Tenants Together Co-Sponsors Huge Rally to Hold Big Banks Accountable

On Tuesday, Tenants Together co-sponsored a march in San Francisco's financial district and a huge rally outside the Wells Fargo Bank annual shareholders meeting to protest the big banks' predatory practices and to hold them accountable to our communities.

As we are reminded every day on our Tenant Foreclosure Hotline, banks and the realtors and lawyers they hire, continue to harass and bully tenants in foreclosed properties. The big banks, including Wells Fargo, continue to evict innocent, rent-paying tenants after foreclosure despite the devastating effect these evictions have on our communities.

Though rain threatened to dampen the event, mother nature ultimately blessed the rally with a break in the weather and even some moments of sunshine. Hundreds of protesters from a remarkably broad coalition of labor, faith-based, and community organizations met at Justin Herman Plaza and marched through the financial district stopping at other banks along the way en route to Wells Fargo including Bank of America, Chase, and Citibank.


Tenants Together Program Director, Gabe Treves, leads the crowd in a chant: "Keep tenants in their homes!"

Members of Tenants Together along with Bay Area member organizations carried signs reading "Tenants if Foreclosed homes: We pay rent, let us stay!" and "Hey Big Bank$! Stop Evicting innocent tenants!"

The action was the first in a week of mobilizations for financial reform across the country, including an April 28th action at the Bank of America’s shareholder meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina and a national protest April 29 on Wall Street.





The event received widespread media attention. Here's a sampler:

Over 1000 Expected to March on Wells Fargo Meeting SF Appeal
Financial District Hosts Big Protest NBC 11
Protest at SF Wells Fargo Meeting CBS 5
Protestors Lauch Showdown with Monster Banks Alternet
Unions, community to Wells Fargo: We are not your ATM! Peoples World

Watch for Nela and Judy B with the Tenants Together banner at the end of the video!

Fannie Mae Takes Steps to Protect Tenants in its Foreclosed Properties

Following a complaint from Tenants Together, California’s statewide organization for renters’ rights, Fannie Mae has distributed a zero-tolerance policy advisory notice to its agents and removed from its broker network at least one of the real estate agents about whom Tenants Together had complained.

In a written advisory notice to its agents dealing with tenants after foreclosure, Fannie Mae makes clear that it expects them “to follow both the letter and the spirit of the law and to ensure that tenants are 100% clear on every option available to them” and that “not complying with Fannie Mae policy and procedure on this issue will result in termination.”

Tenants are routinely harassed, misinformed, and illegally evicted by realtors and law firms working for banks after foreclosure. This widespread problem has caught the attention of advocates, regulators, and enforcement agencies. Most recently, the Connecticut Attorney General’s Office issued a cease and desist letter to bank servicers, real estate agents, and lawyers abusing tenants in foreclosed homes.

In addition to sending the advisory to its agents, Fannie Mae has intervened on the individual cases cited by Tenants Together. As a result, Tenants Together members who were facing illegal evictions have now signed new leases and are staying in their homes.

Because real estate agents are in the business vacating properties to prepare them for sale, many often see tenants as a road block to their commission. While we applaud Fannie Mae for taking steps in the right direction, we urge it to start using property managers instead of real estate agents to discuss its newly expanded rental options with tenants.

Assembly Committee Approves Ammiano Bill to Stop Pension Funds From Investing in Real Estate Schemes that Displace Tenants

Yesterday, the Socially Responsible Investment Act, AB 2337 (Ammiano), cleared the Assembly Employees, Retirement, and Social Security Committee. The bill would ban predatory equity investments by the state’s public employee pension funds. The Assembly PERS Committee voted 4-2 to advance the bill.

"Today’s vote is vindication for the thousands of tenants who were unjustly evicted with the use of public funds,” said Assemblymember Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), author of the bill. “We unfortunately cannot undo what has happened but moving forward, our public pension funds have a fiscal and moral duty to make socially responsible investments and this bill makes those values a reality.”

