Alternet - During her 2020 presidential primary campaign, Sen. Elizabeth Warren had a lot to say about the United States’ housing crisis — and after suspending her campaign and endorsing former Vice President Joe Biden (now the presumptive Democratic nominee), the Massachusetts senator continued to address the subject. Warren, in an op-ed she wrote for the Washington Post with Carroll Fife (director of the Oakland office of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment), stresses that the coronavirus pandemic has made a brutal housing crisis even worse. And private equity firms, according to Warren and Fife, are hoping to cash in on the misery by gobbling up “distressed real estate.”

KQED - Ryan Furtkamp and Brianne Hodson are counting down the days until local eviction moratoriums end, fearing what comes next.

Furtkamp, 32, and Hodson, 35, are married and live in Oakland, just north of downtown, and say they moved to the city for its diversity and progressive politics.

Furtkamp, who hails from Phoenix, works at UC Berkeley in communications. Hodson, who moved up from Los Angeles after high school, built her own successful dog-walking business.

Their combined incomes paid their $2,275 monthly rent — until the pandemic wiped out Hodson’s business. As clients dropped off, her income fell.

Hodson has gotten benefits from the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, but not enough to help them make rent, which they haven’t paid since April. The couple and other tenants in their 39-unit building say they plan to try to negotiate rent forgiveness with their landlord, San Francisco-based Mosser Companies. They say the only thing keeping them housed now is Oakland’s eviction moratorium.

Opinion by Elizabeth Warren and Carroll Fife

Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, represents Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate. Carroll Fife is the director of the Oakland office of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment.

The Washington Post - The nation is facing an accelerating housing crisis. Too many people had no stable housing before the pandemic hit, and covid-19 has made the problem even worse. Renters who were already facing an affordable housing shortage (with many spending more than half of their income on rent) now have no federal rental assistance or federal protection from eviction. Homeowners have less than a month left of foreclosure protection. And more than 30 million people receiving unemployment insurance just saw their benefits cut by $600 a week, raising the threat of a wave of defaults that could trigger a double-dip recession.

A coalition of advocacy groups and unions urged passage of Prop 15 in November.

LA Daily News - Parents, students and teachers rolled a car caravan to the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce that filtered into a school district office in downtown L.A. Monday, Aug. 3 to urge a safe and equitable reopening of L.A. public schools and passage of Proposition 15.

The demonstration arrived at the L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce around 10 a.m. where activists held a press conference. Following that a small group walked to a nearby office for the Los Angeles Unified School District. There students and other individuals entered the lobby where they were confronted by security guards as car horns blared outside on the street.

KVTU FOX2 - Many eviction moratoriums across the Bay Area have been extended, some indefinitely, and many others through the end of September. But tenant protections will vary depending on where you live.

In all Bay Area counties, renters have strong protections relative to the rest of the country. Certain cities, such as Oakland, where no one can ever be evicted due to nonpayment of rent during the pandemic, have their own rules, and the strongest protection prevails. 

The amount of time tenants will have to pay their rent varies from 90 days in Marin County to one year in Alameda County.

“When the courts open is when we're going to see all of this play out—the difference between living in Alameda County and living in San Mateo or Contra Costa,” said Leah Simon-Weisberg, the legal director for anti-displacement and land use programs at the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment. “So, whether you live in Albany or El Cerrito is going to make a huge difference.”

Proposition 21 Reaches Campaign Milestone with 3,421 Individual Donations, While Committees Representing Billionaire developers, investors funding the opposition raised millions from 141 contributors

BusinessWire - Housing justice advocates and champions of Proposition 21, a November 2020 state ballot initiative that will limit unfair rents, keeping families in their homes and preventing homelessness, are pleased to announce they have reached a significant campaign milestone: 3,421 individual campaign donations, with an average contribution of $12.76, have been made in support of the initiative. Meanwhile, four committees supported by the most powerful players in Big Real Estate, including the California Apartment Association, the California Rental Housing Association, Essex Property Trust, AvalonBay Communities, and Equity Residential, have raised millions with a combined 141 contributions.https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200731005500/en/

The Chronicle of Philanthropy - As our nation grapples with a confluence of crises, philanthropy is abuzz with how best to respond. Some are increasing payouts. Others are allowing grantees more flexibility in how they spend funds. A few have issued bonds to increase their charitable giving without tapping endowments. These are all useful steps, but none do enough to uproot historical inequities and upend power structures in society and philanthropy.

We offer an alternative solution: We encourage foundations to join the growing movement to distribute all their philanthropic assets within the next few years.

