There is a moment – familiar to too many families in the Bay Area right now – when ordinary life suddenly stops. A landlord posts an eviction notice. The food pantry becomes thin. Sudden changes to one’s citizenship status makes paying off debt impossible. Stand Together Bay Area is a community-funded lifeline that exists to ensure immigrant families facing crisis do not have to weather it alone. For the families below, the Stand Together Bay Area Fund has been the thread that kept the safety net from giving way:
One Phone Call Kept a Family Housed
In San Rafael, Elena* stared down an eviction notice at the same moment she was navigating the demands of caring for her disabled son as a single mother. Following her spouse’s deportation, she faced eviction from her home, and with limited income and no eligibility for federal safety-net programs; she had nowhere left to turn. When she reached out to Canal Alliance, they were able to provide her with emergency assistance because of Stand Together Bay Area, demonstrating the fund’s essential role in addressing gaps created by federal policy. The funds kept her housed. The connection kept her supported.
You Are Not Alone
In Oakland, Luis and Carmen, an undocumented couple with six children, spent 24 years building a full life in the United States. Since November 2025, Luis had been out of work. His wife, Carmen, now the family’s sole earner, carried everything on her own. When seeking resources to help refill a thinning pantry, she learned about Stand Together Bay Area Fund recipient Faith in Action East Bay and reached out for support. As a result, she received $500 in emergency assistance and a food pantry box delivered through a network of faith communities supporting immigrants too frightened to leave their homes. When she opened the box, she found a handwritten note: “You are not alone.” Carmen said, “It comforts me to know that there are people who show love for their neighbors.” For some, a bag of groceries is just another small expense. For others, like Carmen, that box – and that note – were proof that her community was standing with her and her family.
A Family That Refused to Unravel
In San Francisco, the Melnyks, a Ukrainian family of five – including a child with a disability – found themselves facing a crisis manufactured entirely by immigration policy. Under the 2025 reconciliation bill, the Department of Homeland Security began charging a new fee of $1,000 per person for immigrants to renew their temporary permission to remain in the U.S. That meant the family owed more than $5,000 in required government fees just to keep their lawful status. With an already limited income stretched across a two-bedroom apartment for five people, they had no path to pay. Refugee & Immigrant Transitions distributed $2,000 from Stand Together Bay Area funding to help the family cover a portion of those fees and keep up with basic living expenses. For the Melnyks, this support meant they didn’t have to choose between legal status and groceries.
The Thread that Holds
By design, a safety net is meant to be invisible; you only notice it when you fall. What the Stand Together Bay Area Fund has built is something more active than that: a community that watches, responds, and extends a hand to catch families before they hit the ground. Since launching, the fund has provided emergency assistance to households across Alameda, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Marin counties – for rent, legal fees, utility bills, groceries, and the basic costs of staying afloat in one of the most expensive regions in the country during one of the most difficult policy environments immigrant families have faced in decades.
The families at the center of these stories did not ask for much. They asked for stability. For a roof while a husband came home. For groceries and a reminder that someone cared. Your support makes it possible to respond with urgency, care, and ease.
Give to the Stand Together Bay Area Fund today.
* All names in this article have been changed to protect privacy.
