.
Been there....done that. My parents immigrated to the US in 1964 with 3 kids ( I was 5, 3 and 1) and we lived in a 1BR apartment with grandparents, aunt and our own family of 5 for a total of 8 people. It was a tight fit but no one was complaining and we never took welfare. we lived on East Broadway in Manhattan's Chinatown and everyone did that so it was no big deal. The older girls remind me of ourselves....always doing HW whereever there was space but the HW always got done. No handouts needed....my aunt went on to become a nurse and just recently retired. My younger became an mechanical engineer and my sister became an accountant. I myself was a bond and options trader in the mid 80's and had a nice career in the finance industry. So don't feel bad or any ill will towards this family in SF. Just looking at the girls working hard at their HW, I know they will thrive and succeed. The parents brought their kids here to give them a chance at a future in the US.
Dude come on, you know a lot of jobs were done under the table and no taxes were taken out. Other people were funding your family public education. That's a handout.
Assistance programs exist to help because they know some situations are just ridiculously hard. They don't exist to make people feel bad for seeking and accepting the assistance.
Seems like despite living in a cramped SRO with 4 people, they wanted to have a boy, and end up from a bad situation to a worse situation with 6 people in said SRO...
@@peekaboopeekaboo1165 Their Cantonese accent is very country like which they might speak Taishanese. That's only in the mainland china. HK Cantonese tends to use English filler words as result of British colonialism.
@@aznfriedrice415 That's no longer "Cantonese" but Hongkie Speak. Hongkies who doesn't want to be part of China ...should just leave Hongkong for the NATO countries and Japan.
the parents wanted something they couldn’t afford, and the kids suffered. the parents’ poor choices became society’s burden. i don’t feel sorry for the parents but i do feel bad for the kids.
Yearning someone decided to have so many kids while the middle income family carefully planned to ensure they can provide enough to the kids. I would say it is their parents’ fault.
My mother, her best friend and her son and I all lived in a room at the Europa Hotel on Broadway and Columbus when I was younger. It's a very tough way to live with that many people in one room, especially without a private bathroom.
Id live in a kind of crappy place in san francisco if it saved me money but theres a few no go things and sharing a toilet and shower with that many people is a big h*ll no
well think about it, san francisco is where a good part of the demographic speak chinese and its got a long history of chinese immigration and resources. why would you move to an all white town when you cant even speak english and have no community etc
Many people live like that in San Francisco. I attended law school in the tenderloin. I speak Spanish. I often spoke with Hispanic people around the area and I met many families who lived in tiny studios or one or two bedrooms, with 5+ people. Even multiple families living together in a one bedroom apartment. It’s sad.
And that’s why the CHINESE PEOPLE are always successful. They don’t complain, they just keep on pushing no matter what. Hats off to them from a Pacific Islander 💯💯
Over forty years ago, in Hong Kong families used to have average eight family members live together in one bedroom. We used to live with all siblings, parents and even grandparents. I think situation will change if they work hard and earn decent money in order to move out from the SF Chinatown.
Reminds me when our family of 6 used to wait for military housing a month at a time in a small hotel with a community kitchen. It was hard, but we got thru it. Sometimes, we were living in a roach infested hotel.
Fake? My father and 5 siblings born and lived in Chinatown with their 2 parents in 1930s. Not even food stamps. They had 2 rooms: bedroom barely fit 2 beds (literally that was it) and another living space. No fridge, put the milk on the outside ledge, rats on same ledge. They all made it out of Chinatown, bought a building for grandma, have 16 cousins. Not all of us got straight A’s, but we’re doing pretty well. This family will be ok.
That's how new immigrants lived in NYC and elsewhere back in the day too . Now since no one remembers they think all the white folks arrived here on Yachts .
@@JasperTomo They lived in them when they got here that's for sure . The tenements they worked themselves out of to give their kids what they never had themselves . No welfare , no Unemployment , no Medicare , No Social Security . Work or don't eat . Lest we forget or don't know .
I remember living in a studio apartment in Washington DC with My parents and my sister in 1990 we were in our twenty. Today, both my sister and I are in late 50s - we both have BS and MS in Computer Science from UDC & GWU and own our homes - I'm in Potamac MD and my sister in Northen VA. We both able to retire early and enjoying our life. Work hard and a little bit of luck, anyone can make it in this country.
SF definitely needs to build more affordable housing. Rent is too damn high. The cost to the SFHA for this family’s new home is likely close to $36k per year because a market rate 4 bedroom house in Nob Hill likely rents for around $4k+. If rent was lower, they could’ve helped more families with that money.
$700 for 100sq ft and shared bathroom?!! They are getting robbed! There are dorms bigger than that. I guess San Fran is expensive, but anywhere else they could get more bang for their buck. They choose to stay living where they are.
If they had 1 or 2 kids on accident I'd feel bad, but after 3 you have to ask yourself if your being a responsible person or not. Average cost of a vasectomy in the USA is only $1,000 which is definitely cheaper than the monthly expenses for a single child these days. To think they had a whole 3 kids living in a SINGLE ROOM and still had time/space to make a baby is absolutely absurd.
Wait what the hell?? Clicking on this, my first thought was “how selfish to have FOUR kids who have to live this way” and then I said to myself “nah, ur too judgemental, they probably fell on hard times and used to have it better” and I see it’s 9 years here?? And these kids are all younger than that?? Wtf?? They CHOSE to bring 4 children into this??
They didn't CHOOSE, okay? We're talking about people who are impoverished and family planning isn't something they're mindful of. Judge not lest ye be judged.
So? Poor people can have a big family. There’s nothing wrong with it. Most people in this big world have to get by on very little. Life is hard and unfair.
It would be more difficult to have more kids in such a small space. We only had two kids, because we know how expensive it is to have children. We wanted to be able to provide for them.
Poor people can't have kids. Do you hear yourself? Those 4 kids are going to be more successful under these situations than a rich kid will ever be. Those 4 kids have tasted the hard life and will try their best in schools. Can you say the same for your rich kid who lived a life of comfort?
As bad as they have it living in a single room, they are still way ahead from the people living in China and even HK. Moreover, the fact that they are poor now, does not mean they will be poor tomorrow. The kids will find their way out of poverty (conditions at the end of the text). These kids already have an advantage over me when when I was 20 and arrived to the US as a foreign student...... ....These kids are US citizens. Yes, they are poor. But compared to the poor in China, HK, Indonesia, the Philippines, Honduras, Venezuela, Guatemala or Haiti (which is lately in the news a lot). They are doing great. They got shoes and they are not missing any meals. This is a good example of how times change. The usual criticism of having kids while poor no longer apply, especially in the US. We are in a time when having kids is a benefit to the country, even when it is hard on the individual family. If anything, this should shed light in the current unfair situation when we are busing and moving illegal immigrants/refugees/asylum seekers around the country, housing them and feeding them and yet we see families like this being forgotten by the system. We are taking care and providing assistance to "new border crossers" and forgetting families like this one. Realize this: This is a GOOD FAMILY, from the little we saw and know, they are TOGETHER. MOM and DAD are at home. Maybe only Dad works, but he is working. Kids are at home. Just by this they are already ahead of 50% of the families in the US. We saw the kids doing homework, sitting side by side, the mother crying for her kids' situation. Do we think there is a lack of love? So as long as these kids don't go gang banging, so as long as the husband does not go gambling or whoring, so as long as the kids go get or get anybody pregnant, so as long the kids stay in school and away from drugs and as long as there is love.... ...They will be fine...they are way ahead from many families (in the US and otherwise).
