Tenants Together Releases Groundbreaking Report on the Impact of the Foreclosure Crisis on Renters

Tenants Together released a new report today on the impact of foreclosures on California renters. The report, Hidden Impact: California Renters in the Foreclosure Crisis, conservatively estimates that at least one third of residential units in foreclosure in California are rentals. Renters in these properties are innocent and hidden victims of a foreclosure crisis they did nothing to create.

The report provides essential insight into the hardships faced by hundreds of thousands of California renters in foreclosed properties. Renters are facing utility shut-offs, eviction, loss of security deposits, and other related problems when their homes go into foreclosure because their landlords fail to pay the mortgage. Due to loopholes in tenant protection laws and lax enforcement of existing laws, renters are living through nightmare situations - even basic rights like the right to running water cannot be taken for granted by renters in foreclosed properties. Banks routinely evict all renters after foreclosure.

According to Dean Preston, Executive Director of Tenants Together, "Banks are throwing tenants out of their homes so that properties can sit vacant. It's unconscionable. Foreclosure evictions must be stopped."

Hidden Impact provides a roadmap of what needs to be done to protect renters from the hardships described in the report. The report includes a checklist of recommended action at all levels of government. Among the various proposals, the report notes that "just cause for eviction" laws are a particularly effective and cost-free way to stop the unjust displacement of innocent renters after foreclosure.

Tenants Together is in a unique position to report on the human impact of the foreclosure crisis on renters. The organization operates California's only hotline exclusively for tenants in foreclosure situations. California tenants can reach the Tenant Foreclosure Hotline at 415.495.8012.

Data collected from the Tenant Foreclosure Hotline revealed that a shocking 62% of renters surveyed live in properties incorrectly listed as "owner-occupied" in county-based data. The report calls for further study on the issue, asserting that "a study based on actual usage of properties, as opposed to how the properties are described in county records, will reveal a significantly higher percentage of renter-occupied households." The report predicts that "the 'at least one third' estimate that we announce in this report appears to be just the tip of the iceberg."

Great Radio Coverage of Impact of Foreclosure Crisis on Tenants

From the "Economic Edge" series on Crosscurrents on KALW Radio. This excellent report includes interviews with our executive director, Dean Preston and our Tenant Foreclosure Hotline volunteer, Heather Freinkel.

Listen to the story here:
http://www.crosscurrentsradio.org/economic-edge.php?post_id=1718

"When we hear about foreclosures in the media, it's usually about one of two things. Either homeowners were victimized by predatory lenders, or they simply made their own bad financial decisions. Well, new data is coming out suggesting that a significant portion of people affected by foreclosures did absolutely nothing wrong to get into the situation. That’s because they’re tenants, who paid their rent and in some cases didn’t even know the landlord was going through foreclosure. But when the sheriff comes to evict, they bear the consequences. KALW’s Zoe Corneli brings us the story of one tenant in the Bay Area city of Brentwood."

Tenants Protest at Page Mill Properties

Youth United in Community Action (YUCA) organized a spirited march and protest yesterday that started in East Palo Alto and ended at Congresswoman Anna Eschoo's regional office in downtown Palo Alto and included a stop at the headquarters of notorious predatory landlord, Page Mill Properties.

YUCA members and organizers were joined by numerous Page Mill tenants, the EPA Fair Rent Coalition, SEIU local 521, the Raging Grannies and Tenants Together to protest Page Mill's excessive rent increases and evictions and to call on CalPERS and Rep. Anna Eschoo to intervene in the crisis. CalPERS, the California public employee pension fund, has committed a $100 million investment as a limited partner in Page Mill's rental real estate scheme in EPA.

Several tenants and activists spoke to the protesters and members of the media outside the Page Mill headquarters and Rep. Eschoo's office. The speakers included Ed Burns, an East Palo Alto Page Mill tenant and member of SEIU Local 521. The executive board of Local 521 unanimously passed a resolution in December denouncing Page Mill's practices and calling on CalPERS to intervene and pressure their limited partner to cease their rent increases and evictions. Some 25,000 members of Local 521 participate in the CalPERS pension plan.

In his speech, Mr. Burns, a homecare worker, noted the ironic and unfortunate fact that his pension dollars, and those of other Local 521 members who live in Page Mill units, are indirectly funding a predatory landlord that might evict him.

Ed Burns, representing SEIU Local 521, is a EPA Page Mill tenant.

He denounced Page Mill's conduct and called on CalPERS to

to intervene in the crisis.

The rally preceded a hearing before the EPA Rent Stabilization Board last night during which Page Mill Properties requested "substantial rehabilitation" exemption from rent control for 44 of their buildings. Tenants who live in is some of the 44 buildings testified in the hearing that many of the improvements Page Mill has been making are merely cosmetic and do not meet the required standard of "primarily structural in nature" for exemption of rent control. The Rent Board denied all of Page Mill's petitions. As the next step in their ongoing efforts to circumvent EPA's rent control laws, It is assumed that Page Mill will now file a writ in Superior Court against the EPA rent board.

For more coverage on the protest visit Palo Alto Online, Palo Alto Daily, and Indy Bay.

Check our our Flickr page for more photos. For more information on the tenant crisis in EPA visit www.epa-tenants.org

UPDATE: Check out SEIU L521's coverage of the event.

Tenant Foreclosure Hotline Ringing Off the Hook

Tenants Together launched a Tenant Foreclosure Hotline just days ago and calls are already pouring in. If you are a tenant in a foreclosure situation who needs help, give our hotline a call at 415.495.8012.