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Take action
Monday, April,
1, 9am - 12 noon, the housing
committee of the City’s LGBT Aging Policy Task
Force is holding a hearing into the housing
concerns of LGBT seniors. The hearing is part
of the committee’s investigation into the
housing needs of LGBT seniors, will be
held on Monday, April 1, 9 AM - 12
noon, in room 416 of City Hall. All LGBT
seniors are welcome to come testify about
their housing concerns, no matter what type of
housing they live in: rent-controlled, public
housing or other subsidized units, Section 8,
an SRO, a shelter, a home that they own, etc.
Homeless seniors are also invited to talk
about issues in the city's shelters or the
difficulty of finding a place to live. Other
areas of concern include:--threats of eviction, actual eviction or fear of eviction; --landlord is not doing repairs or tenant is afraid to ask for repairs; --housing is not safe or secure or has an infestation; --home is under threat of foreclosure or has been foreclosed. To testify, simply show up and fill out a speaker’s card. For more information, contact Tommi at 703-8634. In the
news
"Happy Holidays, now get the hell out!" Housing
Rights Committee and other tenants groups held a
"Happy Holidays, now get the hell out!" press
conference and rally on December 19 in front of
the giant Xmas tree at 18th & Castro to denounce the
recent rise in Ellis Act evictions and call on
state legislators to repeal the law. A state
law, Ellis allows a landlord to circumvent rent
control protects and evict all of the tenants in
a building. A lot of tenants attended who are currently being evicted by the Ellis Act by landlords or speculators who will no doubt be turning their places into tenancies in common (see item above). Tenants were from various neighborhoods -- including the Mission, Castro, Chinatown/North Beach, Richmond, Sunset, and Haight. Tenant speakers spoke of the hardship of being evicted during the holidays. Many were disabled persons, people with AIDS, seniors, immigrants or single mothers with children. Press coverage was generally positive, including a report on channel 5 and stories in the SF Chronicle, the Bay Guardian and the Mission Local. One of the tenants being evicted, Jeremy, who lives in the Castro and has AIDS, has set up a website: Ellishurtsseniors.org. Come and tell the supervisors that
in San Francisco we need more affordable housing.
The land use committee of the board of
supervisors is holding a hearing into housing
for low-income people on Monday, April 9 at 2pm
in the second floor supervisors chamber. Your
voice is urgently needed. The supervisors need
to hear from all of us that the greatest need in
the city right now is for more housing for
working-class and low-income people. The reality is that the city is not building enough affordable housing. A new report shows that 61% of new construction should be for people who need affordable housing. But it's not. The majority of what's currently being built shuts out most of us. Please come to the hearing and tell the supervisors that we need affordable housing, not market rate condos! Join us for the housing and tenant
actions as part of
Occupy
Wall St. West this Friday, January 20 to protest
big corporate landlords and the role the big
banks play in evicting tenants.Our main SFTU action will be to Occupy Fortress Investments—the landlord of Parkmerced—at 4:00 PM at 1 Market St. Fortress is an example of predatory equity scams where landlords and banks buy apartment buildings with the intent of removing units from rent control or evicting rent controlled tenants and replacing them with market rent tenants. In this case, Fortress is demolishing over 1,500 rent controlled apartments at Parkmerced and has evicted hundreds of Parkmerced tenants in recent months. From there, we’ll join the Mass March & Rally scheduled for 5 PM at Justin Herman Plaza (across the street from 1 Market St), which will wind up the day’s actions. Here’s the schedule for the day: 9 AM Occupy Citi Bank 1 Sansome Street We will bring our foreclosed home's furniture to our new home: right in front of Citigroup's SF headquarters at 1 Sansome. We will hold a housewarming party, red cups, (nonalcoholic) punch, and music. The action will be low-risk and we will disperse upon police order, when our police liaison says it's time. We may possibly relocate to another bank location with our moving truck and furniture. 12 Noon Occupy Fannie Mae 50 California St. We’ll protest the role Fannie Mae played in luring homeowners into predatory loans and then foreclosing on them, as well as the thousands of empty homes Fannie Mae is sitting on—homes which could be turned into affordable rentals. 4 PM Occupy Fortress Investments 1 Market St. We’ll demand that Fortress stop the demolition of rent controlled apartments at Parkmerced and we’ll demand that Fortress stop evicting tenants at Parkmerced. We’ll try to occupy their office and give them a demand letter (this will also be a low risk action, leaving after we give the demand letter) and if we can’t get in we’ll try to demolish Fortress with some props. Then join the Mass March and Rally at 5 PM at Justin Herman with Occupy SF, labor groups and community groups. For all Occupy Wall Street West actions see www.occupywallstwest.org. Tenants groups to occupy SF
Together with Occupy SF, tenants
and homowners will take to the streets on
December 3 for a full day of actions against
banks and realtors for "evictions and
foreclosures for profit."As an information leaflet describes it: "From the subprime mortgage crisis that began our current recession, to bank bailouts, the rising rates of homelessness and policies like the Ellis Act that prioritize profit over people, housing has been central to the occupy movement in San Francisco, and around the country." The reason for the actions: "We gather and rally in four neighborhoods in San Francisco which have experienced high rates of evictions for profit, and highlight the local struggles of the 99% against banks, and greedy real-estate speculators." The day will
begin with four actions in the four
neighborhoods -- the Bayview at 11am (meet at
3rd and Palou), the Castro at noon (meet at
Harvey Milk Plaza, Castro and Market),
the Mission at 1pm (meet at 24th and Mission)
and the Tenderloin at 2pm (meet at the Civic
Center). At 3pm, tenants and homeowners will
come together with Occupy SF at its encampment
at the Embarcadero and then march to a bank
and the site of tenant resistance to
evictions.