How do you know the parents came here legally? They could be smuggled by "snake heads". They could "jump ashore" from ship. They could overstay their visa. By the way, these days many "new border crossers" are from China.
@@sidneychan1372 Most likely they overstayed their visa. If the immigrant has no skilled/professional job, isn’t sponsored to come in by an American relative, isn’t adopted or didn’t marry an American chances are they did not come in legally. My family come in legally via in demand skilled work, both parents had to prove their English fluency, had to do certain tests and the housing we got wasn’t the best at the time but at least it was not in this condition.
@@sidneychan1372 I don't know if they came legally and actually don't care... ...For the lack of English and the low job skills, I would guess they didn't come here via Tech work visa. But that is not important anymore. What we do know is that they got 4 US citizen kids who will probably have a better life than their parents did. The dad is working, he is not kicking around waiting for his welfare check. We don't see the kids loitering at the park or some parking lot waiting to score a quick buck. Yes, the US could easily select the best STEM students currently in American universities (or even those who are not) and give them green card and that could help the country very much... ...But these kind of immigrants, those who risk life and limb to get here and WORK (not just wait for government assistance) are the type of immigrants that add to this country. A time will come when this family and especially those kids WILL NOT be a public charge/burden.
@@robertopang4240 You specifically made this point "this should shed light in the current unfair situation when we are busing and moving illegal immigrants/refugees/asylum seekers around the country, housing them and feeding them and yet we see families like this being forgotten by the system" and now you say "I don't know if they came legally and actually don't care." That's called talking from both sides of your mouth. And just so that you know, this family later got section 8, which is welfare for housing from the State of California. Moreover, many illegal migrants including the ones you despise often give birth to US citizen kids who will probably have a better life than their parents did.
@@sidneychan1372 Wait, you are assuming too much of me. I don't have any problems at all with immigrants, even illegal ones. SO AS LONG as they come to WORK (as opposed to just being a charge on society or have their kids gang bang and become criminals). I know plenty of good people who jumped the border and without knowing the language got into a bus and ended up in Chicago painting houses or putting up roofing and/or drywall. For them, nothing but respect and admiration. A country made of people like this won't go stagnant or complacent. What I do have a problem with, is with the current DEFAULT Open Border policy where people with no skills or desire to work are crossing the border and turning themselves in to authorities with the hope of food, lodging and becoming long term charges for the State. This is another kind of people and mentality. Yes, I am aware that these family got Section 8, I got no problem with it, as we can see that they are a united family and it is worth to assist them. Do you think they will remain a charge to the State for two generations? Do you think the daughters will get pregnant and the sons will be absentee fathers? I don't..... ...Yet, I see plenty of US citizens getting pregnant before marriage and men being absentee fathers. THAT I have a problem with, immigrant or native born (and they never leave the welfare system). And the point still remains: We got plenty of families in need of help already here. We don't need to prioritize this new (and different) crop of immigrants over the ones that are already here. In fact, I think all the assistance just makes it worse. In the past, if people were not able to make it, if they didn't have family or friends to (temporary) help out, they would just leave. Now we make it easy to get in and very hard to leave as most if not all needs are taken care of, by the State.
Ohh wow. I think that was my husband’s family story when they first moved to Michigan back in the 70s, 3 kids and all. Though I think was a bigger apartment due to Mi In general is cheaper and has more space. My parents in law worked so hard to buy a house and a restaurant. I honestly can’t imaging the challenges. 😢
Such a sad situation. But since I'm a horrible person what popped into my mind was if a child is bad you point to the corner and say "Go to your room!" Also, no worries that your daughter will sneak out at night to meet her boyfriend.
When something becomes the norm in life and it is something that you cannot really change or control, you become used to it and even comfortable with it over time. You'll be surprised at just how many people are living in these conditions or working long hours in poor paying jobs and have no incentives or motivation to change.
The only reason i can think why both parent not working and get a proper small apartment just for them is maybe staying there can get their chance to get government housing. Im asian living in sydney. I have few friends that would letting themselves live in refuge with their kids in order to get centrelink and housing by governement. Im not disagree, they can choose that way but somehow i was thinking this kinda attitude will hurt the kid's in resilience. When people receive centrelink they never push themselves to work and earn hard money. Its like beggar. But thats my theory. And not all people like this.
US Chinatowns have worse living standards than poor villages in China. They are relics from the past, unchanged in the last 100 years. Actually worse off than they were since the buildings are aging and go unmaintained
that's what struck me, too. they'd been there for nine years, but that youngest boy was born living there. why would you bring ANOTHER kid into that situation?
Move back to China you fools! China is amazing these days. I am there regularly when not in Bay Area and will be retiring there with my Chinese wife in a few years. The American dream - you gotta be asleep to believe it!!!!
Mixed feelings for this case. Happy that their situation did improve - they were moved to a very nice 4-bedroom apartment and need only pay 30% of their income for that. But i have questions - what kind of immigrants were they, the type that 1) comes to make it, or the type that 2) just comes. During their 9 years in the SRO, what did they do to improve their situation? How did they fight for a better life? What led them to come to the US at all if they would suffer so much being here, what was their goal? Was their immigration thesis simply to just come and accept a life of poverty because it would at least be better than life in their hometown? 9 years after arriving, has not much has changed (in terms of skills, job, opportunities, income, english), except that they have more kids? Have they really tried and failed for 9 years, or did they not try the way some other immigrants would? If they were the kind of immigrants whose goal was to simply arrive and tread water while hoping for the best, that doesn't make them bad people. But I think that other types of immigrants, the types that have the fight in them, should have higher priority for receiving assistance and rewards. I am happy to see this mother smile in the video about her new home, but I wonder if immigrants like them will endlessly continue to come and suffer, in part encouraged by the benefits received by this family and other families like it - awarding benefits to them creates this distortion in the calculus of whether to immigrate. All of that said, I understand how urgent it is to get those kids into a better living situation, and i am still glad to see that these kids will grow up in comfort. Again, mixed feelings.
I appreciate your comment and thoughts, as I had many of the same. I know that it's 2023 and the world is different than in 1970 when my parents came from HK (with my Bro; I wasn't born yet). They lived in one of those same SF Chinatown apartments with my Grandma. Back then, my Dad couldn't find work to match his skillset in SF, so he got the hook up from friends out of state for work there. So the family was separated for three years till he saved enough $$$ and sent for my Mom and Bro to where he was, eventually saving enough $$$ for a house where I was born in. My late Dad was super frugal and I resented him at times growing up for how cheap he was, but that's how my Bro and I never had to struggle or even borrow money for college. My Dad and Mom would be the example of those with the fight in them that you referred to. And all of them from their generation were like that. Let me not be insensitive because I know nothing of the modern day Chinese immigrant, but I too wondered, "What in the world have they been doing for the last 9 years?!" Haven't been able to save anything all this time to try to get out of SF (which I know is very $$$)?
based on my poor understanding of dialects, possibly from the more rural areas guangxi or guangdong. possibly hong kong. if you look at cost of living vs income, the most affordable city in the US is about 3x better than san fran. that being said, san fran is still 6x more affordable than hong kong. well... you've had 3 months to think about your comment and feelings. I wonder if in that time you constantly held yourself to the same standard of "having the fight in them". something unintuitive to American's is the idea of an objectively classist society, where regardless of how hard you work in that situation, you will never be able to move more than a couple rungs up the ladder. in my experience, asians are the least vocal of their adversity here.... and i think therefore the least well understood. I wonder what had to be sacrificed in-order for them to get over here, and what debts they have had to repay. usually im pretty conservative about immigration, but to be here for 9 yrs... there has to have been several factors stacked against them. A recent movie which changed my perspective is called "everything everywhere all at once." i think its worth watching if you were never able to reconcile your mixed feelings.
