Housing Rights

Arianna Cook-Thajudeen is a staff attorney with the Housing Rights Program at Advancing Justice–ALC. In her previous role at the National Housing Law Project (NHLP), Arianna was a legal fellow focusing on the housing rights of immigrants. Her fellowship project centered on the intersection between immigrant rights, the housing protections under the Violence Against Women Act, and the impact of nuisance and crime-free ordinances on marginalized groups of people. While in law school, she externed at Indiana Legal Services and was a summer clerk at NHLP during her fellowship from the Center for Civil and Human Rights. Arianna graduated from Vassar College in 2011 and Notre Dame Law School in 2018.

Flora Kuang is the Community Advocate for the Housing Rights program at Advancing Justice- Asian Law Caucus. She supports the Housing Rights program including provide assistance for the program’s legal cases, coordinate the program’s legal counseling clinic and also works on “Know Your Rights” trainings and materials to educate tenants on their rights. As a new immigrant lives in San Francisco, Flora understands the difficulties that many low-income and limited-English proficient tenants face, such as evictions, unlawful rent increase and landlord bullying and harassment. She has the passion to protect tenants’ rights and empower the community. Flora speaks English, fluent in Cantonese, Mandarin and Toishanese. Flora was born in China and came to U.S. in 2014, she graduated from California State University, East Bay with a Master degree in Public Administration.

Lolita Fernandes is Staff Attorney and Program Manager of the Housing Rights program at ALC. Prior to joining ALC, Lolita worked at Bay Area Legal Aid as a Senior Staff Attorney in their Housing Preservation team that focused on the representation of subsidized housing tenants in unlawful detainer actions and administrative hearings. Lolita has provided trainings for law students, attorneys and housing providers in topics like eviction defense, and VAWA protections for survivors.

Lolita began her legal education in India and immigrated to the United States in 2010 and completed her LL.M. at the University of Southern California. Lolita then served several years as volunteer counsel with legal aid nonprofits before joining the Eviction Defense Collaborative as a Staff Attorney. She received the 2012 volunteer of the year award from Eviction Defense Collaborative and the 2016 pro-bono attorney of the year award from the California State Bar for providing direct legal services to low-income tenants in SF.

Sallie Lin is a Senior Community Advocate for the Housing Rights Program at Advancing Justice—Asian Law Caucus. She spent the past four years overseas learning about the history, culture, and transformation of China and taught migrant children in rural Beijing as a volunteer instructor. Before relocation, Sallie contributed to the successful implementation of California’s first countywide mailed ballot election in the San Mateo County Registration and Elections Division and utilized her fluency in Mandarin, Cantonese, and Teo-chew to better serve Chinese voters. She is committed to social justice and public service and has incorporated this passion into her work at the United Nations, International Bridges to Justice, and Advancing Justice affiliates in Los Angeles and Washington, DC. Sallie holds an ML in International Relations from Peking University and a BA in Political Science from UCLA.

Tiffany Hickey is a staff attorney with the Housing Rights program at Advancing Justice–Asian Law Caucus. Tiffany joined ALC amid the COVID-19 pandemic, advocating for tenants’ rights and stronger protections against further displacement of the most vulnerable members of the community.

Prior to joining ALC, Tiffany represented subsidized housing tenants and SSI/SSDI claimants at Bay Area Legal Aid. She was actively involved in housing policy advocacy at local, state, and federal levels. Additionally she coordinated the law clerk program – creating training programs and supporting the supervision of law students in all practice areas.

Tiffany has been a passionate advocate for social justice before and during her legal career. She graduated from the University Of San Francisco School Of Law in 2013 and the Catholic Institute for Lasallian Social Action at Saint Mary’s College of California awarded her the Engaged SMC Alumnus Award in 2015. During law school, Tiffany advocated for the rights of children in detention through a position with UNICEF in the Kingdom of Cambodia and acted as Executive Editor of a social justice law journal.