The legislation is co-sponsored by Tenants Together and the East Palo Alto Fair Rent Coalition in an effort to stop predatory investments that seek to generate short-term profit through the displacement of tenants. Public pension funds have been a major source of funding for these “predatory equity” schemes that have displaced thousands of tenants and squandered hundreds of millions of dollars in retirement funds.

According to Dean Preston, Executive Director of Tenants Together, "Our goal is to make sure not another dime of public employee retirement funds is invested in these mass-eviction schemes. This committee vote brings us one giant step closer to that goal.”

Earlier this week, CalPERS, the nation’s largest public employee pension fund, adopted a policy to ban investments in real estate deals that are premised on displacing tenants. Ammiano and the bill sponsors commended the pension fund for making progress on the issue, but argued that legislation remains necessary to enact a stronger policy with the force of law.

SEIU State Council’s Terry Brennand testified in support of AB 2337. SEIU’s support is particularly important as the union represents CalPERS members. The California Teachers Association, which had opposed the bill until today, withdrew its opposition at the hearing. CalPERS representatives also testified at the hearing, but took no position on the legislation.

Tenants from East Palo Alto, a city that has been devastated by the investments at issue, came to the hearing in Sacramento to provide powerful statements in support of the bill.

Photo by Daryl Hunt.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/learnscape/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

CalPERS Bans Real Estate Investments that Displace Tenants

Yesterday, California Public Employee Retirement Service (CalPERS), the nation’s largest pension fund, adopted a policy to ban investments in real estate deals that are premised on displacing tenants. According to the new policy, “CalPERS will not participate in private real estate investment strategies that rely on or result in eliminating rent-regulated housing units, converting such units to market rate units, or raising rents above regulated levels as determined by the appropriate governing authority.” The CalPERS’ board overwhelmingly approved the policy, with only one board member voting in opposition.

“This is a major milestone in our campaign to stop investments in predatory real estate schemes that displace tenants from their homes,” stated Dean Preston, Executive Director of Tenants Together, California’s statewide organization for renters’ rights.

Tenants Together, in conjunction with the East Palo Alto Fair Rent Coalition, has been leading a campaign to stop CalPERS from investing in “predatory equity” deals that seek to generate short-term profit through the displacement of tenants. Predatory equity is a particularly nasty form of real estate investment in which investors pay more for rent-regulated housing than can be justified by the actual rental income at the time of purchase, as part of a plan to force rent-regulated tenants out of their homes and replace them with higher-rent tenants or purchasers. It is a business model premised on the displacement of tenants.

Since 2008, Tenants Together has urged CalPERS to adopt “predator-free” investment criteria. Tenants Together launched its campaign to stop pension funds from investing in predatory equity deals after learning that CalPERS had invested $100 million in a scheme led to generate short term profits in the City of East Palo Alto by driving out tenants living in rent controlled housing. Organizers soon learned of huge investments ($500 million from CalPERS) in a similar scheme in New York City. These schemes displaced thousands of tenants and did great damage to CalPERS’ reputation as a socially responsible investor. Tenants Together has been publicly critical the pension fund’s involvement in these evictions.

The predatory equity schemes not only harmed tenants, but also proved to be bad investments on purely economic terms. CalPERS lost every dollar invested in these speculative deals, including $100 million in East Palo Alto and $500 million in New York City. In repeated letters to CalPERS and in testimony before the CalPERS board, tenant advocates had predicted the collapse of these investments.

In February 2010, Assemblymember Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) introduced AB 2337, the Socially Responsible Investment Act, to ban predatory equity investments by the state’s public employee pension funds. Preston praised Ammiano’s leadership on the issue: “Assemblymember Ammiano deserves enormous credit for championing this bill to ensure that public employee pension funds stop investing in predatory schemes that displace renters.” Tenants Together is co-sponsoring the legislation, along with the Fair Rent Coalition. The bill will be heard in the Assembly PERS committee on April 21, 2010.

“CalPERS’ investment partner evicted me and my neighbors for no good reason,” said Christopher Lund, Communications Director for the Fair Rent Coalition. “It’s shameful that public employees are having their retirement funds used to throw residents of East Palo Alto out of our homes. I’m very pleased that CalPERS is taking this step to prevent these investments in the future.”