I'm always puzzled, when people question other people's migratory movements around the world --- from the Stone Age to 2024, to see safety, foods, opportunities, freedom, etc ---- but they never question their own movements or the movements of their parents, grandparents, and ancestors. It's such bizarre logic people use. It's always OTHERS who are X, Y, or Z but never they themselves... as if they or their own family/ancestors dropped straight down from the sky to be where they are! I am especially oddly incensed, when Asians, Blacks, Latinos, Jews, and others ---- who or whose parents or ancestors having come, having face HORRIBLE treatments and racism ---- are banding with Conservative White Christians (the most kind, tolerant, moral, ethical, gentle, tolerant, and God loving human beings on earth) to tell other Asians, Blacks, Jews, Latinos et al NOT to dream of coming to America... Again, human migratory across and around the world... to seek more or better foods, more and better shelter, more bountiful hunting or farming lands, etc.... didn't just start during Obama or Biden's terms at the White House. Our species has been doing since we WERE STILL primitive, small groups in Africa. Many of our ancestors and other closely related human groups, from Africa, started trekking out of that continent a few million years ago (with our immediate homo sapiens sapiens) being the last one, 50,000 to 100,000 years ago. We are NOT about to stop doing that, just because a few crazy, Flat Earth Christian Conservative say so.... Or just because you put some imaginary lines around plots of lands... even with some fences or concrete walls.... and that is especially true when the people NORTH OF THE EQUATOR have been digging up and using so much more of the earth's heat-trapping molecular compounds, changing the climate in such a rapid rate... so that the poorer people around the equator are finding it harder and harder, in each successive generation, to fish, to farm, and to find liveable places.... The stupidity, greedy, and viciousness of some homo sapiens never cease to impress me!
No one wants to talk about illegals taking up rental housing that would normally be available for LEGAL immagrants. SF is a Sanctuary City, so this family has to compete with illegals for that. I've seen rentals that should be for families like this rented instead to a bunch of men who split the rent, wreck the place, and take up the housing stock.
It's not illegals (noone is illegal unless their asylum is rejected international law so that a right wing LIE and thats obtuse and ridiculous that theyre taking places.It's Blackrock that have scooped up everywhere and sent rents sky high also across the country they use a comparison software to stay competitive and fix prices between big equity landlords. Get real find Christ or stay ignorant hard and compassionless and a hateful despicable human being
How did these people come in San Francisco in the first place? Did they immigrate? Legally or illegally? One of the problem is when some these immigrants arrived in the airport, they already know where to go - they go an office in Chinratown and they are being processed to get Food Stamps and dole outs immediately. The relatives where they are supposed to get supported will not support them soon after they arrive, its just a laid out plan which they know as well. Taxpayers ends up supporting them instead of our veterans.
So many big houses, then second houses -summer houses, cottages etc and other people 6 of the live in 100 square feet - common on! What kind of bs is that ? How can we allow such discrepancies?! Shame on all of us!
most FOB are first landed in SF CT.....Later on when they work..work harder ,,saved up their money..and move out CT for a better lives better House.....
I think a lot of you are missing the point. People can choose to have children because to them they dont need to be wealthy to be happy. Maybe they came with promised better jobs or something and were left hanging and have no where to go you dont know her story. Dont you hear how bad she feels? She wasnt asking for hand outs
Whatever her story, they CHOSE to have one kid after another knowing there is no financial cushioning. You don’t end up THAT poor from one bad job offer. I will never understand why people who are struggling themselves keep having children.
If both of them are working im sure they can afford a better living environment. Why you want to rent such place in chinatown? Cos its in the city and the rent for sure much higher than other city. I guess the problem is from the parent and create such uncomfortable living condition to the kids.
They have dignity. This is only temporary. This great poverty was my late parents’ conditions. However, today, all 7 adult daughters own their own houses and shop lots, too, to rent. One sister bought my parents a massive house with 5 rooms and 3 bathrooms as soon as she made it. The house was too big for them! We used to have one bedroom for the whole family and one toilet was shared with many other families. So, one can never tell what happens 20 years later. Meantime they persevere diligently without complaint. Chinese people thankfully do not see themselves as entitled to self-pity or welfare, nor do they see themselves as victims. They believe that their future is far more decided by their day-to-day decisions and personal actions than by the circumstances in which they find themselves. They are dignified with self-respect and do not need unasked-for help or well intentioned advice. It is we (bystanders) who wish their suffering will end immediately for our own mental ease and for the avoidance of more discomfort for ourselves, as we (perhaps with unnecessary guilt) compare their situation to our own. Yet, this suffering is common and temporary - for now.
Eh, they have a roof over their head, food in their bellies and their kids are getting an education. Small spaces were the norm for most of history. In many countries families bigger than theirs are living in similar housing. I don’t know why people think the US is any different. Children are resilient and since they are Americans they will more than likely succeed and eventually move out of that place. People who say you shouldn’t have kids if you aren’t rich are very short sighted. Most people live about 70 years. Does it make sense to not exist because 18 of those 70 years is spent living in poverty??? Really? 70-18=52. I’m no mathematician, but 52 years is a lot of time to build a life you want for yourself. I’m glad my grandmother had 10 kids in poverty (my mom’s #6), or else I wouldn’t exist! I like existing!
Your comment is the best. I also think people who blame the immigrant parents (why don't they speak English?!?! why did they have so many kids?!?!) are super shortsighted. It's usually the generation that is born in the United States who do really well. Probably a combination of being able to speak English like a native, and the pressure of having parents who sacrificed everything for them. Failure is not an option - the only option is to succeed. That's what happened for me and my siblings. We were able to flip from poverty to top 10% within a single generation.
San Francisco has a serious rent issue. It's near impossible to afford rent here. And even with government assistant you can't even afford a SRO sometimes. If you pay taxes, you should be given reasonable resources. What the government offers is not enough for SF crazy inflation
"The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls . . . TENEMENT halls."--Sound of Silence, Simon and Garfunkel. This is how my mother and her 3 sisters were raised in Chinatown in the 1950s and '60s. I remember when visiting my maternal grandmother in her SRO I used to have to pee in the kitchen sink.
This is a common story... which is very dangerous and illegal. Government would fine the landlord for allowing this, yet do nothing to help this family find a secure place to live.
This is a very common living situation in China for countryside families who migrate to the Chinese cities to work. I suppose that’s why the parents would rather stay in US than go back?
At first.... I was over whelmed with confusion and sadness why on earth would this couple knowing they no home an unhealthy environment and no financial means continue to have children. Living on State Assistance ? This can't be a better life than they had in their own country or is it ??? This is the question I asked myself. How horrible was their life in their own country that they would come here to a country who can't even control it's own homeless, crime and government failure ? That's the part of the story I want to hear the voice of these humans who matter. We all matter.
