LOS ANGELES, CA - The Los Angeles City Council is expected to vote on Tuesday on a proposal meant to limit anticipated rent increases for properties that are subject to the city's rent-control law.

The proposal was previously delayed during last week's council meeting by Councilman Hugo Soto-Martinez, who wanted more time for his colleagues to consider the idea. The proposal was prompted by the pending Jan. 31, 2024, end of a pandemic-era rent freeze placed on rent-stabilized units.

LOS ANGELES, CA — The City Council Tuesday is expected to vote on a proposal meant to limit anticipated rent increases for properties that are subject to the city's rent-control law.

The proposal was previously delayed during last week's council meeting by Councilman Hugo Soto-Martinez, who wanted more time for his colleagues to consider the idea. The proposal was prompted by the pending Jan. 31, 2024, end of a pandemic-era rent freeze placed on rent-stabilized units.

ANTIOCH, Calif. (KGO) -- Newly obtained police reports document use of force incidents by Antioch Police, in which senior-level officers signed off on what a federal indictment later deemed to be "excessive."

"You shouldn't feel like the police are a gang. I mean, we are supposed to be afraid of street gangs, but are afraid of the police. It makes no sense," said Nicole Arrington, a community organizer with the Alliance of Californians for Community Engagement, or ACCE.

ANTIOCH, CA — Multiple community organizers are calling for the city’s acting police chief and the president of its police officers’ union to step down amid revelations that they and other police supervisors signed off on the use of force by police officers who are now charged with federal civil rights violations.

The latest demands for the Antioch Police Department to clean house follow a Bay Area News Group report that found acting police Chief Joseph Vigil, Sgt. Rick Hoffman — the president of the Antioch Police Officers Association — and others concluded time and again that the actions of the charged officers followed department guidelines and deserved no discipline. The FBI, in a criminal indictment of three officers, found that some of the uses of force violated departmental policies — as well as people’s civil rights.

SAN PABLO, CA - The city of San Pablo is forging ahead on a plan to build a $43 million headquarters and training facility for its police department of 59 officers as residents call for the city to address housing affordability.

Despite the massive scale of the project — costing almost as much as the city expects to bring in this fiscal year — it has drawn little public input, raising questions about the level of civic engagement in the lower-income, majority Latino city of 31,000 people.

ANTIOCH, CA - As inflation last year reached its highest level in 40 years, raising consumer prices on food, gas and even used cars, renters in San Pablo say they’ve felt the squeeze because of a lack of rent control in the city.

This week, they asked the City Council to take up their cause. With hand-painted signs reading “Housing is a human right,” more than 30 people, including families, marched outside City Hall on Monday. Gathering shortly before the council meeting convened inside, they chanted: “La renta, la renta, está muy alta, La renta, la renta, está muy alta!” and “What do we want? Affordable rents. When do we want it? Now!”

CALIFORNIA - Earlier this month, California passed a bill requiring the state to produce a study and recommendations on expanding the state’s social housing sector. Organizers hope it will be the first step in providing de-commodified shelter on a large scale.

SACRAMENTO, CA - Jovana Fajardo helms the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) Action Sacramento division. The grassroots nonprofit is active on many fronts advocating for solutions to the housing crisis.

With chapters statewide, its members actively pursue policies and initiatives that advance economic, racial and social justice for underserved Californians. Fajardo began her political career in immigration reform. From there, she gravitated to affordable housing activism and is now the division’s lead organizer.

Solving Sacramento recently spoke with Fajardo to get her thoughts on the housing crisis and how she sees the role of grassroots community organizations as part of the solution. The interview was conducted by phone and email.

SAN PABLO, CA - The Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment Action on Saturday urged San Pablo renters affected by rising rents, and Contra Costa-ACCE members and representatives to make their voice heard at the San Pablo City Council this Monday.

The renters have previously called upon the San Pablo City Council to pass a Rent Control Ordinance, during the “March for Rent Control” rally on Sept. 30, bringing out more than 50 supporters. The march coincided with downtown Los Angeles’ “Wages Are Too Damn Low, Rents Are Too Damn High” mass protest, which brought out hundreds.

SACRAMENTO, CA - When local Sacramento government officials hold public hearings over climate change plans, dozens of residents often show up and share their perspectives.

It isn’t a coincidence that many speakers start public comments by introducing themselves as members or volunteers with activist organizations.

Groups rally people to speak at meetings through a variety of strategies, from building relationships over time to making social media posts. But whether they ask volunteers to comment on environmental, housing or other issues, organizers say they have similar goals: to empower people to participate in local government, share personal testimonies with decision-makers and build movements.

ANTIOCH, CA - Antioch Mayor Lamar Thorpe held a ceremony and press conference on Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023, to sign and celebrate the passing of the City’s anti-tenant harassment and retaliation ordinance.

He was joined by representatives of the organizations which lobbied the council to approve the ordinance which finally passed 3-1 in August, including David Sharples of Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) Action and Rhea Laughlin of Rising Juntos, Rev. Millie Phillips of East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE), and Judith Ortiz of Monument Impact, as well as. (See ORDINANCE NO. 2232-C-S PROHIBITING RETALIATION AGAINST AND HARASSMENT OF RESIDENTIAL TENANTS).

LOS ANGELES, CA - This past weekend, tenant advocates, labor unions, workers, and renters from across LA marched in downtown to demand good wages, better employee benefits, and housing security.

Yvonne Wheeler, president of the LA County Federation of Labor (LACFL), was at the march, emphasizing the issues of tenant evictions and increased homelessness. She believes the housing and labor movements are fighting the same battles.

“We're in a homeless pandemic, where working people are collecting paychecks … but they still can't afford to pay the rent, let alone live in the city where they work,” Wheeler says. “And so when we see the inequality … when we see that these tenants are living in deplorable conditions, we know that we have to ally with one another, and fight this fight together. Because we are the community – we're not separate and apart.”

CONTRA COSTA, CA (TIMESTAMP 13:19) : More than 2,300 people are unhoused across Contra Contra county this is according to the latest county statistics, and today students at Los Medanos College in Pittsburg hosted a panel of East Contra Costa county leaders talking about what is being done to tackle issues around housing. 

