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.