San Francisco’s house is too expensive, living in San Francisco is more and more struggle for middle class, that’s why so many people or business is leaving San Francisco!
Hidden sadness in Chinatown, nothing new. So many offices empty, city should renovate to make some low cost housing for working people
They should seek help from the Taiwan government... notice the ROC flags.
@@peekaboopeekaboo1165 LMAO the Taiwan gov can't take care of themselves.
@peekaboopeekaboo1165 Taiwanese don't speak Cantonese, they speak Mandarin. These people come from Hong Kong.
@@lolcatjuniorNah, that Cantonese accent doesn't sound Hongkongnese, it doesn't even sound like it's from Guangzhou. I would say they are from a smaller city/town in China.
@@lolcatjuniorher Cantonese accent is not from Hong Kong. It’s from china most likely guangzoe or toysain
When we first moved to the US, we lived in small apartments. Took my parents 10 years to save up for a house. Now time is much harder for immigrants with rent being much higher and saving up for a house unattainable for most. Living in Chinatown is a first stop for many immigrants not speaking any English. It allows them to settle down in a familiar community. Once the kids are older and master more English, they can then move out to lower rent apartments outside Chinatown. Not easy but hopefully better step by step.
We Americans all feel that the Chinese are the richest most educated in this country and this docu is showing nope, not all of them.
She's still talking in Chinese which means she illegal IMO, because if she's been here long enough and has worked she would know English.
@@Chicago48 If you listen to the program, they have applied for housing and still waiting. If she is illegal, she could not apply for government benefits. And, no, a person could be in the US for 30 years and still not speak English if they stay within their own communities that only speak their languages.
We lived in Chinatown for 7 years, 7 years of hell and my father spoke English. Being immigrants is not easy.
Yea back in the day, the American Dream was possible. But not anymore. It’s the American Nightmare nowadays.
Didn't know ppl still took this route. Back in the days, many chinese left china bcoz of the political turmoil and famine. But now china is much better, albeit still with ccp but is it worth the huge gamble?
I pray God opens doors for your future
🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
🙏🙏🙏
Don't get it. Having 4 kids isn't helping with the financial situation.
Agree. If you're not financially stable, don't make kids. It's unfair to them.
agree
Someone told them to create more children so that the government makes the taxpayers pay for their living! It's communism in SF.
It seems like the 2 boys are twins, so maybe it wasn’t intentional to have 4 kids
@@hiendo63 They still have another 2 children
I hope this family, and many other hard working families, find homes that makes their lives more comfortable. They certainly deserve better living conditions.
Look like the conditions of living in HONGKONG
exactly
This is better than the conditions of the coffin apartments in Hong Kong...
@@transformer01but this is for a family, not a single person. There are exactly the same size places in Hk with 3-5 people living in it
Facts but the only difference is…in Hong Kong they have a toilet 🚽 in the middle of the shower 😂🤦♂️
Oh wow 😮 I can’t imagine living in a space that small let alone with my 4 kids and hubby!! These children deserve to have their own rooms to run and play and something they can call their own!! I certainly hope this family receives the Help and Support they so rightly need and deserves🙏🏽
why she decide to have 4 children when so poor ?
@@rick03168 maybe there were planning they would be wealthy once in the U.S.
Maybe shit happens in life!
Because god
@@PerfectoKiss Uh, no. This is 100% preventable. Ethnic Chinese can tell you that it's most likely that they are trying to have sons but were screwed over in their first 2 tries when they had girls lol!
They wanted a boy. In their case, oldest child - daughter, second oldest -daughter, finally a boy, but then got one more (spare boy)
It’s that $700 in most countries can get them a better place is always shocking to me when I look at homes. I recently watch a TH-camr in Korea who is only paying $500/ month for one bedroom with a living room, kitchen,etc that looks way better and bigger than a $2000 studio apartment in California😅
Exactly !! This makes no sense and then the kids have to suffer no one should be living like that
I pay $1,080/month on my mortgage for a 3 bed/2 bath house with a yard in Washington that I split with a friend. It's not a country thing it's a city thing. Some people choose to spend money on vacations/concerts/partying because that's what their city shoves down their throat of how to live a fulfilling life and some save up money to get a low mortgage rate.
Wow that's tiny. I have relatives that lived in SROs in Chinatown but their rooms were bigger. This is like those HK coffin apartments. Yikes!
@@SL-lz9jr based on their accent, they are most likely native Hong Kong. This is probably not unusual for them.
@@sdlock83 That is most definitely not a Hong Kong Cantonese accent.
So sad not sure why you would have so many children if you cannot provide for them.
It's the Chinese mentality of having kids to care for them when they get old. It's quite sad to put them through that.
This makes no sense ??? Why would you go to San Francisco out of all places and expect to prosper . They can go to other places and get a bigger place for 700 a month
True❤❤❤
Stupid trash they just want handouts and that shithole gives out plenty.
Because SF has the largest Chinatown in the US and thus a very high concentration of services catered towards Chinese people that are very amenable to working class, low educated Chinese migrants like this family
@@accordiongordon So they live there to get free stuff and then cry and whine when they don't get it. Useless scum don't even speak english or contribute at all.
Coz of language,they couldn't speak english
I feel sorry for the kids, but the parents should not have had four. It's been nine years. Some very poor choices were made here.
Feel the same way .. I have 3 kids and got separated of my husband .. he was like a bag in my shoulders, I became single mom and I’m doing way better with my 3 kids.. we aren’t rich but they have their privacy… and I’m back to school. Parents could take advantage of free school and after school program and learn the language .some people just take all these free resources for granted.🤷♀️
Why you judge people like that.
@@martinking4842 Because the parents' decision had a direct effect on the livelihoods of others. At some point people need to be held accountable for their actions.
@@kathyramos2924 as if you're not taking free resources
@@MrTweetyhack I don’t take the resources for granted if that’s what u ment 😂🤷♀️
Why would you have so many children if you are financially challenged? 2 is already enough regardless of 2 boys or 2 girls.
Yes I agree. They are just dumb.
Shut up
They should seek help fr the Taiwan government... notice the ROC flags.
Taiwan government is too poor now they have lost their TSMC semiconductor industry factories to USA and having to buy lots of expensive weapons to defend themselves. Besides when one is in US, one should help oneself - individualism and all. Expecting state handout is socialism.
Those kids better be killing it in school otherwise it wouldn’t be worth it
well they have to be the top 20,000 , how many college grads cant even get a job
This is why many asians do well. Esp first generation asians in sf. We have had to struggle to make our bread.
We experienced poverty first hand.
And then we face racism as they take standardized testing out of the equation because we are doing too well on them. Our efforts at education are worth nothing to you as we try to break out of poverty.
Most likely they will, Asian parents are very invested n their kids education, that come first.
That is why many think Asian are smarter, not necessarily, but their certainly are more determined to succeed n their education.
Respect to all this parents, I to raise my kids as a single mother, n a really bad neighborhood, not small place because was low income housing.
Determined to take them out of the hood, n they succeeded.
@@51colibri While the U.S. and the West subscribe to predominantly Judeo-Christian customs culture (has nothing to do with religion), East Asians go by Confucian customs and culture. One of the values is education attainment. And yes, it has nothing to do with biology... just culture and values.
To end up with no Job..