LOS ANGELES, CA - Cientos de inquilinos, trabajadores, organizadores y miembros de la comunidad marcharon este sábado en el centro de Los Ángeles para protestar por los altos precios del alquiler de la vivienda y los salarios estancados que hacen casi imposible para muchos angelinos que les alcance el dinero.

“Las rentas están muy pinche caras, y los salarios están muy pinche bajos. Exigimos sueldos que alcancen y viviendas accesibles”, dijo María Guadalupe López, quien llegó a Los Ángeles a los cuatro años, es indocumentada y coordinadora de la Campaña Keep LA Housed.

SAN PABLO, CA - Más de 50 residentes de la ciudad de San Pablo salieron a las calles para pedirle a los líderes de la ciudad que aprueben una ordenanza de estabilización de alquileres para que no tengan que enfrentarse a incrementos de rentas que llegan hasta un diez por ciento. 

SAN PABLO, CA - Over 50 residents of San Pablo took to the streets to demand their local City Council pass Rent Control. 

PITTSBURG, CA - Tenant activists in Pittsburg are pushing for the passage of a rent stabilization ordinance to help address the growing homelessness and housing. Devin Williams, the organizer of March for Rent Control and Nicole Arrington, who is a tenant in Pittsburg joined us on The Nine to discuss the issues.

PITTSBURG, CA - Pittsburg CA renter & ACCE member Christian Copeland was interviewed about her challenges as a renter in Pittsburg, about the Pittsburg "March for Rent Control" and why she is organizing for change. (TIMESTAMP 22:33)  

SACRAMENTO, CA - The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors unanimously agreed that county government was failing to keep renters safe from harassment before four out of five of the elected officials declined to vote Tuesday on a proposed tenant anti-harassment ordinance, ensuring the measure would die.

The board decided to put on a future workshop about tenant protection resources in the county.

Supervisor Patrick Kennedy, who proposed the ordinance, said he was inspired to do so after visiting a large apartment complex and seeing the mostly immigrant tenants paying “upwards of $2,000 a month to live in squalor.” While he was at the complex meeting with his constituents, he said, “I witnessed, myself, harassment.”

SACRAMENTO, CA - The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday declined to move forward with a proposal aiming to strengthen renters’ protections from harassment by landlords.

The decision came about a month after a similar tenant anti-harassment ordinance failed to get enough support from a Sacramento City Council committee.

If passed, the proposal would create county rules prohibiting landlords from threatening tenants with physical harm, refusing to accept rent payments, removing housing services to try to cause tenants to move and retaliating against renters for asserting their rights under the ordinance.

David versus Goliath might be a stretch. In one corner is the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), a progressive activist group. In the other is the California Apartment Association (CAA), a property owner organization. ACCE is alleging the CAA is blocking local and statewide solutions to the housing crisis, e.g., tenant protection policies and eviction moratoriums.

ACCE recently released a report titled “From Housing Providers to Drivers of Homelessness: How the California Apartment Association’s Wall Street leadership spent at least $233 million to block housing solutions.”

Here are this report’s highlights.

LOS ANGELES, CA - Tenant rights groups have been sounding the alarm about an impending post-pandemic eviction crisis. In Los Angeles, that day has come — putting hundreds of thousands of tenants at risk of losing their housing and compelling some to fight back.

LOS ANGELES, CA - The Los Angeles City Council passed a $150-million spending plan for funds raised by Measure ULA on Tuesday, marking the first time funds will be specifically allocated since Angelenos passed the tax in November.

The expenditure plan will be directed to six programs: short-term emergency rental assistance, eviction defense, tenant outreach and education, direct cash assistance for low-income seniors and people with disabilities, tenant protections, and affordable housing production.

“This is the largest source of revenue, that’s going to be consistent, that this city has access to for these uses ever,” said Councilmember Nithya Raman. “It’s really transformative for Los Angeles.”

ANTIOCH, CA - In yet another move to strengthen tenant protections, the Antioch City Council has approved new rules to help ensure against landlord retaliation and harassment.

The new rules will address landlord threats of rent increases when tenants request repairs, improper landlord towing of vehicles, landlord verbal abuse and psychological harm, while protecting tenants’ rights to organize and requiring notices from the landlord be given in a tenant’s spoken language, City Attorney Thomas Lloyd Smith said.

The action comes after more than a year of tenants and supporters advocating for help.

The council approved a similar ordinance in July. However, that version did not get the votes needed for a second reading to pass, with Councilwoman Monica Wilson absent, Councilman Mike Barbanica recusing himself and Councilwoman Lori Ogorchock dissenting.

On Tuesday, though, after hearing more than two hours of public comments and discussion, the City Council voted 3-1 to approve the latest version of rules, with Ogorchock dissenting and Barbanica again recusing himself due to his real estate work.

OAKLAND, CA - Oakland’s 2024 election is over a year from now, but candidates have already started to emerge in several important races. As of this week, candidates have filed papers or declared their intention to run for City Attorney and two City Council seats.

Up for grabs next year are the District 1, 3, 5, 7, and At-Large City Council seats and City Attorney. (Four school board seats are also in play and we’ll cover those in another post.)

The Oaklandside has compiled a brief round-up of these early announcements, and we’ll provide much more coverage as the campaign season kicks into full gear next year. Do you know of a candidate or something else we left out? Let us know and we’ll update this post.

SACRAMENTO, CA - A proposal to create more housing in Sacramento must succeed if the city ever hopes to solve the pervasive issues of homelessness that daily affects every resident — yet it may be two votes short of passing at the full city council.

The Sacramento Forward proposal would put a fundraising measure on the 2024 ballot, extend the Tenant Protection Program, implement support programs such as emergency rent assistance and increase developer fees. Among other housing and tenant protection goals, it would also adopt the Sacramento Opportunity to Purchase Act, which would require any tenant building listed for sale to be sold to the tenant or eligible community group if they can meet the initial listing price.

The proposal is already supported by the Northern California Carpenters Regional Council, the Sacramento Community Land Trust, the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment and SEIU 1021, and it recently gained the support of City Councilmembers Caity Maple, Katie Valenzuela and Mayor Pro Tem Mai Vang at last Tuesday’s Law and Legislation Committee meeting.