Here's the link to the two facebook pages for this action: the one for the overall events, click here; for the one for the Castro, click here; for the TL page, click here. We will be posting more info as we receive it. Parkmerced
evicting lots of
tenants
Pa
rkmerced, one of San Francisco's
largest apartment complexes, has issued 197
three-day notices to renters, many of them
low-income Section 8 tenants, alleging that they
owe money for utilities, according to a report in
the SF Examiner. But some of the residents, among them Sheila Jackson, a Section 8 tenant, were unaware that they were supposed to pay the money and ignored letters which looked like junk mail. Instead of collecting on the debts right away, the apartment complex let them pile up for a while. Which strikes tenant advocates as highly suspect, since the same complex is preparing a $1.2 billion development project (see article below) that was approved by the Board of Supervisors with the understanding that tenants not be displaced. “It may very well be legal for them to simply not demand anyone pay rent, let it pile up, then suddenly come after tenants for huge sums of back rent,” said Sara Shortt, director of the Housing Rights Committee of SF. “But it doesn’t seem fair.” Board member John Avalos, who voted against the development project, said, “They could be making families homeless, and if they’re making families homeless, The City has a responsibility to try to stop that from happening.” PJ Johnston, a spokesperson for Parkmerced, is denying that the landlord is trying to move low-income people out in preparation for the demolition project. Miguel
Wooding dies in accident
A giant of tenants rights here in
San Francisco, Miguel Wooding, 46, died last
weekend in a snorkeling accident while on
vacation visiting his family in Mexico. According to a letter from Miguel's sister that has been circulating around, he may have been run over by jet skis operated by life guards. She is asking that people write to the U.S Consulate and ask for an investigation into Miguel's death. The email is consularmerida@state.gov. Director and founder of the Eviction Defense Collaborative and a longtime advisory board member of the Tenants Union as well as a tireless fighter for tenants rights, Miguel was a friend to all of us. He fought hard to keep tenants in their homes and to strengthen the rights we all enjoy. It's impossible to imagine the tenants movement without him. Testimonials
about his life and work are just beginning to
appear on the internet. Click here for the
article in beyondchron. Click here for a blog
piece about Miguel by staffer Tommi Avicolli
Mecca.
Parkmerced
demolition heads for ballot
The question of whether
Parkmerced will get to tear down 1,500
rent-controlled apartments to build
replacement units plus thousands of other new
ones could end up on the ballot this November,
along with a measure to outlaw the demolition
of buildings with 50 units or more.The Tenants Union is circulating petitions for a referendum on the ordinance the Board of Supervisors passed weeks ago approving the destruction of the rent-controlled units. Though Parkmerced has agreed to voluntarily keep the replacement units under rent control, tenant activists are dubious that the agreement will hold up under a legal challenge, due to a state law called Costa Hawkins, which prohibits rent control on units built after 79. Board President David Chiu added a bunch of amendments designed to strengthen the rent control protections, but, again, there is no guarantee that if there is a legal challenge, these amendments will stand or be struck down by the court. The referendum puts the voters of San Francisco on record protesting the passage of the Parkmerced demolition ordinance and asking that the Board "reconsider and repeal said ordinance, or, if not entirely repealed, then to submit (it) to a vote of the electors." The second
ballot measure was submitted by the five
supervisors (Jane Kim, John Avalos, Eric Mar,
Ross Mirkarimi and David Campos) who opposed
the Board legislation. It would make it
illegal to demolish buildings with 50 units or
more.