I lived in San Francisco, there is such richness there, and probably a lot of people that speak the same language as the mother, she is very expressive. I could tell them they could move to the midwest where I live, but things here are expensive too, not as expensive as San Francisco, but not many people she would be able to talk with very easily. I had a lot of fun squeezing into a small place with my friends there.... because there is always something to do, for free most of it! Everyone looks well fed and clean. That must have been awful to sit on stairs with Covid, and also sharing the bathroom must be awful too! Love to all of them!
I’m confused why they kept having kids in those environment. That is so messed up to put children in this situation. They didn’t ask to be her and live in these conditions but they brought them into this world KNOWING the conditions they’d be living in. So selfish. Smh
Well said!
Thank you !
This family qualifies for a lot of social programs. They need a social worker to advocate for them.
Not in California you can read whatever you want online but here are the facts. The waiting list are over 10 years. I been on the waiting list 18 years now. I have just given up on affordable housing.
they need birth control!
Why should hardworking taxpayers subsidize these people? They chose to have 4 children that they couldn't support. My tax dollars shouldn't go to supporting them.
@@carolr7823 This is why you need to do vote.
ARE they legal? I don't think so. I think she's illegal immigrant because she speaks Chinese and NOT English.
I will never feel sorry for people who have children when they cannot even take care of themselves. Ever heard of family planning?
Been there....done that. My parents immigrated to the US in 1964 with 3 kids ( I was 5, 3 and 1) and we lived in a 1BR apartment with grandparents, aunt and our own family of 5 for a total of 8 people. It was a tight fit but no one was complaining and we never took welfare. we lived on East Broadway in Manhattan's Chinatown and everyone did that so it was no big deal. The older girls remind me of ourselves....always doing HW whereever there was space but the HW always got done.
No handouts needed....my aunt went on to become a nurse and just recently retired. My younger became an mechanical engineer and my sister became an accountant. I myself was a bond and options trader in the mid 80's and had a nice career in the finance industry. So don't feel bad or any ill will towards this family in SF. Just looking at the girls working hard at their HW, I know they will thrive and succeed. The parents brought their kids here to give them a chance at a future in the US.
Lol 1980s is a different environment than the 2020s. Houses werent even $10,000 and a pack of gum is still less than 10 cents. Show some empathy here
Dun compare ur honeymoon days to real struggle
1964? Wtf. Great your family made it. We are in 2024.
Dude come on, you know a lot of jobs were done under the table and no taxes were taken out. Other people were funding your family public education. That's a handout.
Assistance programs exist to help because they know some situations are just ridiculously hard. They don't exist to make people feel bad for seeking and accepting the assistance.
The question is, how did she get 4 children in that cramp space. Why aren’t they using protection knowing they cannot afford a better living? 😮
Seems like despite living in a cramped SRO with 4 people, they wanted to have a boy, and end up from a bad situation to a worse situation with 6 people in said SRO...
They should seek help from the Taiwan government... notice the ROC flags.
@@peekaboopeekaboo1165where? They speak Cantonese which is southern China region towards Vietnam.
@@aznfriedrice415
Some HK off-shore island(s) are actually under ROC 🇹🇼 jurisdiction.
@@peekaboopeekaboo1165 Their Cantonese accent is very country like which they might speak Taishanese. That's only in the mainland china. HK Cantonese tends to use English filler words as result of British colonialism.
@@aznfriedrice415
That's no longer "Cantonese" but Hongkie Speak.
Hongkies who doesn't want to be part of China ...should just leave Hongkong for the NATO countries and Japan.
SF has generous benefits for those under privileged family especially with children. No worry about their situation.
the parents wanted something they couldn’t afford, and the kids suffered. the parents’ poor choices became society’s burden. i don’t feel sorry for the parents but i do feel bad for the kids.
For reals. There are so much other options but they choose this lifestyle
Yearning someone decided to have so many kids while the middle income family carefully planned to ensure they can provide enough to the kids. I would say it is their parents’ fault.
I live in Britain, born and bred, and I have never felt more privileged living in a council house after seeing this.
Lucky you. Council houses have been sold off by Thatcher and there are plenty of homeless people in the UK.
If you are in poverty, the kind thing to do is not drag innocent children into your situation, there is no law that forces you to have children.
Can’t imagine what’s doing laundry is like for them.
My mother, her best friend and her son and I all lived in a room at the Europa Hotel on Broadway and Columbus when I was younger. It's a very tough way to live with that many people in one room, especially without a private bathroom.
People will put up with any condition just to live in San Francisco…
The rent is just as high in Oakland, San Jose, and Berkeley.
Id live in a kind of crappy place in san francisco if it saved me money but theres a few no go things and sharing a toilet and shower with that many people is a big h*ll no
Why? It’s a shit hole
Have you been there? It’s like magic. I don’t know why.
well think about it, san francisco is where a good part of the demographic speak chinese and its got a long history of chinese immigration and resources. why would you move to an all white town when you cant even speak english and have no community etc
I feel very sad for their situation 🙏🏻sending blessings your way ❤️🦘🐨
Many people live like that in San Francisco. I attended law school in the tenderloin. I speak Spanish. I often spoke with Hispanic people around the area and I met many families who lived in tiny studios or one or two bedrooms, with 5+ people. Even multiple families living together in a one bedroom apartment. It’s sad.
And that’s why the CHINESE PEOPLE are always successful. They don’t complain, they just keep on pushing no matter what. Hats off to them from a Pacific Islander 💯💯
I hope they get successful and live a better quality of life..
Over forty years ago, in Hong Kong families used to have average eight family members live together in one bedroom. We used to live with all siblings, parents and even grandparents. I think situation will change if they work hard and earn decent money in order to move out from the SF Chinatown.
Reminds me when our family of 6 used to wait for military housing a month at a time in a small hotel with a community kitchen. It was hard, but we got thru it. Sometimes, we were living in a roach infested hotel.
Fake? My father and 5 siblings born and lived in Chinatown with their 2 parents in 1930s. Not even food stamps. They had 2 rooms: bedroom barely fit 2 beds (literally that was it) and another living space. No fridge, put the milk on the outside ledge, rats on same ledge. They all made it out of Chinatown, bought a building for grandma, have 16 cousins. Not all of us got straight A’s, but we’re doing pretty well. This family will be ok.
That's how new immigrants lived in NYC and elsewhere back in the day too . Now since no one remembers they think all the white folks arrived here on Yachts .
They came in a box
@@JasperTomo They lived in them when they got here that's for sure . The tenements they worked themselves out of to give their kids what they never had themselves . No welfare , no Unemployment , no Medicare , No Social Security . Work or don't eat . Lest we forget or don't know .
I remember living in a studio apartment in Washington DC with My parents and my sister in 1990 we were in our twenty. Today, both my sister and I are in late 50s - we both have BS and MS in Computer Science from UDC & GWU and own our homes - I'm in Potamac MD and my sister in Northen VA. We both able to retire early and enjoying our life. Work hard and a little bit of luck, anyone can make it in this country.
Many families live like this in SF not just in Chinatown. Rents are very high so if you want more space, you pay high premium for it.
Atleast they’re all together! I hope they get a bigger place soon
Maybe the family will have better luck in Iowa or Nebraska?
The reason they stayed in Chinatown is they refuse to learn English.
How are we sending billions to other countries when our people live like this?