California Court Okays Discrimination Against Section 8 Tenants

by Dean Preston

Remember Donald Sterling, the NBA team owner and Los Angeles mega-landlord who has been sued multiple times for outrageous housing discrimination, most recently by the U.S. Department of Justice? Sterling is back in the news this week, again for discrimination in his role as landlord. This time, however, Sterling convinced a California Court of Appeal that it was just fine for him to discriminate against a Section 8 tenant. At this point, anyone who still believes in the myth that judges are “liberal activists” needs to have his or her head examined.

In a 33-page opinion, the Court of Appeal held that the Fair Employment and Housing Act’s “source of income” discrimination provision does not protect Section 8 tenants from discrimination based on their participation in the section 8 program. Tenants Together had joined with other organizations to file an amicus brief urging the court to hold that refusal to accept Section 8 payments was source of income discrimination under FEHA.

In the Section 8 voucher program, participating tenants pay 30% of their rent and the Housing Authority pays the balance to the landlord. It takes years for eligible tenants to be able to participate in the program. Once tenants get off the wait list, the landlord must sign a payment contract with the housing authority in order to receive the portion of the rent paid by the government. By refusing to sign onto the program, some landlords seek to force rent controlled tenants into situations where they cannot pay their rent.

The facts of this case were compelling. As described in the court’s opinion, the tenant (appellant) was an “elderly widow who immigrated to the United States from Iran in 1985 when she was 52 years old. She suffers from several physical and psychological disabilities and receives as a consequence supplemental security income (SSI) from the Social Security Administration. She has lived since 1987 in an apartment owned by respondents and continues to live there to this day …. The apartment, located in Santa Monica, is rent-controlled. After appellant’s husband died of cancer in January 2004, appellant’s SSI was no longer adequate to cover the rent, which was $1,233 per month in 2007.”

Fortunately, after being on the wait list for years, the tenants were issued a Section 8 voucher shortly before the husband’s death. The tenant informed management and requested that they undertake the necessary paperwork so the Housing Authority could pay a portion of the rent. Management rejected the tenant’s requests, refusing to participate in the Section 8 program.

As a result, the tenant remains in danger of being evicted for nonpayment of rent, since she can only afford the rent with the assistance of the Section 8 program, which the landlord refuses to accept.

This inconvenient truth was lost on the judges (Judges Flier, Bigelow and Lichtman) who not only rejected the tenant’s “source of income” discrimination claim, but also rejected the tenant’s claim that under disability discrimination laws, the landlord was required to accept Section 8 as a reasonable accommodation. The court concluded that there was no interference with the tenant’s right to use and enjoy the property, and therefore she had no basis for her disability discrimination claim:

“It is not disputed that appellant resides in the apartment she rents from respondents. In fact, it affirmatively appears from the record that appellant and her family desisted from relocating elsewhere because the accommodations she has suit her needs. In other words, there is no interference with appellant’s use and enjoyment of the premises that she is renting.”

Of course, the Court ignores the fact that by refusing to accept Section 8, the landlord is putting the tenant in danger of eviction.

Section 8 discrimination remains a major problem in our society. Often the refusal to rent to Section 8 tenants is based on inaccurate stereotypes about tenants who are part of this program. In rent control jurisdictions, as in the Sabi case, some unscrupulous landlords also see refusal to participate in the Section 8 program as a way to force out long-term tenants who cannot afford the rent without Section 8 assistance.

This is hardly a settled area of law. Sabi could choose to petition the California Supreme Court to overturn the decision. Also, state courts are not the only place that housing discrimination claims can be brought, so future litigants may decide to raise these claims in federal courts. Indeed, the Sabi Court itself recognized that other jurisdictions have reached different results on these issues.

Regardless of the ultimate outcome, this case flags a serious issue facing Section 8 tenants and stands as another reminder that California courts are loath to use their discretion to interpret laws in a manner that protects tenants.

