Last evening, an estimated 200 Alameda renters went to their city council to demand an end to unfair rent hikes and displacement. After a hearing that lasted past 1am, the Alameda City Council voted unanimously for a temporary 8% rent increase moratorium and a ban on no cause evictions. This is a big step forward for a city in which rent increases have been unregulated to date, but it is clearly not enough. The City needs to adopt a rent control ordinance that ties rent increases to the inflation rate and prohibits no cause evictions.
Tenants Together is proud of The Alameda Renters Coalition, a member organization of Tenants Together, and all of the Alameda residents who went to City Hall to take a stand against unregulated rents and evictions. The time for rent control in Alameda is now.
Many renters were excluded from the hearing room. As landlords testified inside, a crowd of Alameda renters gathered and eventually began chanting, “let renters speak” in the hall outside the council chambers. Police tackled one protester to the ground where she lay bleeding and restrained by police. The police also arrested an ARC leader.
Tenants Together is deeply concerned with the use of force and arrests of protesters renters. Police must respect and protect the rights of renters who come to their City Council to be heard about rising rents and displacement. Tenants Together calls for the immediate release of the protesters and an investigation into the entire incident.
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