ANTIOCH, CA - Nine current and former police officers in the East Bay face federal charges after a raid Thursday by the Federal Bureau of Investigations.

The FBI's roundup of officers from the Antioch and Pittsburg police departments come after an 18-month investigation into an alleged criminal network.

"Today is a dark day in our city's history, as people trusted to uphold the law, allegedly breached that trust and were arrested by the FBI. As our city absorbs this tragic news, we must come together as one," Antioch Mayor Lamar Thorpe said in a statement. "Today's actions are the beginning of the end of a long and arduous process."

SACRAMENTO, CA - It's back to square one for the city of Sacramento, which was looking for ways to protect tenants from being harassed by their landlords.

Some council members on Tuesday took up the controversial issue concerning protecting tenants from harassing landlords. But the tenant anti-harassment ordinance, called TAHO, stopped short of leaving the law and legislation committee and going to the full city council for consideration.

Renters said they need more protection.

"They try to throw me in the street," Jesus Figueroa said. "Rent for the same apartment was $2,900 when I'm paying $1,800."

Renters shared stories with the Sacramento Law and Legislation Council Committee about their run-ins with landlords. The group Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment packed the chambers.

OAKLAND, CA - The apartments were supposed to be among the city’s affordable solutions for elderly, low-income residents — some lifelong Oaklanders, others immigrants — who couldn’t afford to live elsewhere.

Now, tenants say the Northgate Terrace apartments in the city’s small Koreatown district have effectively become slums — riddled with infestations, bad security, broken water heaters and absentee property managers. They are calling on the Oakland Housing Authority to conduct regular inspections and wrangle more regular maintenance out of The Related Companies, a national company that manages the property.

SACRAMENTO, CA - Some Sacramento city council members are putting forward a suite of policy proposals designed to prevent more people in the region from becoming homeless.

“This is not a problem we can continue to ignore,” Council member Katie Valenzuela said during a press conference announcing the program Tuesday morning. “We can't continue to focus just on triaging our homelessness crisis … This is what moving upstream looks like.”

The package, which will be announced with more details next week, is called “Sacramento Forward,” and is a joint project of Valenzuela and her colleagues on city council, members Caity Maple and Mai Vang. In addition to various local legislation, it includes a 2024 ballot initiative that would create a pot of money to help fund affordable housing units and emergency support for renters.

OAKLAND, CA - After the Alameda County eviction moratorium expired, eviction cases exploded. After three years where lawsuit numbers never reached above 100 a month, there were 557 filings in May.

Now, the three cities that kept eviction bans in place longer—Oakland, Berkeley, and San Leandro—are sunsetting their policies too, and another spike is expected.

“The question was, are we going to get hit with a tsunami?” said Judge Victoria Kolakowski. “And we have been.”

But she said a “gigantic flood” would be a more apt metaphor. For every one case resolved in her courtroom, dozens more are being filed.

LOS ANGELES, CA - Thousands of Los Angeles residents who live in rent-controlled dwellings have accused their landlords of trying to drive them out in order to charge higher rents to new tenants.

Two years ago, the city passed a sweeping law to bar tenant harassment practices such as falsely telling renters they must move, refusing repairs, and threatening physical harm or deportation. But with the city government lacking sufficient money or staff to enforce the law, reports of such coercion are still pervasive, and the city remains in a housing crisis in which rents and homelessness continue to soar.

ANTIOCH, CA - Antioch is strengthening its tenant protections with new rules against landlord retaliation and harassment.

After hearing more than three hours of public comments and debate on the matter, the City Council voted 3-1 on Tuesday, with Councilwoman Lori Ogorchock dissenting and Councilman Mike Barbanica, a real estate agent/broker, recusing himself.

“Antioch is not the first city to propose anti-harassment protections,” proponent Ethan Silverstein, an attorney with the tenant advocate group ACCE Institute, told the council. “These protections are becoming more and more popular. Even Sacramento is considering one.”

PHILADELPHIA, PI - Lowell Faison has seen the housing affordability crisis push poor renters to the brink.

Some renters, the 75-year-old said Saturday outside of City Hall, have been forced tens of miles outside city limits in search of cheaper rents. Others, Faison said, lost their housing entirely during the fog of the pandemic.

He wasn’t talking about Philadelphia. Faison is from Charlotte, N.C., but was in Philadelphia on Saturday, joining an estimated 2,000 protesters — many of them also from out of state — to express their concern for what they see as a national crisis reaching its breaking point.

“When it comes to housing, local governments have to step up,” Faison said. “There’s no question about it.”

SACRAMENTO, CA - Carol Eckstrom dragged out a chair and staged a sit-in, just a few months after her stroke. In a way, she got what she asked for: The manager of her Sacramento mobile home park had finally hired contractors to fix the bulge in her walkway.

But it would cost her $500.

OAKLAND, CA - After months of debate, Oakland’s eviction moratorium expired on Saturday, July 15. The move comes after Alameda County ended its public health emergency and its own eviction moratorium back in April. Oakland had been one of the last remaining cities in the country with this type of protection for tenants, along with San Francisco and Berkeley.

In the rest of Alameda County, evictions spiked after the county’s moratorium was lifted, rising to above pre-pandemic highs. With the majority of Oakland residents renting their homes, and the city having a higher percentage of renters compared to the county as a whole (PDF), many advocates fear that this change will lead to an even greater wave of evictions.

SACRAMENTO, CA - Sacramento is ranked as one of the most diverse cities in the U.S., but the outsized impact of the housing crisis on Black citizens tracks closely – and unsettlingly – with national rates . . .

City leaders are aware of equity issues and the risks of displacement due to gentrification, having recognized both in their 2021-2029 Housing Element Plan. But critics argue that displacement patterns due to other factors, including harassment fueled by discrimination, are often left out of the conversation and play a larger role in the region’s rise in homelessness than local leaders are acknowledging. Housing advocates worry this creates a gap in understanding among both the public and local leaders of where specific patterns exists.

The pattern demonstrated in the following stories raise questions on that front – and how alleged cases of discrimination impact housing stability.

LOS ANGELES, CA - Los Angeles is taking another step toward opening a city-owned public bank that would support projects driven by public interest.

