U.S. Census Bureau says renters are among the "hardest to count"

With the 2010 census set to begin in a few weeks, advocates for "hard to count" groups -- which includes minorities, the homeless, the poor, and renters -- are trying to raise awareness about the importance of accurate counting for these communities.

From the Patterson Irrigator:

“The census has always been important, but more now than ever,” said Sallie Ayala-Perez, regional coordinator for the National Association of Latino and Appointed Officials’ census outreach in the Central Valley. “It’s imperative we count everyone, because we cannot afford to miss out on any money that will help our community survive this economic crisis.”

. . . Census workers have said they realize getting an accurate count might be hard to actually accomplish, as California has 22 percent of the nation’s “hardest to count” populations. Those groups traditionally include the homeless, poor families, minorities, children and people who are isolated by language.

This year, the U.S. Census Bureau has also acknowledged that renters, families living in large households and individuals whose homes have gone through or are in foreclosure should be considered part of that group.

People should know that the "census bureau is legally prevented from sharing someone’s personal information with anyone else. That pledge of confidentiality extends to other government agencies, such as the FBI, the CIA, the welfare department, the immigration department and even the president."

Wells Fargo is now East Palo Alto's largest landlord

On Tuesday, predatory landord, Page Mill Properties, officially lost all 1816 of its rental units in East Palo Alto to foreclosure.

With no bids made on the properties at the foreclosure auction, Wells Fargo Bank assumed ownership and became the largest landlord in the city.

The story has been widely covered in the media, including the San Jose Mercury News, KGO-TV, the San Francisco Business Times, and Palo Alto Online.

Many in East Palo Alto are glad to see Page Mill leave town.

"This creates the opportunity for justice to be done and for the law to be observed," said William Webster, a member of the city's rent stabilization board who attended the auction. "This may be the beginning of a new era of greater responsibility."

Stay tuned for more posts on this evolving story.

Legal aid lawyer calls out lenders for bullying and displacing tenants

Robert Doggett of Texas RioGrande Legal Aid appears on Fox News to talk about the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act, a federal law signed into law last year that gives tenants in foreclosed properties the right to stay in their homes for 90 days or the term of their lease, whichever is longer.

Unfortunately many foreclosing lenders, and the real estate agents they hire, are bullying tenants and not respecting their rights under the law.

Dogget says that Fannie Mae has been one of the worst offenders. Read more in his blog posts: Fannie’s Lawyers Falsely Certify Compliance With PTAF in eviction context and Fannie itself won't certify compliance with PTAF-slows program to stablize neighborhoods.

California Attorney General Should Follow Connecticut AG’s Lead: Go after banks, realtors and lawyers that violate tenant rights

by Dean Preston

Across our state, realtors and lawyers working on behalf of banks are violating federal law by illegally pushing renters out of their homes after foreclosure. The results are devastating, with thousands of tenants being driven into homelessness and communities left with vacancies and blight. Responding to a similar pattern of illegal evictions in Connecticut, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal recently announced a new initiative to aid tenants of foreclosed properties. Blumenthal issued cease-and-desist letters warning law firms, real estate companies, banks and loan servicers to stop illegal evictions. Here in California, tenants want to know whether Attorney General Edmund G. (“Jerry”) Brown, Jr., will follow Blumenthal’s lead and take decisive actions to protect vulnerable tenants.

The Protecting Tenants At Foreclosure Act of 2009 (PTFA) allows tenants to stay in their homes after foreclosure for at least 90 days or until the end of their lease term, whichever is later. In cities with just cause for eviction ordinances, tenants may not have to vacate at all after foreclosure. Despite these laws, real estate agents and lawyers working for banks routinely violate tenant rights. Our organization, Tenants Together, operates California’s only statewide hotline for tenants in foreclosure situations. We receive calls every day from tenants around the state who are being lied to about their rights and illegally evicted from their homes by bank lawyers and real estate agents.

Blumenthal’s February 2010 press release is worth quoting at length, since it shows a profound understanding of the damage that these illegal evictions have on tenants and entire communities.

“Evicted tenants are typically current on their rent, but face eviction because of their landlord's financial troubles. In many cases, real estate agents have pressured tenants to leave, without informing them of their rights under federal law. Some banks begin eviction procedures immediately upon completing foreclosure, despite the consequences for tenants and a federal law that requires a 90-day delay.”

"Tenants have rights to remain until their lease ends -- rights that deserve respect and enforcement. We're warning banks and real estate interests: foreclosure is not excuse for illegal eviction. These cease-and-desist letters send a message to powerful property owners that foreclosure gives them no right to engage in automatic eviction en masse.”

“Fast-track evictions not only harm tenants, but turn vacant properties into eyesores and even crime havens, diminishing values neighborhood wide.” "Tenants should remain in homes as long as possible -- potentially providing extra income to the new property owner, and benefiting everyone.”

"Tenants in foreclosed properties -- victims of their landlord's financial failures -- deserve to be treated fairly and lawfully when forced to find a new home. Law firms, realtors and lenders have moral and legal obligations to provide fair notice and time for tenants to find alternative housing after foreclosures. We are alerting law firms, lenders and real estate companies that they must follow this law or face legal action."

"Foreclosures devastate property owners, but also tenants whose lives are unfairly uprooted and incredibly inconvenienced. Searching for alternative housing can be difficult, costly and time-consuming -- requiring reasonable advance notice before eviction."

Blumenthal’s office sent the cease-and-desist letters to at least 15 banks and mortgage servicers, nine law firms and six real estate companies.

