Laura Ospina
Staff Reporter
Laura.ospina@yale.edu
Laura Ospina covers Yale-New Haven relations and the Latine community for the City desk. Originally from North Carolina's Research Triangle, she is a sophomore in Branford College majoring in Political Science.
Author Archive
LAURA OSPINA
Yale Community Kitchen faces funding shortage, concerns over long-term viability 

The head coordinators for the student service organization, which provides dinner for hundreds of New Haven residents every weekend, said that rising costs and a lack of avenues to increase Yale funding may hinder the organization’s 20-year history of serving the New Haven community.

March 8, 2024

LAURA OSPINA
Landlord-boss attempts second eviction of migrant workers, contests work compensation as activists mount pressure

MDF Painting & Power Washing sent Edgar Becerra and Josue Mauricio Arana their second eviction notices on Feb. 11. Unidad Latina en Acción has denounced the company for exploitation in weekly protests.

March 1, 2024

BENJAMIN HERNANDEZ & LAURA OSPINA
Yale to begin design for High Street pedestrianization

The University plans to start redesigning the street in the spring, though some New Haven residents have expressed concerns over Yale’s role in the new project.

February 16, 2024

MAGGIE GRETHER & LAURA OSPINA
Court blocks eviction of migrant workers by boss-landlord

Edgar Becerra, a migrant worker from Guatemala, will remain at 200 Peck St. as he awaits his pending workers’ compensation complaint against his employer MDF Painting & Power Washing.

February 8, 2024

ESMA OKUTAN & LAURA OSPINA
Graduate students reflect on new union contract

After Local 33 UNITE HERE ratified its first contract with the University last December, graduate workers are celebrating affordable insurance plans and pay raises.

February 6, 2024

LAURA OSPINA
Yale Office of New Haven Affairs ushers in new leadership

After 13 years, Lauren Zucker, associate vice president for New Haven Affairs and University Properties, retired on Thursday. Alexandra Daum, with a background in state development and New Haven real estate, assumes the lead on town-gown relations.

February 5, 2024

LAURA OSPINA
Yale to send non-Yale tenants packing from Broadway apartments

After purchasing 59 Broadway in November, Yale will give non-Yale affiliated tenants one year to vacate their apartments. Current tenants have amassed almost 600 signatures in protest.

January 24, 2024

LAURA OSPINA
Labor leaders and elected officials celebrate Local 33 contract at MLK Day event

New Haven Rising, a grassroots labor organization, honored Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy of economic justice at their annual event, highlighting labor wins on a local and national scale.

January 18, 2024

LAURA OSPINA
Local 33 ratifies first contract in landslide vote

With 99.4 percent of voters in favor of ratification, Local 33, the graduate and professional student union, won its first contract, securing pay raises, expanded healthcare and union recognition until 2031.

December 20, 2023

LAURA OSPINA
Local 33 and Yale reach historic tentative agreement

After organizing for more than three decades, Local 33, the graduate and professional student union, secured higher pay, improved healthcare resources and union recognition until 2031 in a tentative agreement following nine months of negotiations with the University.

December 8, 2023

LAURA OSPINA
After mass firing of migrant workers, Unidad Latina en Acción calls on Yale New Haven Hospital to cut janitorial subcontractor

The advocacy group protested outside of Yale New Haven Hospital on Monday night after YNHH subcontractor AffinEco allegedly discriminated against migrant workers on the basis of their immigration status and threatened to call immigration authorities on the workers.

December 6, 2023