The City Council voted last week to fund a feasibility study for the bank after advocates argued it would do better than private banks to serve Black and Latino communities, small businesses, green energy initiatives and affordable housing projects.

Corporate banks "don't give back to our community," said Gisele Mata, an organizer at the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) Action. "In fact, they just take. We have no way to move our communities out of predatory lending unless we create our own, because banks do not operate in a way that gives back to their communities."

LOS ANGELES, CA - The Mayor’s Fund for Los Angeles, the nonprofit closely associated with City Hall, is pivoting to focus solely on preventing homelessness, a departure from its broader approach under the last mayoral administration.

Mayor Karen Bass briefly mentioned the nonprofit’s new homeless initiative at an event Thursday, where local leaders announced a 10% rise in homelessness in L.A. compared with the previous year.

BAY AREA (Paywalled Article) - In a welcome if slight change after years of soaring prices, rents this year have declined across much of the Bay Area and beyond.

The median asking price for rent fell 4% from $2,963 to $2,844 in the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward region this May compared to last May, while prices rose 1% from $3,314 to $3,347 in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara region, according to a new report from real estate website Realtor.com.

LOS ANGELES, CA - The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday, June 20, elected Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson its new president pro tempore, replacing Councilmember Curren Price who stepped down from the leadership post last week and is facing corruption charges.

The 12-0 vote to name Harris-Dawson the new president pro tempore was taken with no discussion by the council. Price has not attended a council meeting since the news broke about the charges against him and was absent for the vote. Councilmember Monica Rodriguez was also absent.

Life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and…housing?

California lawmakers are trying to enshrine the right to housing in the state’s constitution. But what exactly does that mean in a state that lacks the resources to give everyone a roof over their heads?

Supporters say the constitutional amendment would hold state and local officials more accountable for solving California’s homelessness crisis. 

“It’s really a way to make sure elected officials and the government does its job and doesn’t continue to fail so miserably in ensuring access to housing for all,” said the author of Assembly Constitutional Amendment 10, San Francisco Democrat Matt Haney.

Cuando la senadora estatal María Elena Durazo presentó un proyecto de ley en marzo para reforzar la Ley de Protección de Inquilinos de California, pidió que se redujera el tope de los aumentos de alquiler al 5%, mientras se cerraban las lagunas que los propietarios usan para desalojar a los inquilinos cuando no hay una “causa justa”.

Cuando su proyecto de ley de “prevención de la falta de vivienda” pasó al pleno del Senado el 31 de mayo, las negociaciones y el compromiso lo habían diluido. La disposición de tope de alquiler se eliminó y varias otras disposiciones se redujeron significativamente. 

SAN DIEGO, CA - A nonprofit community organization Wednesday criticized the San Diego City Council's passage of an ordinance that will prohibit tent encampments in all public spaces throughout the city if shelter beds are available.

After hearing hours of public comment, the council voted 5-4 late Tuesday in favor of the Unsafe Camping Ordinance. Mayor Todd Gloria pushed hard for the ordinance, introduced by Councilman Stephen Whitburn, including asking the public to sign a petition.

The proposal would also ban tent encampments at all times in certain sensitive areas — parks, canyons and near schools, transit stations and homeless shelters — regardless of shelter capacity.

Gov. Gavin Newsom hailed a new police misconduct law as a tool to “root out racial injustice and fight systemic racism” less than two years ago.

Now, his administration is quietly proposing a change that weakens one of its key provisions.

Its proposal, which it has discussed with police-reform advocates, would strip a requirement that the state’s police certification commission release documents to the public about decertification of abusive or corrupt officers in California — an element of Senate Bill 2, a hard-won accountability measure.

SAN DIEGO, CA - After hearing hours of public comment, the San Diego City Council late Tuesday night voted 5-4 in favor of the Unsafe Camping Ordinance that would prohibit tent encampments in all public spaces throughout the city if shelter beds are available.

The proposal would also ban tent encampments at all times in certain sensitive areas — parks, canyons and near schools, transit stations and homeless shelters — regardless of shelter capacity.

Barbara Pinto, a member of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, compared the proposal “to pouring water on a drowning man.”

Los Angeles tenant groups announced Monday they have settled their lawsuit against the state of California over how housing department officials handled the state’s rent relief program.

About the deal
The deal gives tenants another chance to have their rent relief application reviewed or to appeal a denial. An estimated 331,000 L.A. area households remain behind on rent, and many of them are now facing possible eviction.

“Hopefully, people who were quickly denied in the past will actually be approved when the state is forced to look a little bit closer,” said Legal Aid Foundation of L.A. attorney Jonathan Jager.

More than 100,000 California tenants whose applications for COVID-era rental assistance were denied or delayed by the state’s housing department will get another shot at relief, thanks to a new legal settlement between the state and a coalition of anti-poverty and tenant rights groups.

More aid isn’t guaranteed. But under the terms of the settlement signed at the end of last month, California’s Housing and Community Development Department agreed to audit its past denials and improve multilingual access for tenants who don’t speak English as a first language.

Más de 100,000 inquilinos de California cuyas solicitudes de asistencia de alquiler de la era COVID fueron denegadas o retrasadas por el departamento de vivienda del estado tendrán otra oportunidad de alivio, gracias a un nuevo acuerdo legal entre el estado y una coalición de grupos contra la pobreza y derechos de los inquilinos.

Más ayuda no está garantizada. Pero según los términos del acuerdo firmado a fines del mes pasado, el Departamento de Vivienda y Desarrollo Comunitario de California acordó auditar sus denegaciones anteriores y mejorar el acceso multilingüe para los inquilinos que no hablan inglés como primera lengua.

LOS ANGELES, CA - This is a summer evening in Los Angeles, a haven for all-you-can-eat street food. Night markets have long been sites for cultural exchange in ethnic enclaves. Events like 626 Night Market, considered the largest Asian food market in the country, have become a lucrative empire throughout California. But other long-standing markets, such as the Salvadoran street food market in Koreatown and Westlake’s Guatemalan street food market, began as a platform to maintain cultural and culinary traditions within their communities. Challenged by law enforcement in recent years, these vendors struggle to continue operating in the very area they reside.