I have a friend that lived like this for years, but managed to buy a house full cash later on.
Dont bring kids into the world, if u cant afford them. They r expensive
This is 1 step up from living in an RV.
SF definitely needs to build more affordable housing. Rent is too damn high. The cost to the SFHA for this family’s new home is likely close to $36k per year because a market rate 4 bedroom house in Nob Hill likely rents for around $4k+. If rent was lower, they could’ve helped more families with that money.
$700 for 100sq ft and shared bathroom?!! They are getting robbed! There are dorms bigger than that. I guess San Fran is expensive, but anywhere else they could get more bang for their buck. They choose to stay living where they are.
Wait 4 kids!
@@Datruthdacode Dumb parents. They are an embarrassment to ethnic Chinese everywhere.
after watching this; you know what, I have nothing to complain about.
700 $ per month for this tiny room?? That's too much! Goodness!🤔😲😲
If they had 1 or 2 kids on accident I'd feel bad, but after 3 you have to ask yourself if your being a responsible person or not. Average cost of a vasectomy in the USA is only $1,000 which is definitely cheaper than the monthly expenses for a single child these days. To think they had a whole 3 kids living in a SINGLE ROOM and still had time/space to make a baby is absolutely absurd.
Wait what the hell?? Clicking on this, my first thought was “how selfish to have FOUR kids who have to live this way” and then I said to myself “nah, ur too judgemental, they probably fell on hard times and used to have it better” and I see it’s 9 years here?? And these kids are all younger than that?? Wtf?? They CHOSE to bring 4 children into this??
They didn't CHOOSE, okay? We're talking about people who are impoverished and family planning isn't something they're mindful of. Judge not lest ye be judged.
If their parents worked in the restaurants, then it's likely that times were better for them until the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
So? Poor people can have a big family. There’s nothing wrong with it. Most people in this big world have to get by on very little. Life is hard and unfair.
It would be more difficult to have more kids in such a small space. We only had two kids, because we know how expensive it is to have children. We wanted to be able to provide for them.
Poor people can't have kids.
Do you hear yourself? Those 4 kids are going to be more successful under these situations than a rich kid will ever be. Those 4 kids have tasted the hard life and will try their best in schools. Can you say the same for your rich kid who lived a life of comfort?
As bad as they have it living in a single room, they are still way ahead from the people living in China and even HK. Moreover, the fact that they are poor now, does not mean they will be poor tomorrow. The kids will find their way out of poverty (conditions at the end of the text).
These kids already have an advantage over me when when I was 20 and arrived to the US as a foreign student......
....These kids are US citizens.
Yes, they are poor. But compared to the poor in China, HK, Indonesia, the Philippines, Honduras, Venezuela, Guatemala or Haiti (which is lately in the news a lot). They are doing great. They got shoes and they are not missing any meals.
This is a good example of how times change.
The usual criticism of having kids while poor no longer apply, especially in the US. We are in a time when having kids is a benefit to the country, even when it is hard on the individual family.
If anything, this should shed light in the current unfair situation when we are busing and moving illegal immigrants/refugees/asylum seekers around the country, housing them and feeding them and yet we see families like this being forgotten by the system. We are taking care and providing assistance to "new border crossers" and forgetting families like this one.
Realize this:
This is a GOOD FAMILY, from the little we saw and know, they are TOGETHER. MOM and DAD are at home. Maybe only Dad works, but he is working. Kids are at home. Just by this they are already ahead of 50% of the families in the US. We saw the kids doing homework, sitting side by side, the mother crying for her kids' situation. Do we think there is a lack of love?
So as long as these kids don't go gang banging, so as long as the husband does not go gambling or whoring, so as long as the kids go get or get anybody pregnant, so as long the kids stay in school and away from drugs and as long as there is love....
...They will be fine...they are way ahead from many families (in the US and otherwise).
How do you know the parents came here legally? They could be smuggled by "snake heads". They could "jump ashore" from ship. They could overstay their visa. By the way, these days many "new border crossers" are from China.
@@sidneychan1372 Most likely they overstayed their visa. If the immigrant has no skilled/professional job, isn’t sponsored to come in by an American relative, isn’t adopted or didn’t marry an American chances are they did not come in legally. My family come in legally via in demand skilled work, both parents had to prove their English fluency, had to do certain tests and the housing we got wasn’t the best at the time but at least it was not in this condition.
@@sidneychan1372 I don't know if they came legally and actually don't care...
...For the lack of English and the low job skills, I would guess they didn't come here via Tech work visa.
But that is not important anymore. What we do know is that they got 4 US citizen kids who will probably have a better life than their parents did.
The dad is working, he is not kicking around waiting for his welfare check. We don't see the kids loitering at the park or some parking lot waiting to score a quick buck.
Yes, the US could easily select the best STEM students currently in American universities (or even those who are not) and give them green card and that could help the country very much...
...But these kind of immigrants, those who risk life and limb to get here and WORK (not just wait for government assistance) are the type of immigrants that add to this country.
A time will come when this family and especially those kids WILL NOT be a public charge/burden.
@@robertopang4240 You specifically made this point "this should shed light in the current unfair situation when we are busing and moving illegal immigrants/refugees/asylum seekers around the country, housing them and feeding them and yet we see families like this being forgotten by the system" and now you say "I don't know if they came legally and actually don't care." That's called talking from both sides of your mouth. And just so that you know, this family later got section 8, which is welfare for housing from the State of California. Moreover, many illegal migrants including the ones you despise often give birth to US citizen kids who will probably have a better life than their parents did.
@@sidneychan1372 Wait, you are assuming too much of me. I don't have any problems at all with immigrants, even illegal ones. SO AS LONG as they come to WORK (as opposed to just being a charge on society or have their kids gang bang and become criminals).
I know plenty of good people who jumped the border and without knowing the language got into a bus and ended up in Chicago painting houses or putting up roofing and/or drywall. For them, nothing but respect and admiration. A country made of people like this won't go stagnant or complacent.
What I do have a problem with, is with the current DEFAULT Open Border policy where people with no skills or desire to work are crossing the border and turning themselves in to authorities with the hope of food, lodging and becoming long term charges for the State. This is another kind of people and mentality.
Yes, I am aware that these family got Section 8, I got no problem with it, as we can see that they are a united family and it is worth to assist them. Do you think they will remain a charge to the State for two generations? Do you think the daughters will get pregnant and the sons will be absentee fathers? I don't.....
...Yet, I see plenty of US citizens getting pregnant before marriage and men being absentee fathers. THAT I have a problem with, immigrant or native born (and they never leave the welfare system).
And the point still remains:
We got plenty of families in need of help already here. We don't need to prioritize this new (and different) crop of immigrants over the ones that are already here.
In fact, I think all the assistance just makes it worse. In the past, if people were not able to make it, if they didn't have family or friends to (temporary) help out, they would just leave. Now we make it easy to get in and very hard to leave as most if not all needs are taken care of, by the State.
so why did she think it was a good idea to pop out FOUR children when she has no room for them to live in!?
Yup. my ex gf and I are nurses in sf. we make over 300k a year. we didnt even dare to have kids.
I waited to have a child until i could afford 1, just 1. She's LUCKY she had 4 kids. Im jealous.
