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.
When state Sen. María Elena Durazo introduced a bill in March to bolster the California Tenant Protection Act, she called for lowering the cap on rent increases to 5%, while closing loopholes landlords use to evict tenants when there’s no “just cause.”
By the time her “homelessness prevention” bill moved to the Senate floor on May 31, negotiations and compromise had watered it down. The rent cap provision was gone and several other provisions were significantly curbed.
Those victories are evidence, advocates say, that renters are gaining influence in the Capitol. Though groups representing landlords and real estate continue spending millions on lobbying and supporting candidates, tenants rights groups are starting to chip away at their influence.
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.
I’d go back to school.
These are excerpts from the many poignant conversations I’ve had with other Black Californians about what they would do with reparations payments. It’s important to listen to those voices now that the state will soon take up the matter in the Legislature.
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:
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.”
