Organizing Tenants: Housing Long Beach

In 2015 Housing Long Beach joined as a new member organization of Tenants Together. In 2002, with a growing population and shrinking resources, a group of concerned Long Beach residents and advocates got together to respond to the housing crisis in our city. With 58% of Long Beach residents as renters, and three-quarters of the housing stock greater than 30 years in age and in deteriorated conditions, working families in Long Beach needed safe and affordable places to live. The coalition continued to organize and advocate for equitable housing policies, and in 2009 formed a board, hired staff and became Housing Long Beach. The organization was incorporated in 2011. Read more...

What do you think is the #1 issue facing renters in your community?
The answer to this question is very simple = retaliation. In the City of Long Beach we do not benefit from any local protections for renters. Over the years, the lack of protections has created a heavy blanket of fear for most renters we have met and worked with. People are just scared to report any safety or habitability issues to their landlords because of the fear of retaliation in the form of eviction or rent increases. So, many folks just keep quiet and try to remedy the situations themselves to no avail.

Rally at MLK Day 2015

How does your organization help?
One way we support our renters is by informing and educating them on their rights (usually state level). At the same time, we are obliged to inform and educate them of the risks in upholding those rights. We educate them on the Code Enforcement system set in place in our city and how they may access these city services. Once again, informing them of what it entails and what may ensue.

As organizers, we engage those interested in joining the movement for more renters rights in our city. We provide them with education, training, workshops and outreach opportunities to take action and raise their voices. We prepare them to speak at City Council meetings, to meet their council members and demand changes.

We provide whatever support we can and connect our residents to whatever services we can to help them defend themselves and take recourse for their injustices.


What are some priority campaigns for this year?
We are at the tail end of a very important campaign to bring more tenant protections to our renters. We have been working for the last 2.5 years on a campaign to bring the Rent Escrow Account Program (REAP) to Long Beach. At the end of last year’s campaign, we were able to have City Council request an investigation of the viability of the REAP policy in Long Beach. The city staff has just reported their findings, which were unfavorable. However, we are working with our community and city leaders to bring this report forth in the public eye, so we can have a healthy discussion and deliberation about the need for a program which protects our residents from retaliatory slumlords.

Therefore, the results of the REAP campaign will dictate the next steps for the organization. In the meantime, we are beginning our outreach and research on incorporating more tenant organizing to our work.

Why do you think it’s important to support a statewide movement for renters’ rights?
Our housing crisis, be it with the lack of affordable housing, tenant rights, or habitability is a state wide issue, if not a nationwide issue. Housing and the quality of which, is directly tied to educational, health, and economic outcomes. The housing crisis will effect all of our surrounding communities and cities across the state. Therefore, our residents believe we should be involved in regional and statewide movements, because our issues are our neighbor’s issues and vice versa.

Our residents firmly believe we need not only organizer and build power within our own communities. They also believe it is important we all help one another for well-being of everyone in the county and state. Our residents are excited to learn and grow around tackling statewide work, as they lay in faith in that what happens on the state level, will benefit them as well.

Member Spotlight: Ora in Concord

Ora Prochovnick, JD, is currently a Professor at John F Kennedy University. Over her law career, Ora has been frequently recognized for contributing expertise and legal assistance to the community in the area of housing advocacy, assistance to persons with AIDS, and LGBT rights. Recently she decided to support Tenants Together's work in Concord, Contra Costa County by hosting our monthly clinic at JFKU's community center in Concord and encouraging her students to volunteer as well as volunteering her time.

Ora Prochovnick, JD, is a Professor at JFK University

As a child growing up on the south side of Chicago, I experienced the impact of housing injustice when my family had to deal with the stress, turmoil and dislocation of frequent moves because of evictions, threats of eviction and condo conversions. Despite this we were always safely housed and I realize what a privilege this was. Sadly I came tor realize this was not a privilege enjoyed by all, despite the fact that housing is a basic human necessity. This realization is what in large part has led me to advocate for renters' rights. When a basic human service, such as shelter, is combined with the severe greed, profit motive and shortages which are especially rampant in the bay area market, it results in an essential unfairness which I believe must be addressed.  I support Tenants Together because it is the only organization which is trying to address this problem at the statewide level, and because it does this through grassroots organizing work, which I believe is so essential to building a movement and creating lasting change. To me housing justice means: healthy, safe and affordable homes for all, located in a diverse community which is accessible to places of employment, shopping, services and open spaces.

Member spotlight: Zack in San Francisco

We're starting a new series profiling our members and how they got involved with Tenants Together and the fight for renters' rights. Members are active across the state, some volunteer in whatever way they can, others organize tenants in their own communities. Zack has been a volunteer on our Tenant Rights Hotline since 2014, counseling fellow tenants on their rights and how to assert them. Want to become a member? Join now.

In 2014, Zack was happy to be our 2000th "Like" on Facebook!

I was moved into a Trinity Plaza in March of 2009, which was a dilapidated building that was going to be torn down within the next year. My apartment ended up having bedbugs, for which building management tried to say was my issue alone. Luckily, I contacted SF Health Services, who informed me of my rights. For moving into the old Trinity Plaza building, I was promised that I would move into a brand new apartment at Trinity Place in 2010, which would be rent controlled according to my Trinity Plaza apartment. I had lived in the Trinity Place apartment without a single negative incident, yet when I started to date someone that I cared about and had the person stay over, Trinity provided me with a Notice to Cure or Quit. Specifically, the lease that I had moved into Trinity Plaza with stated that I could not have a guest stay over for more than 10 days in a calendar year. When I mentioned to Trinity that this person was my significant other, a lawyer for Trinity said, "Trinity does not care if you are in a relationship, if you want to live with your significant other, you need to move out and find an apartment at the market value."

It was very obvious that Trinity was and is looking to push out people that are under rent control from their apartments. I tried to fight this, but the lawyers were relentless, and I did not see a way out. So, I provided Trinity Management with a notice that I was moving out. Upon moving out, Trinity Management inspected the apartment and stated that I owed them in excess of $400, in addition to my security deposit amount, to fix up the apartment, which included painting and cleaning. Initially, Trinity Management would not take into account normal wear and tear to the apartment. Further, I used a professional cleaning service to clean the apartment, including the appliances. After drafting several appeals to their gross misrepresentation of money owed, Trinity Management lowered the amount requested by 60%, which still meant that they kept my security deposit.

Because of the injustice I faced, I decided to volunteer with Tenants Together, as I wanted to be proactive in the fight for Tenants' Rights. Helping people find their voices and direction in their fight for Tenants' Rights gives me great joy, as I am able to help people stand up against slumlords, who are really just concerned with making as much in terms of profits as possible. Housing Justice is needed, as affordable housing is disappearing, especially in San Francisco. Soon, San Francisco will be a city for the wealthy and the poor, where the middle class people will not have a place to live in SF.