Gladys Balcazar says she can barely afford food after paying rent to her new landlord, Blackstone Inc, one of the world’s largest private equity firms.

Balcazar, a 60-year-old janitor, lives with her 27-year-old son in a two-bedroom apartment in Imperial Beach. She supports her son, who has a disability, on a salary of $2,800 a month.

Blackstone bought her building and 65 others in San Diego County in 2021, becoming one of the region’s biggest landlords and alarming lawmakers, affordable housing advocates and Balcazar. In March Balcazar’s monthly rent rose $200 to $2,000.

“All of this has really depressed me because I don’t see a way out,” she said in Spanish. “I only earn enough to pay the rent, and after that there is nothing left.”

OAKLAND, CA - A dispute over rent increases at an apartment complex in Alameda has brought renewed scrutiny to an obscure housing law used by landlords to pass on millions in costs onto tenants and left the City Council scrambling to find solutions.

The controversy began last week when tenants responded in outrage to a potential rent spike ranging from $100 to $500 a month at a 400-unit apartment complex on the southern edge of Alameda. According to Tony Daysog, the vice mayor of Alameda, the city received numerous phone calls and emails from tenants expressing fear and concern about the rising rent.

The increase was the result of a provision in Alameda’s municipal code that allows property owners to pass the full cost of capital improvements to their tenants — a practice that’s legal nationwide only with special authorization from local government.

“It’s a really common business model that has really negative effects,” said Leah Simon-Weisberg, the legal director for Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, a tenants rights advocacy group.

SACRAMENTO, CA - A Capitol campout – calling on California’s Senate lawmakers to vote in support of a bill that protects renters across the state – brought demonstrators to the legislative Swing Space office building Wednesday, with pillows and sleeping bags in-hand.

The group was ready to stay all night.

“We're here to urge our elected officials to vote and pass SB 567, the Homelessness Prevention Act,” Patricia Mendoza of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment told the group of about three dozen supporters.

SACRAMENTO, CA - Los inquilinos de todo California se reunieron en el edificio de oficinas estatales en el centro de Sacramento el miércoles para implorar a los legisladores que aprobaran la SB 567, también conocida como la Ley de prevención de personas sin hogar. 

El proyecto de ley está destinado a evitar que los propietarios encuentren formas de eludir las escasas protecciones para inquilinos que existen en el estado. Varias personas que llegaron a la reunión dijeron que esas lagunas les habían dejado a ellos o a un ser querido sin hogar o, en un caso, habían provocado la muerte de alguien en las calles.

SACRAMENTO, CA - Tenants from around California converged on the State Office Building in Downtown Sacramento Wednesday to implore lawmakers to pass SB 567, also known as the Homelessness Prevention Act.

The bill is meant to stop landlords from finding ways around the few meager tenant protections that exist in the state. Several people who arrived at the gathering said that those loopholes had either made them or a loved one homeless – or, in one case, lead to someone’s death on the streets.

I’d start a foundation to help underprivileged youth.

I’d buy property for my kids. 

ANTIOCH, CA - Tenants and advocates fed up with landlord problems, lack of repairs and unjust evictions on Tuesday urged the Antioch City Council to take swift action to adopt tenant protections and anti-harassment policies.

Teresa Padrigez, a mother of three, said in Spanish that although she has lived in the same low-income Antioch apartment for 11 years, when the time finally came for repairs, her family was forced to live with the construction and sleep in the lobby, never being offered a place to temporarily relocate.

“Our children ended up sleeping on the cold, hard floor for days,” she told the council. “The managers promised to provide us with food during the day but only gave us chips and candy for a whole week.”

ALAMEDA COUNTY - When the website AlamedaRentersRights.com launched recently, it seemed innocuous enough. It claimed to be aimed at informing renters in Alameda County about tenant protections–an issue of increased interest since the county’s eviction moratorium expired last week.

It even features a video on its homepage featuring two Alameda County supervisors, David Haubert and Lena Tam, encouraging renters to know their rights . . .

The problem, say local tenant advocates, is that the website is run by the California Apartment Association, a landlord lobby group, and is spreading misinformation, as well as diverting renters searching for help online away from valuable resources. In a statement, the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), a local grassroots organization working on racial and economic justice issues, likened the website to fake abortion clinics set up by anti-choice groups.

“We’re worried that people will see this website and think they have rights that they don’t, they’ll misunderstand the court processes,” said Jackie Zaneri, a senior attorney for ACCE. “There’s really nothing on this website that I would tell a tenant to rely on.”

Even before the pandemic, America was in the midst of a massive housing crisis. Now, it’s far worse. Our housing agenda has to include investing in public housing, universal rent control, just-cause eviction, and a broad push to decommodify housing.

For a college student being evicted or an elderly woman faced with losing her apartment, the Legal Aid Foundation is Santa Barbara County’s safety net for anyone who can’t afford a lawyer. The nonprofit’s work was thrown into high profile upon the eviction of hundreds of tenants from among the 254 apartments at Isla Vista’s CBC & The Sweeps, with reports that they fielded dozens more calls at their Help Desk than usual after the quit notices were served on residents.

ALAMEDA, CA - The Prosecution and Public Rights Unit of the Alameda City Attorney’s Office will hold its third annual fair housing conference, which will be free and open to all members of the public.

The seminar will take place from 9 a.m. to noon April 20 in the City Council Chambers on the third floor of Alameda City Hall at 2263 Santa Clara Avenue. This year will be the first time the event will be held in-person. The seminar will be full of helpful information on federal, regional and local housing laws, including:

• tenant relocation and other hot topics
• the latest on rent laws and the end of the eviction moratorium
• introduction to fair housing laws
• disability rights
• and the new mediation program and other services offered by the Alameda City Attorney’s Office

Speakers will be Leah Simon-Weisberg (Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment), Nathanael Hill (the federal Housing and Urban Development Department branch chief), Gary Rhoades (Santa Monica Deputy City Attorney) and professional staff and attorneys from the Alameda City Attorney’s Office.

SACRAMENTO, CA - Hundreds of families from across California joined affordable housing advocates at the state Capitol on Monday to show their support for two legislative proposals aimed at the high cost of living in California.

