ANTIOCH, CA - Over the last several years, organizers and housing rights advocates in Antioch have made significant progress in fighting for tenant rights: they’ve established rent control and helped pass a tenant anti-harassment ordinance. Now, they’re working to prevent unjust evictions.

“Now we're pushing for just cause ordinance in order to essentially protect as many families who have been left out by state policy when it comes to evictions and why somebody can be evicted.”

This is Luis Fernando Anguiano, he’s with the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, or ACCE. He says that Antioch has some of the highest eviction rates in the Bay Area, mostly due to loopholes in various tenant protection laws.

For example, renters living in single family owner-occupied homes aren’t protected by “just cause” eviction protections, nor are tenants who’ve been renting for fewer than 12 months. Again, Aguiano.

“We don't think that that is quite reasonable.”

BERKELEY, California - Berkeley is now the latest battleground in the fight over rent control in the Bay Area, with landlord and tenant groups working to bring competing measures before voters this November to either expand or roll back renter protections in the city.

Across the Bay Area, advocates on both sides of the contentious housing debate have started ballot-box campaigns in recent months, including a landlord-backed effort to repeal a newly approved rent control law in Concord. In Larkspur, in Marin County, a similar referendum on the March 5 ballot to overturn caps on rent hikes appears likely to fail by a narrow margin.

“The housing crisis is so bad that it’s touched everybody,” said Leah Simon-Weisberg, a tenant advocate, attorney and chair of the Berkeley Rent Board, which developed one of the two latest ballot measures. “We need all the tools in the toolbox to address the housing crisis.”

ANTIOCH, California - El martes, el Ayuntamiento de Antioch considerará crear una ordenanza de desalojo por causa justa que agregaría protecciones para los inquilinos dentro de la ciudad, y los defensores de los inquilinos se manifestarán antes de la reunión.

Los defensores de la ordenanza aseguraron que podría proteger a los inquilinos de desalojos sin culpa y evitar que algunas familias se queden sin hogar.

Grupos de defensa de inquilinos planean asistir a la reunión para compartir sus experiencias y describir cómo la aprobación de tal ordenanza afectaría sus vidas.

"Durante los últimos meses, hemos estado hablando con la gente, escuchando historias sobre la falta de protección en la ciudad y las preocupaciones que tiene la gente sobre quedarse sin hogar", dijo Luis Fernando Anguiano, asociado de comunicaciones a nivel estatal de la Alianza de Californianos por Acción de Empoderamiento Comunitario.

LOS ANGELES, California - Inquilinos de diferentes áreas de Los Ángeles se reunieron con lideres y activistas de organizaciones comunitarias quienes les ofrecieron información sobre sus derechos para evitar que sean víctimas de acoso por parte de los propietarios de sus viviendas.

LOS ANGELES, California - En Estados Unidos, las comisiones por sobregiros bancarios cuestan a los consumidores más de 8,000 millones de dólares cada año, y más del 80% de este beneficio adicional para las grandes instituciones bancarias provino del 9% de los clientes más pobres, afroamericanos y latinos

Gracias a la ley AB 1177 del asambleísta Miguel Santiago, aprobada en octubre de 2021 por el gobernador Gavin Newsom, personas como Javier Enrique Sarmiento, un hondureño de El Progreso Yoro, ya no tendrá que pagar los $15.00 de recargos mensuales que le hace su banco, cada vez que no puede tener al menos $300.00.

“Me arrepiento de haber abierto una cuenta con el banco”, afirma Sarmiento, quien trabaja como pintor independiente. “En 10 años me han cobrado mucho dinero”.

SAN DIEGO, California - A new express bus line in the South Bay has survived a campaign to get rid of it, just months after the route went into service.

The Rapid 227 electric bus line, which connects the Otay Mesa Port of Entry and Imperial Beach, has faced a blooming debate in the small waterfront city. Dozens of residents there said they were frustrated by the arrival of new noise and street traffic and accused county transit authorities of not doing enough to consult with the neighborhood.

The bus also drew passionate support from dozens of other Imperial Beach residents, along with a number of community advocates and city officials. They said the new bus line was an essential resource for binational commuters and students and argued it was far too soon to consider winding it down.

After a lengthy public hearing last month, the Imperial Beach City Council said they would support keeping the bus line in place. They recommended transit authorities consider shifting the route slightly so it would be less disruptive to some neighborhoods.

Advocates and many residents celebrated the decision.

“We believe that it's going to provide a lot of benefits for our South Bay communities,” said transit advocate Randy Torres-Van Vleck. “It's a lifeline for our communities to get around, participate in the economy, get across the border, get to school, get to resources, and get to the beach.”

ANTIOCH, California - Antioch will for the first time in history fly the Pan-African flag at City Hall through Juneteenth in honor of Black Americans who contributed to the enrichment of the community.

Originally proposed as a Black History Month display, the flag flying was extended because it came on the agenda so late in the month on Feb. 27. Mayor Lamar Hernandez-Thorpe, who sets the agenda, requested an extension because of the delay, noting the requester – Antioch’s Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment – had done so in a timely fashion.
“I reviewed the request and thought it was a great idea,” the mayor said of the flag flying in what is now one of the Bay Area’s most diverse cities.

Mayor Pro-Tem Monica Wilson moved for approval, with an extension until Juneteenth, the June 19 holiday that commemorates the end of slavery.

Union workers and students at seven UC campuses called for the UC to “break up” with Blackstone — the largest commercial landlord in the U.S. — and promote more affordable housing options in tandem with Valentine’s Day at a Feb. 14 rally.

The joint action was organized by the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) Action, which previously helped pass the Homeless Prevention Act in 2019 to protect tenant rights. The collective effort was also supported by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) 3299, a UC-wide union representing over 30,000 service workers and patient care technical workers, among others. The union is currently undergoing contract negotiations with the University for better wages and benefits and wants to include a clause for divestment within their contract, according to AFSCME 3299 UC Santa Barbara organizer and union representative Wendy Santamaria.

“Right now they’re bargaining for better wages, better benefits, but one of the specific things that we’re negotiating is a housing package that is able to provide financial assistance for members,” Santamaria said.