Ohh wow. I think that was my husband’s family story when they first moved to Michigan back in the 70s, 3 kids and all. Though I think was a bigger apartment due to Mi In general is cheaper and has more space. My parents in law worked so hard to buy a house and a restaurant. I honestly can’t imaging the challenges. 😢
So many children they can not support 🤬🤬🤬🤬
Such a sad situation. But since I'm a horrible person what popped into my mind was if a child is bad you point to the corner and say "Go to your room!" Also, no worries that your daughter will sneak out at night to meet her boyfriend.
in my town , 700 usd a month can get you 2 floors, carpatk, garden and washing space upstairs.
What town do you live in, if you don't mind me asking?
When something becomes the norm in life and it is something that you cannot really change or control, you become used to it and even comfortable with it over time. You'll be surprised at just how many people are living in these conditions or working long hours in poor paying jobs and have no incentives or motivation to change.
The only reason i can think why both parent not working and get a proper small apartment just for them is maybe staying there can get their chance to get government housing.
Im asian living in sydney. I have few friends that would letting themselves live in refuge with their kids in order to get centrelink and housing by governement. Im not disagree, they can choose that way but somehow i was thinking this kinda attitude will hurt the kid's in resilience. When people receive centrelink they never push themselves to work and earn hard money. Its like beggar. But thats my theory. And not all people like this.
I agree. They live in a very liberal jurisdiction. Liberals want poor people to STAY poor and be fully reliant on the government.
Hard working people living in poverty, while here in L.A. they provide apartments for the homeless......
Wtf. This happens in Chinatown America???
US Chinatowns have worse living standards than poor villages in China. They are relics from the past, unchanged in the last 100 years. Actually worse off than they were since the buildings are aging and go unmaintained
Yes I have seen them. My grandfather loved in one. I am in San Francisco
@@LeechUFC Better to be in China?
@@LeechUFC that's why we studied so hard! to get out of these shitholes....lol
@@LeechUFC Illegals tons of them.
I am shocked why she has four if she cant support them why not to go to Modesto Or Tracy
that's what struck me, too. they'd been there for nine years, but that youngest boy was born living there. why would you bring ANOTHER kid into that situation?
Probs because she can't speak English. How many ChinaTowns are there in the central valley?
there is no support system in Modesto/ Tracy/ Stockton. There is a Cambodian community, but not really one for folks of Chinese descent.
Move back to China you fools! China is amazing these days. I am there regularly when not in Bay Area and will be retiring there with my Chinese wife in a few years. The American dream - you gotta be asleep to believe it!!!!
@@warrenleezyThe rent of a house in the Central Valley is about what an SRO costs in San Francisco.
Mixed feelings for this case. Happy that their situation did improve - they were moved to a very nice 4-bedroom apartment and need only pay 30% of their income for that. But i have questions - what kind of immigrants were they, the type that 1) comes to make it, or the type that 2) just comes. During their 9 years in the SRO, what did they do to improve their situation? How did they fight for a better life? What led them to come to the US at all if they would suffer so much being here, what was their goal? Was their immigration thesis simply to just come and accept a life of poverty because it would at least be better than life in their hometown? 9 years after arriving, has not much has changed (in terms of skills, job, opportunities, income, english), except that they have more kids? Have they really tried and failed for 9 years, or did they not try the way some other immigrants would? If they were the kind of immigrants whose goal was to simply arrive and tread water while hoping for the best, that doesn't make them bad people. But I think that other types of immigrants, the types that have the fight in them, should have higher priority for receiving assistance and rewards. I am happy to see this mother smile in the video about her new home, but I wonder if immigrants like them will endlessly continue to come and suffer, in part encouraged by the benefits received by this family and other families like it - awarding benefits to them creates this distortion in the calculus of whether to immigrate. All of that said, I understand how urgent it is to get those kids into a better living situation, and i am still glad to see that these kids will grow up in comfort. Again, mixed feelings.
I appreciate your comment and thoughts, as I had many of the same. I know that it's 2023 and the world is different than in 1970 when my parents came from HK (with my Bro; I wasn't born yet). They lived in one of those same SF Chinatown apartments with my Grandma. Back then, my Dad couldn't find work to match his skillset in SF, so he got the hook up from friends out of state for work there. So the family was separated for three years till he saved enough $$$ and sent for my Mom and Bro to where he was, eventually saving enough $$$ for a house where I was born in. My late Dad was super frugal and I resented him at times growing up for how cheap he was, but that's how my Bro and I never had to struggle or even borrow money for college. My Dad and Mom would be the example of those with the fight in them that you referred to. And all of them from their generation were like that. Let me not be insensitive because I know nothing of the modern day Chinese immigrant, but I too wondered, "What in the world have they been doing for the last 9 years?!" Haven't been able to save anything all this time to try to get out of SF (which I know is very $$$)?
Nobody gives an f about your mixed feelings.
based on my poor understanding of dialects, possibly from the more rural areas guangxi or guangdong. possibly hong kong. if you look at cost of living vs income, the most affordable city in the US is about 3x better than san fran. that being said, san fran is still 6x more affordable than hong kong. well... you've had 3 months to think about your comment and feelings. I wonder if in that time you constantly held yourself to the same standard of "having the fight in them". something unintuitive to American's is the idea of an objectively classist society, where regardless of how hard you work in that situation, you will never be able to move more than a couple rungs up the ladder. in my experience, asians are the least vocal of their adversity here.... and i think therefore the least well understood. I wonder what had to be sacrificed in-order for them to get over here, and what debts they have had to repay. usually im pretty conservative about immigration, but to be here for 9 yrs... there has to have been several factors stacked against them. A recent movie which changed my perspective is called "everything everywhere all at once." i think its worth watching if you were never able to reconcile your mixed feelings.
I'm always puzzled, when people question other people's migratory movements around the world --- from the Stone Age to 2024, to see safety, foods, opportunities, freedom, etc ---- but they never question their own movements or the movements of their parents, grandparents, and ancestors.
It's such bizarre logic people use. It's always OTHERS who are X, Y, or Z but never they themselves... as if they or their own family/ancestors dropped straight down from the sky to be where they are!
I am especially oddly incensed, when Asians, Blacks, Latinos, Jews, and others ---- who or whose parents or ancestors having come, having face HORRIBLE treatments and racism ---- are banding with Conservative White Christians (the most kind, tolerant, moral, ethical, gentle, tolerant, and God loving human beings on earth) to tell other Asians, Blacks, Jews, Latinos et al NOT to dream of coming to America...
Again, human migratory across and around the world... to seek more or better foods, more and better shelter, more bountiful hunting or farming lands, etc.... didn't just start during Obama or Biden's terms at the White House.
Our species has been doing since we WERE STILL primitive, small groups in Africa.
Many of our ancestors and other closely related human groups, from Africa, started trekking out of that continent a few million years ago (with our immediate homo sapiens sapiens) being the last one, 50,000 to 100,000 years ago.
We are NOT about to stop doing that, just because a few crazy, Flat Earth Christian Conservative say so.... Or just because you put some imaginary lines around plots of lands... even with some fences or concrete walls.... and that is especially true when the people NORTH OF THE EQUATOR have been digging up and using so much more of the earth's heat-trapping molecular compounds, changing the climate in such a rapid rate... so that the poorer people around the equator are finding it harder and harder, in each successive generation, to fish, to farm, and to find liveable places....
The stupidity, greedy, and viciousness of some homo sapiens never cease to impress me!
Nine years in the US and she still doesn't speak a word of english.