The rally was organized by Housing Now, a statewide coalition of more than 150 organizations, to support Senate Bill 567, which would lower the maximum allowable rent increase to 5% and prevent landlords from evicting tenants without a legal reason, and Assembly Constitutional Amendment 10, which would add housing as a fundamental human right to the state constitution.

A proposed constitutional amendment to make housing a fundamental human right in California is moving forward in the Legislature.

Democratic leadership referred Assembly Constitutional Amendment (ACA) 10—introduced by Assemblyman Matt Haney (D-San Francisco)—to the Assembly’s Housing and Community Development Committee, where it is expected to receive its first public hearing. No date had been set for the hearing as of April 25.

“Housing is indeed a human right,” Haney wrote on Twitter April 25. “Without access to housing, everything else suffers: health, safety, educational attainment, access to food and water, addiction, and jobs.”

ANTIOCH, CA — One by one Thursday they walked up to the microphone, stared into the cameras and gathered their composure. Standing beside civil rights attorneys John Burris and Ben Nisenbaum, about a half-dozen Black and Latino people shared their stories.

Filled with anger, resentment and grief, they each described encounters with the Antioch Police Department a day after their attorneys filed a federal lawsuit against the city’s police force.

“It’s hard for me to get a job, because they put me on the move so much,” said Joshua Butler, a plaintiff in the lawsuit who said he and his family have been harassed by Antioch police officers since he was a teenager. “I’ve been dealing with a lot, dealing with cases, getting harassed, can’t even sleep in my own house peacefully. It’s just like the whole family, they’re being targeted. It’s like, you know, at some point there’s gotta be an end to it.”

ANTIOCH, CA - Fallout continues from a string of alleged racist and homophobic text messages shared among the Antioch Police Department.

Dozens of community members held a rally and march in protest ahead of Tuesday's special city council meeting. Demonstrators demanded immediate action and accountability as the number of police officers involved in the scandal continues to grow.

"How are we going to feel if we can not call someone when we are in danger that is actually going to help us?" said Devin Williams, who helped organize the rally.

OAKLAND, CA - In Oakland, a debate is heating up about how pandemic protections against eviction should come to a close.

Tuesday, Oakland's Community & Economic Development Committee will discuss a proposed ordinance brought forward by council President Nikki Fortunato Bas and council President Pro Tem Dan Kalb that would set up a gradual timeline for ending the city's eviction moratorium. If approved, the proposed ordinance would phase out the eviction moratorium, allowing certain evictions to resume from May through the end of August, then ending the eviction moratorium on Sept. 1.

The ordinance also seeks to make several changes to strengthen Oakland's existing just cause eviction protections.

SAN DIEGO, CA - Local tenants and activists met at Logan Heights Library with City Council President Sean Elo-Rivera to call for more tenant protections on March 25. The town hall coincided with a report from the Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP) and Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) called “Blackstone comes to collect: How America’s Largest Landlord and Wall Street’s Highest Paid CEO Are Jacking Up Rents and Ramping Up Evictions.”

The Blackstone Group is the largest private equity company in the world, with $975 Billion in assets under management (AUM). Blackstone is by far the nation’s largest landlord, owning and managing over 300,000 units of rental housing in the U.S., and many more around the world. The report shows that Blackstone bought 5,600 units in San Diego County in 2021. As units become vacant, the company raised rents in some units between 43-64% in just two years.

LOS ANGELES, CA - The last day of March marked the end of Los Angeles County’s pandemic-era eviction protections.

Even before then, evictions had been on the rise. In the last year, eviction filings across the county have returned to pre-pandemic levels of more than 3,000 per month, according to Kyle Nelson, a postdoctoral researcher at UCLA.

CALIFORNIA - Take a random selection of 10,000 Californians and 44 people will be homeless, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Human Services. That’s over 171,000 people across the Golden State. Half of the nation's unsheltered population — people living on the streets, in tents, in cars, in parks — live in California. On top of that, 17 million California renters face housing instability according to the California Budget and Policy Center.

Homelessness and not enough affordable housing are not new issues in California, but rising home prices, skyrocketing rent, and the growing number of people living without shelter have brought public frustration to a boiling point, with local mayors, city councils, and county boards of supervisors taking the brunt of that frustration as they stumble through policies and initiatives to try to respond to the parallel crises.

A bevy of bills floating through the Legislature this year hope to strengthen the state’s involvement in easing those frustrations. Will they work? 

LOS ANGELES, CA - “Estoy profundamente preocupada por el fuerte aumento en los desalojos ahora que ciertas protecciones para inquilinos han terminado. Mientras trabajamos para dar un techo a los angelinos, también tenemos que evitar que se queden en el desamparo”, declaró esta semana la alcaldesa de Los Ángeles, Karen Bass.

Dijo que espera que las protecciones de emergencia aprobadas por la Ciudad de Los Ángeles protejan a los inquilinos de los desalojos ilegales. “Nadie en nuestra ciudad debería enfrentar ninguna forma de discriminación por la vivienda o un desalojo ilegal”.

A partir del 1 de abril, las protecciones de desalojo por no pago de la renta debido al covid terminaron. A fin de evitar el desalojo, los inquilinos deben pagar su renta completa cada mes.

SANTA BARBARA, CA - The renoviction of about 1,000 tenants living at CBC & the Sweeps in Isla Vista had their county supervisor, Laura Capps, calling it a Code Red at the Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday over the “exploitation from out-of-state companies in the biggest mass eviction in California.”

By the end of a long day, Chair Das Williams announced that a meeting to discuss new just cause eviction ordinance language would be held on an urgency basis on Thursday, April 6. The hearing takes place at 9 a.m.

SACRAMENTO, CA - The city of Sacramento is evaluating proposed new rules designed to protect tenants from harassment, but it’s unclear whether the draft plan will receive enough votes to pass in the next few months. 

Opponents of the tenant anti-harassment ordinance say it isn’t necessary because state laws cover many of the issues, while supporters argue it’s difficult to hold landlords accountable to existing laws. 

Council member Caity Maple proposed the ordinance and said she modeled it after renter laws passed in cities such as Richmond, Oakland and Los Angeles. Despite state and federal landlord-tenant laws, Maple said many low-income and undocumented renters in the Oak Park area are struggling with landlord harassment. Organizers with the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment told her a local ordinance could help. 

