Biography
Yesica Prado is a multimedia journalist and works best with photography, video, audio, and long-form writing. She is a first-generation Mexican immigrant from Nezahualcoyotl, Mexico. At the age of nine, Prado immigrated with her family to the United States. She was raised in Southside Chicago as an undocumented student. Before turning 21, Prado was granted a U-Visa and took advantage of her new opportunity, expanding her borders to seek a journalism degree.
Prado has a master’s in journalism from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, and a bachelor’s of fine art in photography from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Prado focuses her reporting on issues that limit people's access to land such as poverty, immigration, homelessness, climate change, and indigenous communities. Prado’s photography has been published in the Los Angeles Times, HuffPost and KQED.
Project Proposal | Home is Where Your Heart is
Many Bay Area cities are facing a rise in homelessness, prompting legislators to respond with new regulations. Yet, it is unclear whether policymakers are getting adequate buy-in from all stakeholders, and they might be putting more obstacles before unhoused residents.
One of the highest-profile forums for these regulations is in the realm of vehicular living. Many cities are following examples from cities that first enacted them like San Diego and Los Angeles. But is banning a person’s way of life an effective solution to the Bay Area’s intertwined housing and homelessness crises?
When vehicular residents are dislodged, where do they go?
I will attempt to answer these questions through this photojournalism project. As someone who lives in her vehicle, and with editing and management from the San Francisco Public Press, I will document the culture of vehicle living, shedding light on the hardships and the community teamwork of street life.
NEWSROOM PARTNER: SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC PRESS
The San Francisco Public Press is a local nonprofit, noncommercial news organization that does for print and web journalism what public broadcasting has done for radio and television. Through our website and quarterly newspaper, and partnerships with other public media and civic groups, we report on local issues including environment, education, housing, homelessness, labor and elections, and frequently host public events. Since 2009 we have established a reputation in the community for producing high-impact in-depth reporting projects on a wide range of topics, explaining complex local policy issues in an accessible way, investigating problems and reporting on ideas for tangible solutions.