Support for LAist comes from
Made of L.A.
Stay Connected

Share This

News

15 To An Apartment Isn't Social Distancing — But It's Life For Some Chinese Immigrants

With not much closet space tenants at Chinese immigrant boarding houses often hang their clothes above their beds. Chava Sanchez/ LAist
Our June member drive is live: protect this resource!
Right now, we need your help during our short June member drive to keep the local news you read here every day going. This has been a challenging year, but with your help, we can get one step closer to closing our budget gap. Today, put a dollar value on the trustworthy reporting you rely on all year long. We can't hold those in power accountable and uplift voices from the community without your partnership.

Last week, LAist published my investigation of overcrowded Chinese “boarding houses” (also known as “family motels”) in the San Gabriel Valley. Yesterday, I caught up with a few of my sources.

There are hundreds of these places, where newly arrived Chinese immigrants are packed into apartments, condos, and garage conversions — and by many, I mean 10, 15, even more.

Chunsheng Zhang, a construction worker, told me that someone at his boarding house was sick with a fever but refused to go to the hospital. Zhang said he was terrified, and left the city.

And city officials can’t do much about it.

Support for LAist comes from

READ MORE:

MORE ON CORONAVIRUS:

Most Read