BAY AREA, CA - After more than a decade in the same Concord apartment with his wife and three kids, Antonio Avila Garcia is getting evicted.

Not because he failed to pay or broke the lease, but because his landlord wants to remodel. But Avila Garcia doesn't want to leave the tight-knit community he's built.

"We all know each other here," he said. "I even have a brother [who lives] here, too."

Major renovations are one of the few reasons outlined in the 2019 Tenant Protection Act that landlords in California can use to evict tenants who haven’t done anything wrong. The landmark legislation was designed to curb the impacts of rising rents and keep tenants in their homes. But housing advocates said the substantial-repairs exception created a loophole property owners are exploiting to kick renters out.

LOS ANGELES, CA - In the rarified air of luxury Los Angeles real estate, 30 days is a common closing timeline and two weeks would be speedy, explained Billy Rose, who’s guided buyers and sellers through high-end home purchases for years.

This week, work for Rose’s brokerage firm, The Agency, included two deals that went to closing in three days. There was one for $8.6 million and another for $14 million, said Rose, the co-founder and vice chairman. Both were cash transactions.

The catalyst is the City of Los Angeles’ “mansion tax,” a transfer tax that takes effect April 1.

LOS ANGELES, CA - “There’s never been a better time to build,” says Blackstone, the largest commercial landlord group in America.

But long-time residents of East Los Angeles neighborhoods say otherwise.

“La vivienda es un derecho humano. Housing is a human right.”

“No community benefit, no investment. Keep families home. Blackstone = Homelessness.”

These were just a few of the signs raised by a crowd of tenant protestors as they gathered in Currie Hall, a student housing building at the USC Health Sciences Campus on Wednesday.

The protest, organized by the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment L.A. (ACCE Action), consisted of tenant demands for affordable housing and an outcry against displacement in the neighborhoods surrounding USC, particularly in East L.A., where the HSC campus is located.

SAN DIEGO, CA - The largest landlord in the United States resumed evictions in 2022 after years of upholding a self-imposed eviction ban, and in at least one city that means resetting rents with huge increases, a new report says. And now, tenants in buildings owned by investment firm Blackstone are organizing to do something about it. 

Krystal breaks down how large financial players like Blackstone are hoarding American housing and pricing out millions of Americans.

SAN DIEGO, CA - Demonstrators gathered in Imperial Beach to stand in solidarity with mother of two Patricia Mendoza, who faces the prospect of losing her home.

Mendoza has lived in the house on Holly Avenue since 2017 and says she always pays her rent on time. She recently received a 60-day notice to vacate so the property can be remodeled.

But the single mom believes it’s because she pays less than her new neighbors, who live in adjacent properties that are owned by the same landlord.

LOS ANGELES, CA - Irma Cervantes could barely afford the $750 monthly rent for the converted garage apartment she lives in with her children in East Los Angeles when she worked full time at a laundromat.

When the pandemic shut down non-essential businesses, Cervantes was out of a job. Then she got sick with long COVID-19.

Now she owes 10 months rent, she said, and is trying to pay it down. Her three children, ages 19 to 23, are helping by working part-time jobs.

Her landlord has increased demands for payment and wants her out, Cervantes said. And on March 31, L.A. County’s tenant eviction protections are set to expire.

“I’m left thinking, what will happen when there aren’t any protections,” Cervantes said. “What will I do with my kids? We can’t pay $1,600 rent.”

LOS ANGELES, CA - Irma Cervantes apenas podía pagar el alquiler mensual de $750 del apartamento convertido en garaje en el que vive con sus hijos en el este de Los Ángeles cuando trabajaba a tiempo completo en una lavandería.

Cuando la pandemia cerró negocios no esenciales, Cervantes se quedó sin trabajo. Luego se enfermó de COVID-19 por largo tiempo. 

Ahora debe 10 meses de renta, dijo, y está tratando de pagarla. Sus tres hijos, de 19 a 23 años, están ayudando con trabajos de medio tiempo. 

Su arrendador ha aumentado las demandas de pago y quiere que se vaya, dijo Cervantes. Y el 31 de marzo, las protecciones de desalojo para inquilinos del condado de Los Ángeles expirarán. 

“Me quedo pensando qué pasará cuando no haya protección”, dijo Cervantes. “¿Qué voy a hacer con mis hijos? No podemos pagar $1,600 de renta”.

LOS ANGELES, CA - Following weeks of uncharacteristically gloomy days, the weather broke late in the afternoon on Wednesday, March 15, seemingly in preparation for the 4:30 PM Unite for Los Angeles Schools rally in Grand Park outside City Hall. The gathered crowd buzzed with excitement and righteous indignation. Drums and horns sounded, signs and t-shirts were given out and street vendors peddled everything from cotton candy to tacos, making the event feel more like a music festival than a rally.

Our headliners? Leaders from two of the largest unions in Los Angeles County.

Is having a roof over your head a basic human right?

Assemblyman Matt Haney, D-San Francisco, thinks so, and has proposed an amendment to the state constitution to do just that, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

Should the state guarantee a right to housing for all Californians?

A coalition of anti-poverty advocates led by Matt Haney, a Democratic state assemblymember from San Francisco, is proposing an amendment to the state constitution that seeks to do just that.

LOS ANGELES, CA - Con los alquileres por las nubes, la crisis de personas sin hogar en California continúa creciendo.

Este viernes, la Senadora María Elena Durazo, de Los Ángeles, inició su campaña para evitar que más californianos (trabajadores, familias y personas mayores) sean expulsados de sus hogares y salgan a las calles, en Dolores Mission Church en Boyle Heights, junto con todo el estado líderes de coaliciones a través del trabajo, la fe, la organización, los servicios comunitarios y la defensa.

La Senadora, autora de la Ley de Prevención de la Falta de Vivienda (SB 567), busca abordar la crisis de vivienda del estado al fortalecer la Ley de Protección de Inquilinos de California de 2019, para crear protecciones más sólidas para los inquilinos que ayuden a todos los californianos a tener acceso a refugio.

LOS ANGELES, CA - In her small studio apartment in Westlake, Leticia Graham stared at her tablet as the courtroom on her screen filled with people like her: renters facing eviction. With mounting panic, she realized she was supposed to have been there in person.