And has a bunch of kids
Why get so many kids??? And living in one of the most expensive city in cali? 😂😂😂
Work harder ! To make your dreams come true don’t rely on anyone that’s the American way!
No one wants to talk about illegals taking up rental housing that would normally be available for LEGAL immagrants. SF is a Sanctuary City, so this family has to compete with illegals for that. I've seen rentals that should be for families like this rented instead to a bunch of men who split the rent, wreck the place, and take up the housing stock.
It's not illegals (noone is illegal unless their asylum is rejected international law so that a right wing LIE and thats obtuse and ridiculous that theyre taking places.It's Blackrock that have scooped up everywhere and sent rents sky high also across the country they use a comparison software to stay competitive and fix prices between big equity landlords. Get real find Christ or stay ignorant hard and compassionless and a hateful despicable human being
Blackrock and others swt rhe prices. Theres no illegals unless their asylum has been rejected. Mr anti God anti of Christ.
How did these people come in San Francisco in the first place? Did they immigrate? Legally or illegally? One of the problem is when some these immigrants arrived in the airport, they already know where to go - they go an office in Chinratown and they are being processed to get Food Stamps and dole outs immediately. The relatives where they are supposed to get supported will not support them soon after they arrive, its just a laid out plan which they know as well. Taxpayers ends up supporting them instead of our veterans.
Hon, I know people living like this in Sacramento, Stockton, Vallejo, Martinez, etc. etc. This is the United States today. Not for all, but for some.
So many big houses, then second houses -summer houses, cottages etc and other people 6 of the live in 100 square feet - common on! What kind of bs is that ? How can we allow such discrepancies?! Shame on all of us!
most FOB are first landed in SF CT.....Later on when they work..work harder ,,saved up their money..and move out CT for a better lives better House.....
I think a lot of you are missing the point. People can choose to have children because to them they dont need to be wealthy to be happy. Maybe they came with promised better jobs or something and were left hanging and have no where to go you dont know her story. Dont you hear how bad she feels? She wasnt asking for hand outs
Whatever her story, they CHOSE to have one kid after another knowing there is no financial cushioning. You don’t end up THAT poor from one bad job offer. I will never understand why people who are struggling themselves keep having children.
If both of them are working im sure they can afford a better living environment. Why you want to rent such place in chinatown? Cos its in the city and the rent for sure much higher than other city. I guess the problem is from the parent and create such uncomfortable living condition to the kids.
If you move to Alabama where I live, you can live in spacious 2 bedroom apartment for $700.
They have dignity. This is only temporary. This great poverty was my late parents’ conditions.
However, today, all 7 adult daughters own their own houses and shop lots, too, to rent. One sister bought my parents a massive house with 5 rooms and 3 bathrooms as soon as she made it. The house was too big for them! We used to have one bedroom for the whole family and one toilet was shared with many other families.
So, one can never tell what happens 20 years later. Meantime they persevere diligently without complaint.
Chinese people thankfully do not see themselves as entitled to self-pity or welfare, nor do they see themselves as victims.
They believe that their future is far more decided by their day-to-day decisions and personal actions than by the circumstances in which they find themselves.
They are dignified with self-respect and do not need unasked-for help or well intentioned advice.
It is we (bystanders) who wish their suffering will end immediately for our own mental ease and for the avoidance of more discomfort for ourselves, as we (perhaps with unnecessary guilt) compare their situation to our own. Yet, this suffering is common and temporary - for now.
Why can they move to different states where have works?? Different states where also have public housing for low income families.
Eh, they have a roof over their head, food in their bellies and their kids are getting an education. Small spaces were the norm for most of history. In many countries families bigger than theirs are living in similar housing. I don’t know why people think the US is any different. Children are resilient and since they are Americans they will more than likely succeed and eventually move out of that place. People who say you shouldn’t have kids if you aren’t rich are very short sighted. Most people live about 70 years. Does it make sense to not exist because 18 of those 70 years is spent living in poverty??? Really? 70-18=52. I’m no mathematician, but 52 years is a lot of time to build a life you want for yourself. I’m glad my grandmother had 10 kids in poverty (my mom’s #6), or else I wouldn’t exist! I like existing!
Your comment is the best. I also think people who blame the immigrant parents (why don't they speak English?!?! why did they have so many kids?!?!) are super shortsighted. It's usually the generation that is born in the United States who do really well. Probably a combination of being able to speak English like a native, and the pressure of having parents who sacrificed everything for them. Failure is not an option - the only option is to succeed. That's what happened for me and my siblings. We were able to flip from poverty to top 10% within a single generation.
San Francisco has a serious rent issue. It's near impossible to afford rent here. And even with government assistant you can't even afford a SRO sometimes. If you pay taxes, you should be given reasonable resources. What the government offers is not enough for SF crazy inflation
"The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls . . . TENEMENT halls."--Sound of Silence, Simon and Garfunkel. This is how my mother and her 3 sisters were raised in Chinatown in the 1950s and '60s. I remember when visiting my maternal grandmother in her SRO I used to have to pee in the kitchen sink.
Where and how to find these single room occupancy? For $700/mo, I want to go live there.
700 for an SRO? Its illegal to have that many people in a room .OMG
That older daughter will go to a university and return home to buy her parents a home someday.
This is a common story... which is very dangerous and illegal. Government would fine the landlord for allowing this, yet do nothing to help this family find a secure place to live.
They still managed to have 4 children even with small shared space & zero privacy
This is a very common living situation in China for countryside families who migrate to the Chinese cities to work. I suppose that’s why the parents would rather stay in US than go back?
This is so horrific. I hope they moved to at least a 2 bedroom apt present day
Remembered My Previous Hometown Minhang Shanghai
Used lived in Chinatown 1987-1990
0:40 That’s some funny sounding Cantonese 😂😂
At first.... I was over whelmed with confusion and sadness why on earth would this couple knowing they no home an unhealthy environment and no financial means continue to have children. Living on State Assistance ? This can't be a better life than they had in their own country or is it ??? This is the question I asked myself. How horrible was their life in their own country that they would come here to a country who can't even control it's own homeless, crime and government failure ? That's the part of the story I want to hear the voice of these humans who matter. We all matter.
I'm so sorry. Wish u luck n prosperity.
damn, i wouldn't have so many kids if im in 100sqft of space. i mean even if you had 2000 sqft house. it wouldn't house 100 people
Don't have 5 children. It's a choice.
do they work? they seem capable of working? how much do they earn a month? only 800? isn't there a minimum wage in san fran????????
San Francisco’s house is too expensive, living in San Francisco is more and more struggle for middle class, that’s why so many people or business is leaving San Francisco!
My question is if they know they don't have the ability to take care of so many kids why couldn't they think of family planning. This is not right.
the couple can barely feed themselves but have 4 kids. i think it's a form of child abuse. i don't feel sorry for the parents but for the kids.
They should seek help from the Taiwan government... notice the ROC flags.
They need kids to support the parents in the future
@@peekaboopeekaboo1165they are from Hong Kong. Not Taiwan.
@@Slla-th5vt
There's island near HK that's under ROC 🇹🇼 jurisdiction.
@@peekaboopeekaboo1165 They are from Hong Kong. Stop spreading ignorance. You must be with the Chinese Communist Party.
So who's bright idea was it to put loud music over the narrator and the people speaking. why the need for music in any way?