As the leaders of three foundations doing just that, we feel compelled in this moment to encourage grant makers to redistribute private philanthropic wealth back into communities instead of holding on to funds so their institutions can exist indefinitely. If we are to live our values, we must ask ourselves and our peers, “What are we saving our endowments for?”

LA Daily News - Alicia Kneifl had just started a new life in a new city with a new job. She and her husband sold their house in Lancaster, put their goods and their boat in storage, and rented an 11th-story Long Beach apartment with city and ocean views.

Then the coronavirus shutdowns came, and the Kneifls rapidly lost everything — first their jobs, then their savings. They paid less than half their rent through June and couldn’t pay any in July.

Adding to their hardship, Kneifl’s unemployment check will drop to $198 next week unless Congress extends the $600 weekly unemployment supplement approved under the CARES Act.

“You can’t really survive on that. That’s nothing,” Kneifl said during a phone interview, starting to sob. “All day long, I’m researching. Mornings, I’m applying for jobs, afternoons I’m trying to find resources, like food stamps. … It’s definitely a scary situation.”

KRON - The push to defund local law enforcement agencies continued in Danville on Thursday. Activists held a car caravan protest outside the home of a Contra Costa County supervisor. The group is calling on the county to shrink the sheriff’s budget and redirect those funds to community causes. A caravan of cars making two passes by Contra Costa County Supervisor Candace Andersen’s home in Danville.​

Reuters - Last month, as the coronavirus was surging in Houston, recently unemployed hospital secretary Ramzan Boudoin got more bad news: She had six days to vacate her apartment for failing to pay the rent.

A Texas ban on evictions had enabled Boudoin to keep the two-bedroom place she shared with her daughter and granddaughter while she searched for another job. But that moratorium expired on May 18. The landlord took legal action and Boudoin couldn’t come up with $2,997 plus interest to settle the judgment.

FOX 2 KTVU - The Oakland City Council voted Tuesday to extend the city’s eviction moratorium until the state of emergency expires, which means that renters cannot be evicted in most cases, including COVID-related nonpayment, but will have to pay the owed rent when the state of emergency is over. These protections, which have an indefinite expiration date, coexist alongside Alameda County’s eviction moratorium, which provides similar protections until the end of September. 

The amount of time renters have to pay back their owed rent is not specified in the Oakland moratorium, but the county ordinance allows people 12 months to pay the rent back without being evicted, during which time the owed funds will become a consumer debt. Both ordinances prevent tenants from being removed from their homes due to this debt, and from having an eviction judgement against them, which could impact long term housing security.

Los dueños de viviendas no podrán desalojar a las familias hasta finales de septiembre.

Telemundo52 - La Junta de Supervisores del condado de Los Ángeles aprobó el martes continuar con la protección contra el desalojo de inquilinos hasta el 30 de septiembre. 

La orden de emergencia estaba por expirar a finales de julio. Pero la medida aprobada, de acuerdo con algunos de sus miembros, busca evitar un mayor aumento de las personas sin hogar en el condado. 

A Bay Area rent strike could be a harbinger of tenant unrest as California prepares for an eviction tsunami triggered by the pandemic.

Capital & Main - Tenants and supporters demonstrated at an Oakland apartment complex where tenants are mounting a rent strike against Mosser Capital. During the COVID-19 crisis the landlord is insisting on bringing investors to inspect the apartments despite the danger of contagion.

Mosser bought more than 20 buildings in Oakland in 2016, according to the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), which organized the rent strike. Mosser received a Paycheck Protection Program loan between $2 million and $5 million during the pandemic.

Hertzberg co-authored his own bill aimed at providing rent relief, but activists say another piece of legislation, AB 1436, is stronger.

Los Angeles Daily News - Activists seeking relief for struggling renters brought their demands to the Van Nuys home of Senate Majority Leader Bob Hertzberg on Friday, July 17, urging him to support legislation that would bar landlords from evicting tenants as they pay back rent they were unable to make during the COVID-19 emergency.

KGTV ABC 10 - A pair of protests collided in front of State Sen. Toni Atkins' downtown San Diego office Friday morning, and joined forces to call for help.

Members from the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment gathered to tell Atkins to support Assembly Bill 1436, which would extend the eviction moratorium until April 1, 2021. They say it's the only way to protect people who haven't been able to pay rent because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Loud rally keeps investors from entering units during the COVID crisis.

48 Hills - It was a musical morning on Thursday at 444 28th Street in West Oakland where tenants, community organizers from the ACCE Institute and the Black Housing Union, and the Brass Liberation Orchestra, a band which performs at protests and rallies, held a rally in front of the apartment building.

The building’s landlord since 2018, Mosser Capital, has sent multiple notices saying that investors would be coming to inspect the 34 apartments, and tenants sought to prevent potential speculators from entering the apartments, which they say is a hazardous practice during the COVID-19 pandemic.