Ammiano:
14-day to replace
3-day notice
Assemblymember Tom Ammiano (D-SF)
has introduced legislation to change the
notice that landlords are required to give
tenants when they owe rent from three to
14-days. That would give tenants more time to
get together the money so that they won't get
evicted. Right now, after the three days, a
landlord can file an unlawful detainer against
the tenant to start the legal process of
removing them from their unit.Ammiano told the San Deigo Union-Tribune: "Many of these people have nowhere to go and have no other resources. It's simply an extension." Dean Preston, director of Tenants Together, the statewide California tenants rights organization, noted that in other states, tenants get more time to come up with the money to pay the rent when they're behind. "We believe it's reasonable to expect, particularly in this current economy," said Preston, "that tenants who can't come current within three days should have to vacate their homes." Landlord groups are, of course, opposed to the measure. New law helps
tenants in fires
San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee
recently signed into law legislation from
Supervisor Scott Wiener that allows a
landlord to be a "Good Samaritan" and rent
to a tenant who is forced out of his or her
apartment because of a fire or a public
health or safety problem.Under the law, which is an amendment to the rent ordinance, the landlord can charge the displaced tenant the same rent he or she was paying in the apartment from which he was forced to move, but only for an agreed upon period, not to exceed a year. A one-year extension can be granted to that agreement. After that period, the landlord can raise the rent up to market. The purpose of the law is to give tenants an affordable place while their old apartment is being repaired or brought up to code. A city official must verify that the tenant was displaced due to a fire or public health or safety problem. Said
Wiener: "This legislation makes it much
easier for property owners to provide
affordable temporary housing to tenants who
have been displaced. I’m proud to have
worked with both tenant and landlord groups
to make this law a reality.”
Citi Apartments case
settled
City Attorney Dennis Herrera
announced the settlement of a
four-and-a-half-year legal battle with
CitiApartments and its complex web of
corporate and individual affiliates with an
unprecedented injunction to protect tenants,
and penalties that could reach as high as $10
million over the next five years, depending on
the defendants' financial condition. SF
Superior Court Judge John E. Munter approved
the injunction, which is part of the 88-page
settlement agreement.Herrera sued the once rental property giant in Aug. 2006 for an array of unlawful business and tenant harassment practices, which often harrowingly dispossessed long-term residents of their rent-controlled apartments. The coerced vacancies freed the landlord to make significant -- and almost uniformly unpermitted -- renovations to units, and then re-rent them to new tenants at dramatically increased market rates. The illegal business model appears to have enabled CitiApartments, Skyline Realty and other entities under the sway of real estate family patriarch Frank Lembi to aggressively outbid competitors for residential properties throughout San Francisco for several years -- before lawsuits and a sharp economic downturn forced the aspiring empire into bankruptcies, foreclosures and receiverships. "After a
years-long legal battle over shocking
anti-tenant and anti-competitive practices,
we've secured the toughest, most detailed
injunction to protect tenants in San Francisco
history," said Herrera. "This injunction
allows us to aggressively police
CitiApartments and its affiliates, now and in
the future. It financially punishes the
offenders to the extent their assets allow,
while assuring additional penalties against
their future income.
"But the success of this case doesn't belong to the City Attorney's Office alone," continued Herrera. "It belongs, too, to the San Francisco Department of Building Inspection and the Building Inspection Commission. Perhaps most important, it belongs to all the tenants, activists and journalists who helped provide us with the ammunition necessary to take on the Lembi real estate empire from the start. I'm especially grateful to all the community advocates from 'CitiStop' for their tireless efforts." Herrera's litigation included extensive evidence gathered through the City Attorney's Office's own investigation as well as from the nearly 300 tenants and witnesses who contacted Herrera's office in the weeks after he filed suit. The case was also aided by tenants and witnesses identified in an award-winning investigative series that the Bay Guardian published in March 2006, and by the aggressive community outreach efforts of a coalition called "CitiStop." That coalition included the SF Tenants Union, the Housing Rights Committee, the San Francisco Labor Council, the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club, the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club, the San Francisco Peoples Organization, SEIU Local 790 and Causa Justa. |
How would you like to be a volunteer counselor? These rent strikers would, if they didn't live a century ago and in another city far from our office. The fact is that Housing Rights Committee of SF is always looking for a few good counselors to help tenants when they come into the office for help. We will provide all the training and materials you need to learn what you need to know. Training takes place during counseling hours, Monday through Thursday, 1-5pm. If you have a few hours to spare each week, come help tenants in SF learn about their rights and fight back. Call Tommi or Stephanie at 703-8634 to schedule a time to come in and start training. Two of the joys of counseling: You learn all about tenants rights and are prepared in case you have any problems without your housing. You get to astound your friends at parties with how much you know about tenants rights in SF. |