Dean Preston is the Executive Director of Tenants Together, California’s statewide organization for renters’ rights. For more information about Tenants Together, visit www.TenantsTogether.org.

Tenants Together Celebrates Second Anniversary

Tenants Together turns two this month! We are incredibly proud of what we've been able to accomplish in just 2 years. We have already helped thousands of tenants across the state, counseling tenants on our hotline, exposing bad landlords, supporting anti-eviction laws, and beating back landlord attacks on rent control. On a shoestring budget, and thanks to our amazing volunteers and supporters, we empower tenants every day to stand up to abusive landlords.

If you'll be in the area, join us for a gathering at our office on Monday, April 19 as we celebrate this historic effort to build a strong and permanent statewide tenant rights movement.

Food, beverage & live music provided. Hope to see you at our anniversary party!

Please RSVP on our event page.

4/27 Hold Big Banks Accountable! Join TT for a rally and march to the Wells Fargo Annual Shareholder Meeting

RSVP on facebook and contact andy@tenantstogether.org if you plan to attend this event!

April 27, 2010, 12:00 Noon to 3 p.m.

March starts at Justin Herman Plaza (Embarcadero and Market) in downtown San Francisco. Rally outside the shareholder meeting at the Merchants Exchange Building, 465 California Street.

On Tuesday, April 27, more than 1,000 people from faith, labor and community groups will march through the Financial District to Wells Fargo’s annual shareholder meeting, where a delegation will address the bank’s top executives and demand changes to corporate practices that have bankrupted families and public coffers while enriching those who crashed the economy.

The action is the first in a week of mobilizations for financial reform across the country, including an April 28th action at the Bank of America’s shareholder meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina and a national protest April 29 on Wall Street.

California has been crippled by banks’ foreclosures. The state had 632,573 foreclosures in 2009 alone. In addition to homeowners, more than half a million tenants have been evicted from foreclosed properties through no fault of their own. The state budget faces an estimated $15 billion gap, while local governments are losing more than $13 billion from declining property tax revenues.

Wells Fargo was one of the top three mortgage lenders who did subprime and predatory loans in California during the housing bubble. See National People’s Action’s 2009 report “The Truth About Wells Fargo: Racial Disparities in Lending Practices” (posted at www.showdowninamerica.org) for more info about the bank’s history of targeting people of color for high-cost loans.

We are calling on Wells to be accountable for its irresponsible lending practices by stopping foreclosures and tenant evictions, ending race-based predatory lending and doing their part to create jobs and credit access for a fair economic recovery,” said Domingo Delgadillo, community leader with Contra Costa Interfaith Supporting Community Organization and the PICO National Network.

Participating organizations:
AFL-CIO, Alameda Labor Council, Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, California Labor Federation, California Reinvestment Coalition, Causa Justa: Just Cause, Contra Costa Interfaith Supporting Community Organization, Contra Costa Labor Council, North Bay Labor Council, Napa Solano Labor Council, National People’s Action, PICO National Network, Right to the City, Sacramento Labor Council, SEIU, South Bay Labor Council, and Tenants Together.

RSVP on facebook and contact andy@tenantstogether.org if you plan to attend this event!

Take Action! Urge Assembly Committee to Support Ammiano's Tenant Legislation

Assemblymember Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) has introduced legislation in Sacramento that would prevent state public pension funds from investing in schemes that are predicated on the displacement and abuse of tenants in order to turn profits. Take action today to make sure the Assembly pension oversight committee approves the bill and sends it to the full Assembly for a vote.

California public pension funds, CalPERS and CalSTRS, have invested, and recently lost, some $700 million dollars in "predatory equity" schemes in East Palo Alto and New York that have resulted in the displacement of thousands of low and middle-income tenants and have been devastating to the affected communities. For nearly two years Tenants Together has been pushing CalPERS to adopt policies that would prevent it from ever again getting entangled in these reckless and immoral investments. CalPERS' inaction on the issue has made legislative reform necessay.

CLICK HERE TO TAKE ACTION by contacting the members of the assembly committee and urging them to support this important legislation for tenants.