San Diego Community Newspaper Group - Protesters rode in a caravan around La Jolla on July 1 to drive their point home by picketing the houses of the wealthy as part of a statewide effort to promote greater social equity.

The Sacramento Bee - A group of workers and activists rode in a caravan of vehicles Wednesday afternoon to the lavish home of a wealthy Sacramento real estate developer as part of statewide protest demanding California’s millionaires and billionaires to invest in underrepresented communities hit the hardest by coronavirus pandemic.

About 60 people in about 30 vehicles started their caravan at the planned site of a University of California, Davis development project near Sacramento’s Oak Park neighborhood, before the demonstration headed to the home of Angelo Tsakopoulos, the founder of AKT Development.

The Hub - LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Community rights organizations are seeking to join a federal lawsuit to defend the city of Los Angeles’ COVID-19 emergency eviction protections and rent freeze, it was announced today.

Attorneys for the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment Action and Strategic Actions for a Just Economy filed a motion to intervene Wednesday in the legal action lodged last month by the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles. The Southland’s largest landlord organization wants to void protections from evictions enacted by the city during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Sacramento Bee - As part of a statewide event, protesters from the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment called for the wealthy to pay for the recovery from the coronavirus. They caravanned from Oak Park to the home of developer Angelo K. Tsakopoulos.

Similar protests targeted wealthy Californians in other cities

San Diego Union Tribune - A caravan of about 60 cars drove through upscale San Diego neighborhoods and passed some of the city’s most affluent residents Wednesday as part of a statewide protest aimed at raising awareness of wealth disparity and inequality.

Organized by renters, workers and labor leaders, the local protest had planned to target UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep Khosla, developer Douglas Manchester and MC Properties owner Michael Contreras. The protest was one of several throughout California on Wednesday, chosen because the first of the month traditionally is a day when rent is due.

“We’re visiting some of the richest people in San Diego to talk about how during this pandemic many of us are struggling to make ends meet and have a roof over our heads while these super wealthy people have made money off the backs of our community workers and renters,” said Jose Lopez, a local organizer with Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment.

Substandard housing risks grow with coronavirus pandemic

San Jose Mercury News - The Oakland City Attorney has sued three landlords for allegedly harassing and trying to illegally evict tenants, escalating concerns that renters still face dislocation and dangerous conditions despite enhanced protections during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The suit claims the landlords of three Oakland rentals harassed tenants and forced them to live in unsafe and squalid apartments for at least two years and continuing during the pandemic.

“This case presents some of the most extreme harassment and exploitation we’ve encountered in our tenant protection actions,” Oakland City Attorney Barbara J. Parker said in a statement. “We will not tolerate this flagrant abuse in Oakland.”

KQED - The Castillo-Gutierréz family came to Oakland five years ago, by way of Los Angeles, for the reason many people move anywhere: Work.

Anastacio Castillo, 47, the patriarch of the family, started out selling tamales and corn not in a shop, not at a stand, but by hand, person to person, hitting the streets eager to earn for his wife and three children. Eventually, he found a job as a handyman.

The Castillo-Gutierréz’s earn their living and reside in a single-family home in Oakland. But Anastacio lost work just before the pandemic shelter-in-place orders hit, making it doubly hard to recover.

The family fell behind on their rent, and now their landlord is trying to evict them, despite an Oakland eviction moratorium barring exactly that.

Advocates brace for a new wave of homelessness.

The Progressive - Patricia Mendoza lives in Imperial Beach, a four-and-a-half-square-mile city of about 29,000 people at the southwest edge of California. She is a single mother with two children, ages sixteen and nine, and until recently she was employed as a non-emergency medical transport driver earning about $2,000 a month.

She lost her job at the end of March, when California Governor Gavin Newsom imposed a stay-at-home order to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus. Mendoza had little savings—rent took up about 70 percent of her monthly income, with the rest going for food and utilities. So when she lost her job, she had to stop paying rent.

“The last two weeks in March, I only worked four days,” she said in a phone interview. “I didn’t have money to pay rent, and I had to feed my kids and pay the bills.”

Without rent relief for California tenants, housing advocates fear the pandemic will worsen the homelessness crisis

Salon - Amid the pandemic, many cities and counties adopted eviction moratoriums as a stopgap to prevent evictions and therefore homelessness. Yet as both everyday Americans and politicians grow weary of lockdowns, many public health experts and activists fear what will happen when these ordinances lift.

The end of the eviction moratorium is particularly grim in cities like Oakland, California, where economic inequalities were already severe before the pandemic. In 2018, a United Nations report described Oakland's homelessness crisis as "cruel and inhumane."