East Palo Alto Tenants Are Fighting Back

It's inspiring to see what's happening in the community of East Palo Alto right now. This rent control city is under attack by a predatory real estate investor but the people are fighting back and they're proving they have the solidarity, ingenuity, skills and determination to win.

Last Saturday the Fair Rent Now Coalition launched a petition drive with an extraordinarily well-planned and well-run event. A similar event will be held again this coming Saturday, August 2nd. The petitions being gathered for submission to the Rent Stabilization Board are not mere lists of signatures, but rather they are detailed individual complaints with sworn legal statements and all the required documentation -- including leases, rent increase notices, and proof of payment -- needed to prove the illegality of Page Mill's rent hikes.

The Fair Rent now Coalition set up an elaborate "petition clinic" for a smooth and efficient process complete with computer-automated petition processing center

Prior to the event, organizations within the Coalition such as the Family Center, Nuestra Casa, and Youth United for Community Action (YUCA), spent days canvassing in the community to let Page Mill tenants know about their rights under the rent control ordinance and to let them know about the petition drive. Once tenants arrived at the event, they found a brilliantly conceived "petition clinic" set up in the yard of a local non-profit, complete with childcare, a greeting and copy station, a waiting area, an computer-automated petition processing center, and a legal center. If this operation was any indication of what Page Mill is up against (and believe me it is) then they are in for a lot more than they bargained for.

Wanting to make certain that the petition gathering went smoothly and that the complaints gathered would meet all necessary legal standards, organizers met with lawyers from EPA's Stanford Community Law Clinic. Together they created an online petition form that could be used by volunteers to gather all the necessary information from the tenants and which could automatically calculate the maximum allowable rent. Once the tenants and volunteer assistants finished filling out the online form, the clever system printed out completed petitions with precise legal language as well as letters to the Page Mill CEO spelling out the disparities between the legal rent and the rent charged by Page Mill. All of this was created from scratch by some tech-savvy members of the coalition. Any community needing to put on a similar petition drive should definitely get in touch with these folks for pointers.

The petition gathering is just one piece in the community's fight against Page Mill Properties. A couple of weeks ago a class action suit was filed seeking injunctive relief for tenants affected by Page Mill's attempts to use sham LLCs to evade the rent control laws. Prior to that the Rent Stabilization Board voted to tighten up its rules and regulations to help thwart some of Page Mill's abuses and starting this Friday at 4:00 PM, YUCA will launch its "First of the Month" Actions which they will hold each month until Page Mill adandons these outrageous rent increases. The initial event will be a large and spirited rally outside the Page Mill Properties Headquarters in neighboring Palo Alto. Contact YUCA for more information at (650) 322-9165.

Tenants Together Files Complaint with Attorney General About Tenant Blacklisting Site

Yesterday, we filed a complaint with the California Attorney General regarding the practices of a new tenant blacklisting website, DoNotRentTo.com and its owner, Bluechip Group LLC.

DoNotRentTo.com refers to itself as "the National Tenant Reporting Company." The site offers its "members" (anyone who pays the annual fee of $29.99) access to what it calls its "bad tenant database". The site allows any website visitor, whether a "member" or not, to make "free unlimited bad tenant postings without login."

This rogue website is operating as a consumer reporting service without complying with applicable state and federal laws that protect tenants from unfair blacklisting. The result is an unchecked service that encourages landlords to trash tenants, and then allows landlords (or anyone) to access reports on tenants listed in the "bad tenant database."

Bad credit reports have a devastating impact on tenants who are trying to obtain housing. State and federal law regulates services that compile and disseminate reports on tenants. Among other requirements, these companies must provide tenants access to any reports about them, as well as an opportunity to challenge inaccuracies in those reports. The purpose is to make sure that tenants are protected from unfair blacklisting that would prevent them from obtaining housing or otherwise damage their credit.

DoNotRentTo.com is not complying with these rules. The site has countless problems, including the following:

• The website allows anyone to enter anything about any tenant, with no screening to make sure that information posted about a tenant is accurate.
• The website allows any person who pays the annual $29.99 fee to access personal information about tenants, without any effort to confirm that the person seeking the information is even a landlord, or intends to use the information for a legitimate purpose.
• The website does not provide any way for tenants to request a copy of information provided about them, or to contest the accuracy of information in the reports.
• The website provides access to partial social security numbers, partial driver's license numbers and other personal information that invades privacy and could facilitate identity theft.
• The website does not contain a privacy policy.

We don't know how large the database is, or how many landlords have used it to screen potential tenants.

At first, when we tried DoNotRentTo.com, we were pleased that the site appeared to have no tenants in its database. But that appears to have been a technical glitch in the database. When we tried again this week, we found numerous entries, with landlords trashing their tenants for all to see, and including personal identifying information about the tenants that could easily get into the wrong hands. DoNotRentTo.com needs to be shut down immediately, or, at minimum, its practices need to be radically changed.

BLOG: Rents & Rants Welcome to Rents and Rants, a blog for tenants, organizers and advocates to share their opinions and updates on tenant issue

Today's New York Times features a front page article on homeowners who rent rooms in their home to tenants as a way to defray rising housing costs in the current economy. The article discusses organizations in California, New Jersey and Vermont that specialize in matching owners and tenants in home sharing arrangements.

With rising heating costs and mortgage payments, as well as other economic difficulties, many homeowners are turning to renters to help pay the bills. For example, in New Jersy, home-shares rose 14 percent last year alone.

In many ways, the foreclosure crisis has shown just how thin the line is between owning and renting property. Once thought of as the ultimate in security, homeownership is now seen as more fleeting, with record numbers of owners being forced out of their homes and back into the rental market.

The rise of home-sharing further blurs the line between homeowners and tenants. With a trend toward both occupying the same home together, these new struggling landlords find their fate intertwined with that of their struggling tenants. The revenue from tenant rent payments may be the only thing that stands between many of these homeowners and foreclosure.

Given the current economic climate, it is not surprising that tenants seeking lower rents, and homeowners seeking to cover high mortgage costs, would move toward renting rooms within owner occupied homes. Boarding houses have long been a popular form of housing during difficult economic times, including the Great Depression during which such arrangements were common. Factor in the exorbitant cost of housing in California today, and it looks like the trend toward home sharing will only grow in the foreseeable future.

Rent Control Under Attack in East Palo Alto

Page Mill Properties has gobbled up half the rental housing stock of East Palo Alto, one of California's rent control cities. The company, and its countless subsidiaries, now own an estimated 1700 rental units after a buying spree in 2007, and they are imposing huge rent increases on their tenants. Some Page Mill tenants are facing rent increases as high as 50% in one year, not to mention questionable "utility" charges that Page Mill is imposing on tenants.

Page Mill claims that it does not need to comply with the annual rent increase limits of the local Rent Stabilization Ordinance with respect to many of these units. Among other tactics, the company has sunk so low as to try to exploit a "mom-and-pop" exemption in the local rent law. The exemption provides that property owners who own up to four units in East Palo Alto are not subject to the rent increase limits of the Ordinance. Page Mill has created a multitude of limited liability companies, each of which owns four or fewer units, and then claims an exemption from the ordinance. This is a transparent scheme to get around the rent laws.

Page Mill has essentially declared war on affordable housing in East Palo Alto, jacking up rents on long-term, low-income residents.

But East Palo Alto residents are fighting back. This rent control jurisdiction, home to thousands of low-income renters and people of color, has withstood landlord attacks on rent control before. The community is united against Page Mill, and determined to take a stand.

Tenant advocates across California should take note of this fight for the soul of East Palo Alto.