Wednesday, January 20, 2010

SF Landlord using Ellis Act to evict seniors in their 80s and 90s


For more than a year a landlord in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood has been trying to use the Ellis Act to evict his tenants, all of whom are seniors and all of whom have lived in the building for more than 20 years.

The landlord, Jim K. Ma, wishes to vacate the building so he can convert the units and sell them as tenancies in common (TIC). Many of the Chinese American tenants are in their 80s and 90s including a 90 year-old World War II veteran.

As State Assemblymember Tom Ammiano was quoted in a New York Times article, “This is a Grinch that stole a bit of humanity here. The weather is cold, the tenants are older. It’s a very, very crass abuse of the Ellis Act.”

Tenants and advocates have stage rallies denouncing the evictions and the Chinatown Community Development Center is suing the landlord on behalf of the tenants. This week CBS 5 TV ran a story on the evictions that included a telling interview with Steven MacDonald, the attorney representing the landlord.

According to MacDonald, there's no reason to worry about evicting 90-year-old seniors from their homes because these tenants are Asian Americans and their families are "brain surgeons. . . they're smart, hard-working industrial people, addicted to the acquisition of real estate."

According to the CBS 5 report community advocates responded to such remarks saying, yes these tenants have families, "but they are low income and can not support these renters."

Watch the TV news report and raw footage of the disturbing interview with the landlord's lawyer below (video coming soon).

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Phil Jackson breaks NBA silence on mega-landlord Donald Sterling's troubled history

Back in November, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it's biggest ever settlement in a rental housing discrimination case. NBA team owner and LA mega-landlord Donald Sterling was forced to pay $2.73 million to settle allegations of race-based housing discrimination. (Sterling has been sued multiple times for discrimination and early this month a group of tenants from one of his buildings announced a suit claiming he was responsible for the building burning down.)

Shockingly, from the time that the Department of Justice charges were initially filed, through the announcement of the record settlement, and to this very day, the response to the situation from the ever image-conscious NBA commissioner, David Stern, has been nothing but silence.

In effort to bring increased attention to the insidious crime of housing discrimination, Tenants Together launched a campaign calling on David Stern and the NBA to denounce race-based housing discrimination and to discipline Sterling.

Many sports writers and housing advocates joined us in calling upon the NBA to take clear and decisive action. Still, Stern and the NBA have refused to comment or investigate.

Finally, this weekend, LA Lakers Coach, Phil Jackson broke the NBA silence on Donald Sterling's troubled history (see video below) and his comments have brought renewed media attention to Sterling's conduct as a landlord and has once again raised the issue of the League's inaction and silence in response to a landmark housing discrimination case.

Please sign the petition calling on the NBA to denounce race-based housing discrimination and discipline Donald Sterling at NBAshowyoucare.org



Friday, January 15, 2010

Big win for disabled renters

Garrance Burke reports in an Associated Press article that under the terms of a settlement announced Wednesday by the National Fair Housing Alliance, the Stockton-based A.G. Spanos Companies will be required to retrofit 82 apartment buildings in 14 states to ease access for the disabled.

In what is likely one of the largest settlements "of its kind":
the companies will pay about $7.4 million to rehab up to 12,300 rental apartments, and will set up a $4.2 million fund for disabled renters and homeowners across the country who want to redo their own homes, bringing the total cost to about $14 million, the housing advocacy group said.
Read the full article.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Corporate slumlord benefiting from federal stimulus tax credits


California Watch, a project of the Center for Investigative Reporting, has uncovered the story of large corporations working in California reaping tens of millions of dollars in new federal stimulus funds, despite previous pollution violations, criminal probes, and allegations of fraud.

The story by Will Evans has been picked up in several media outlets including the Contra Costa Times, the OC Register, and the San Francisco Chronicle.

Tenants and advocates in San Francisco were surprised to hear that Denver-based corporate landlord, AIMCO was the beneficiary of some $13 million in stimulus tax credits to rehabilitate its housing complex in Los Angeles. As the article states:
"This federal assistance comes after the company paid $3 million in 2004 to settle a lawsuit from the city of San Francisco over complaints that it operated mold and rodent-infested buildings that posed serious safety hazards. Residents continue to complain about AIMCO’s management."
Tenants in San Francisco's Bayview neighborhood, "have complained for years of slumlord conditions and bad management at the AIMCO apartment complexes."

An AIMCO resident Dorthy Peterson said, "
If they really wanted to make sure that low income housing was built properly and for residents that were going to be treated like human beings, then they would not give it to an AIMCO."

And Sara Shortt, the executive director of Tenants Together member organization, Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco said tenants and advocates trust AIMCO, "as far as we can throw them."

Read the full article at CaliforniaWatch.org.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Sending renters off to war -- literally

As President Obama escalates the war in Afghanistan, deploying tens of thousands of troops, renters are disproportionately bearing the burden of fighting America’s wars.

Approximately 75% of America’s military personnel are renters. This is in sharp contrast to the general figures for rest of the country. While about 65% of Americans are homeowners, a mere 25% of military personnel own their own homes.

At the same time as Americans of all political stripes use rhetoric about “supporting the troops,” our government policies continue to promote homeownership and punish renters. Such policies, such as homebuyers' tax credits with no corresponding credits for renters, disproportionately harm military personnel.

Just once it would be nice to hear a politician who is talking about “supporting the troops” call for tax credits for renters, protections against unfair evictions, greater funding for section 8 vouchers or other polices that would benefit not only military renters, but the millions of other Americans who rent their homes.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

East Palo Alto activist Re'Anita Burns


East Palo Alto activist Re'Anita Burns is celebrated in this article from YUCA. Among other efforts, Re'Anita has worked with Page Mill tenants to stand up for their rights. Re'Anita joined Tenants Together last year in our trip to meet with CalPERS' staff to let them know the ugly details about the Page Mill/CalPERS partnership.

Tenants Together congratulates Re'Anita for her courage in standing up to Page Mill Properties. Against all odds, East Palo Alto tenants and organizers ultimately sent this abusive landlord packing.

SF Judges Accused of Bias Against Tenants

A scathing article published today in the online newspaper BeyondChron.org criticizes San Francisco Superior Court judges of pervasive anti-tenant bias.

"As 2009 drew to a close, the Appellate Panel at SF Superior Court quietly upheld the eviction of long-term San Francisco resident, Susan Suval. Without any explanation, the court rubber-stamped the erroneous trial court ruling that allowed a landlord to invoke the Ellis Act despite a written agreement with the City that he would do no such thing.

The case stands as the latest example of judicial bias against renters in San Francisco’s Superior Courts. Despite its progressive political climate, San Francisco continues to be one of the worst places in California when it comes to judicial bias against tenants."


Read the full article here.