California has more than its share of real estate agents and attorneys engaging in illegal efforts to displace tenants. Attorney General Jerry Brown should take strong action to protect these tenants and hold realtors and lawyers, as well as the banks that employ them, accountable. In addition, the Department of Real Estate and California Bar Association should investigate and discipline their licensees who violate federal, state and local tenant protection laws.

Please take a minute to write Attorney General Jerry Brown’s office (or call him at (800) 952-5225) and urge him to go after banks, lawyers and real estate agents that violate the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act and other tenant protection laws.

Wall Street Journal covers CalPERS' predatory equity investments

In today's Wall Street Journal, reporter Craig Karmin covers the story of CalPERS' predatory equity investments in an article titled "Backlash Hits CalPERS Property Deals." With partners, Page Mill Properties (in East Palo Alto) and Tishman Speyer/BlackRock (in New York City), CalPERS invested some $600 million in schemes that had a devastating impact on tenants.

It's a story that has now been widely covered from the Sacramento Bee to the New York Times.

For more than a year, Tenants Together has been pressuring CalPERS to adopt policies that will prevent its involvement in predatory real estate investments that are predicated on displacing tenants to turn profits.

The WSJ report comes on the same day that Assemblyman Tom Ammiano's announcement that he will be introducing legislation to prevent state public pension funds from investing in predatory real estate investments (see previous post.)

The article includes accounts from East Palo Alto tenants who were forced to deal with Page Mill Properties' abusive practices as the city's largest landlord:

Eric Oberle, a history teacher, moved out of the East Palo Alto complex in August 2008, a few months after the new owners raised his monthly rent to $1,450 from $1,095. Page Mill officials told him that they had incorporated each property separately, which they maintained exempted them from rent-control laws.

Before he left, Mr. Oberle recalls the quality of life at his building deteriorated. "There was a Kafkaesque feeling to it," he says. "People would park their trucks in the driveway, so we couldn't get our cars out for hours. The owners removed all trees in front of the building. They would repeatedly measure the inside of the units, or would keep checking the gas, constantly invading our privacy. They wouldn't repair laundry machines, which all stopped working about the same time."

Assemblymember Ammiano introduces bill to prevent public pension investments in predatory schemes that displace tenants

We're very pleased to announce that State Assemblymember Tom Ammiano has introduced AB2337, a bill that would prohibit the use of state public pension funds in "predatory equity" real estate investment schemes.

Predatory equity is a particularly nasty form of real estate speculation that has a devastating impact on tenants and their larger communities. In these schemes investors knowingly pay far more for properties than they are worth based on actual rental income. The investment model is predicated on displacing low and middle-income tenants so that rents can be drastically increased or so that units can be vacated and converted to high-priced condominiums.

California public pension funds, CalPERS and CalSTRS, have both been the subject of nationwide media attention for their controversial investments in predatory equity schemes in California and New York. Tenants caught in one such scheme in East Palo Alto have faced unjust evictions, excessive rent increases, harassment, serious maintenance neglect, etc. The very future of EPA as one of the last affordable communities in the Silicon Valley region has been seriously threatened.

Today's Wall Street Journal covers this very topic in the article, "Backlash hits CalPERS property deals."

"It is unconscionable that hundreds of millions of dollars in public funds have been used in efforts to evict tenants from New York to California,” said Ammiano. “Actions speak louder than words and CalPERS needs to make its claim of socially responsible investing a reality.”

For more than a year, Tenants Together, along with tenants, activists, and elected leaders from East Palo Alto, has been pressuring CalPERS, the nation's largest public pension fund, to adopt its own policies that would prevent it from becoming entangled in predatory equity schemes. CalPERS' failure to take action has made the move to create legislation to address this issue a necessary step.

“The retirement funds of working people should not be used to evict working people. We applaud Assemblymember Ammiano for introducing this important bill that will ensure that public employee pension funds are not invested in predatory schemes that displace renters,” said Dean Preston, our executive director.

CalPERS a co-author and signatory to the UN Principles of Responsible Investment, has taken pride in being a leader in socially responsible investing. Yet it has invested hundreds of millions of dollars, with partners Page Mill Properties in East Palo Alto and with Tishman Speyer/BlackRock in New York City, in speculative real estate schemes that have proven disastrous for tenants.

The investments have also proven financially irresponsible to the public employees who have entrusted the pension funds with their retirement savings. It appears CalPERS will lose at least $600 million and CalSTRS $100 million in predatory equity schemes on both coasts as the risky investments faced push back from tenants and the properties eventually went into foreclosure.

Chris Lund, a tenant and spokesperson for the EPA Fair Rent Now Coalition who has witnessed first hand the devastating impact the schemes have on communities, also applauded the introduction of AB2337. "At its heart, this bill introduces greater transparency and accountability into California's pension fund investment decisions, something that will benefit communities across the country."

Tenants Together Members Fight Bank Evictions and Win: CNN Covers Their Stories

Thousands of tenants in California have been unlawfully evicted by post-foreclosure landlords, typically banks. With the help of Tenants Together, a growing number of tenants are standing up for their rights and winning.

Today, CNN profiled the victory of two Tenants Together members. Sandra Pearson, a Santa Maria tenant, got OneWest Bank to dismiss an eviction lawsuit against her and allow her to stay in her home through the end of her lease. Owen Casper, a San Diego tenant, fought back against an aggressive real estate agent and got Fannie Mae to offer him a new, year-long lease. Now both of these tenants have the security of knowing they can continue residing in their homes.

As Sandra posted on our Facebook page, "Remember that song - I fought the law and the law won? Today I'm singing - I fought the bank and I won!"

Read the full article CNN article by clicking here.