She had little saved for a new apartment and knew losing her case would leave her homeless.

But like a majority of renters in eviction court, she did not have a lawyer, and the judge was explaining that she had made crucial mistakes as the clock ticked on her trial, which was scheduled for that day. It was her only shot at staying longer in her home.

Contrary to what she believed,the judge said, a county eviction moratorium did not prevent her from being evicted. That was a mistake being repeated by renter after renter in the county’s eviction courts. And since Graham did not have a car and was appearing remotely, she would not be able to present evidence, other than her word, to win her case.

BAY AREA - Leah Simon-Weisberg, legal director for the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment Institute, wants local leaders to think bigger. Housing affordability in California was a crisis before the pandemic. And, she said it’s still a crisis for millions of families in the state.

“The real question is, what do we do for the folks who can't pay for their housing on minimum wage, who can't have three jobs now because there aren't three jobs to have?” she said. “We've now returned to our regularly scheduled housing crisis.”

ALAMEDA COUNTY - The Alameda County Eviction Moratorium Ordinance was adopted in March 2020 to help renters financially affected by the pandemic.

Three years later, some property owners are claiming tenants are taking advantage of the situation. They are calling on the Board of Supervisors to put a stop to it.

LOS ANGELES, CA - Durante la pandemia, las protecciones para inquilinos temporales contribuyeron a reducir drásticamente el número de desalojos en el condado de Los Ángeles. Según Kyle Nelson, un compañero de posdoctorado de UCLA que hizo un seguimiento de los desalojos durante la pandemia, el número de demandas de desalojo se redujo a más de la mitad durante la etapa más grave de la pandemia, de unas 40,000 a 50,000 demandas a solo 13,000.

A nivel local, algunas de las nuevas protecciones de los inquilinos se han hecho permanentes y el condado de Los Ángeles ha ampliado sus protecciones hasta finales de marzo.

SACRAMENTO, CA - Sin techo y con goteras, es como un televidente ha vivido por casi dos meses, luego de que las tormentas dañaron su casa, esto debido a que no tiene respuesta de los propietarios, por lo que una abogada explica qué hacer en estos casos y qué ayudas existen en el estado.

SAN DIEGO, CA - The City of Chula Vista’s new Tenant Protection Ordinance goes into effect on March 1. It's intended to close no-fault eviction loopholes, but some say it may also have some unintended consequences for landlords.

Along with limiting no-fault evictions, the ordinance provides more tenant relocation assistance and protects tenants from landlord harassment and retaliation.

“It also sets a precedent for other cities," said Jose Lopez, director of the San Diego Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE). “In San Diego County, we have probably the weakest tenant protection in the whole state. We’re the only major city who allows these types of evictions to continue to happen.”

RICHMOND, CA - Residentes de un complejo de apartamentos en Richmond denunciaron el jueves que viven en malas condiciones y ante la supuesta negativa de los propietarios de atender sus demandas realizaron lo que llamaron como el Tour de la Vergüenza.

Los afectados aseguran que llevan meses luchando para obtener los cambios que necesitan en sus viviendas.

"Cuando yo llegué al apartamento me dijo el dueño qué hay no se permitían mascotas entonces cuando yo entré ya estaban las mascotas incluidas porque había cucarachas, ratones arañas", aseguró uno de los inquilinos afectados.

LOS ANGELES, CA - Most people in Los Angeles are renters. But most of their political representatives are not. With voters feeling increasingly priced out of homeownership in L.A., that’s starting to change.

Candidates who rent won a number of significant local elections in November.

LOS ANGELES, CA - During the pandemic, temporary tenant protections were credited with drastically decreasing the number of evictions in Los Angeles county. According to Kyle Nelson, a UCLA postdoctoral fellow who tracked evictions during COVID, the number of eviction lawsuits went down by more than half at the height of the pandemic, from about 40,000 to 50,000 annual filings to just 13,000.

At the city level, a handful of new tenant protections have now been made permanent, and Los Angeles County has now extended its protections until the end of March. But nevertheless, eviction filings — which never fully stopped in LA — have already shot back up to pre-pandemic levels in recent months.

ANTIOCH, CA - Tenants who say they’ve reached the breaking point rallied on Thursday at Delta Pines Apartments in Antioch to demand the city pass tenant-rights measures to protect them and hold landlords accountable.

Mayor Pro Tem Tamisha Torres-Walker and Councilwoman Monica Wilson proposed an anti-harassment ordinance, and another requiring landlords to prove just cause for evictions, in late 2021. But when the council approved a rent stabilization measure capping rent increases at 3% last year, it didn’t include clauses addressing either issue.

“This has got to be passed, it needs to be passed in all these cities to protect people, to protect these children,” tenant Kim Carlson said before the rally. “They don’t deserve to be harassed. I don’t pay this amount of rent to be constantly traumatized, constantly having to look out my windows.”

SACRAMENTO, CA - El señor Bernardo contactó a Univision 19 luego de recibir una orden de desalojo para presuntamente realizar reparaciones en su vivienda. El hombre teme que, si abandona la casa, el dueño de la vivienda no le permita volver una vez realizados los arreglos.

California will delay some spending commitments, reverse recent steps to shore up its fiscal health, and shift funding sources to limit the cuts it must make to close a projected $22.5 billion budget deficit, Gov. Gavin Newsom said today.

SAN DIEGO - The San Diego City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to declare housing as a human right, a rare move for a city with a lot of housing issues.

San Diego’s resolution states housing is a “fundamental human right and reaffirms its commitment to providing more housing and services geared toward putting a roof over the head of every San Diegan.” Madison, Wis., made a similar declaration in 2011 — making it likely San Diego is only the second, or at least part of a small minority of American cities, to put into writing that housing is a right.

LOS ANGELES, CA - This afternoon the L.A. City Council approved new protections for renters. The new tenant protections are anticipated to take effect by February 1, when temporary pandemic eviction restrictions are set to expire.

Councilmember Nithya Raman, one of the council’s most dedicated renter advocates in recent years and very much the main architect of today’s ordinance, termed today’s vote “the most significant since the institution of the Rent Stabilization Ordinance.”