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).

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Winter newsletter is now available online

The latest edition of the Tenants Together newsletter is now available online.

Included in this edition:

*Federal law protects tenants at foreclosure
*Growing number of cities adopt "just cause" laws
*CalPERS to lose $600M in predatory equity schemes
*Local highlights from across the state
*State legislative updates
*Court watch and more!

If you prefer receiving a print copy of the newsletter, please become a member today and we'll send it to you.

One roadblock to meaningful representation for the poor falls -- LSC halts enforcement of rule against clients recovering statutory attorney fees

The Legal Services Corporation will no longer enforce the rule that barred clients represented by legal services agencies from collecting attorney fees. Until this recent move, clients represented by private sector lawyers could recover attorney fees provided by statute, but clients represented by legal services lawyers were barred from recovering these fees. Any legal services agency that collected attorney fees from a defendant risked losing its LSC funding.

Here's the LSC's update on the new nonenforcement policy on fee restrictions:

"The Fiscal Year 2010 appropriation for LSC lifts the statutory prohibition on the recovery of attorneys' fees by LSC-funded programs. In light of that action, LSC's Board of Directors voted on December 15 to suspend enforcement of LSC's regulation prohibiting grantees from claiming, collecting or retaining attorneys' fees. The suspension went into effect December 16, when the President signed the appropriations bill."

The attorney fee rule is one of a serious of restrictions that has handcuffed attorneys representing the poor. Other restrictions include a prohibition on LSC funded groups initiating class action litigation or participating in lobbying efforts on behalf of their clients. Meanwhile, funding for legal services agencies has been gutted due to Republican led efforts since the mid-1990's.

The restrictions and funding cuts have devastated the ability of legal services organizations to advocate for their low-income clients.

For low-income tenants who rely on local legal aid organizations, nonenforcement of the fee rule is an extremely important first step toward restoring meaningful access to the courts. The remaining restrictions should be removed promptly, and funding for legal services organizations should be dramatically increased.

TV News story covers the devastating impact of a predatory equity scheme on East Palo Alto

Hank Plante of CBS-5 News in San Francisco covers the story of the devastating impact Page Mill Properties' predatory equity scheme has had on the community of East Palo Alto. This report follows Bobby White's recent article in the Wall Street Journal about increased crime in properties that have been neglected by Page Mill Properties and CEO David Taran.

The report includes an interview with Tenants Together Executive Director Dean Preston where he explains how predatory equity schemes work and how the damage they cause communities is sadly predictable.

Watch for Page Mill PR spokesperson Sam Singer's classic remarks around the two-minute mark. According to him the recent "problems that are occurring are really the fault of someone else."

Page Mill's predatory equity scheme in East Palo Alto was partially financed by a $100 million investment from CalPERS, the state's public employee pension fund and has become the subject of increasing news coverage that explains the tenant impacts of such schemes, including stories in the Sacramento Bee and SF Bay Guardian, .

Tenants Together on Edge of Sports Radio with Dave Zirin

Our Executive Director Dean Preston was a guest this week on Dave Zirin's nationally broadcast "Edge of Sports" radio show, a program that covers issues at the intersection of sports and politics.

Listen to Zirin's interview with Preston.

Preston explained why Tenants Together has launched the "NBA: Show You Care" Campaign which calls on the NBA and Commissioner David Stern to condemn racist housing discrimination and to discipline Donald Sterling, the Los Angeles mega-landlord and Clippers basketball team owner. According to an announcement from the U.S. Department of Justice this month, Donald Sterling is obligated to pay the largest settlement for rental housing discrimination in the department's history. So far the NBA has refused to investigate or even comment on the issue.

Zirin wrote an excellent piece in The Nation lamenting the NBA's silence on this issue. He points out the NBA's hypocrisy in how it deals with players vs. owners and calls for strict action against Sterling:

NBA Commissioner David Stern, always so PR-conscious when it comes to where players mingle, how players dress and whom players consort with after hours, has turned a blind eye to this disturbing pattern. Now these chickens have returned to Stern's back porch to roost. The NFL's union and players spoke out against Limbaugh. The NBA's should absolutely do the same. But even that is not enough. Owners are very fond of declaring "eminent domain" when they need to expel residents, bulldoze apartments and build stadiums. NBA fans need to declare eminent domain on Sterling. It was our game before it was ever his. Every fan of conscience needs to get in touch with the commissioner's office and say that Sterling has got to go.

Please watch the campaign video and sign the petition to the NBA at NBAshowyoucare.org.

Sacramento Bee Runs Front Page Story on CalPERS' Predatory Equity Investments in East Palo Alto and New York City

We were very pleased to see the Sacramento Bee covering the story of CalPERS' predatory real estate investments on the front page of today's paper.

Read the full article: "CalPERS realty deals and image take a beating" by Dale Kasler

The Sac Bee story follows an excellent recent piece, "The pension fund evictions," from Ryan Riddle in the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

Tenants and advocates in East Palo Alto and Tenants Together have been working for more than a year to get the mainstream media interested in this story, and today's article is an encouraging sign that those efforts are starting to pay off. It appears the media is beginning to connect the dots between these reckless and greedy investment schemes and the devastating impact they have on low and moderate income communities.

This media attention wasn't soon enough to mitigate the awful impact that CalPERS' predatory equity investments in East Palo Alto and New York City have already had on countless tenants, but perhaps the light finally being shed on these issues will help move the public pension fund to reform its investment policies and prevent future debacles.

Here's a excerpt from today's article:

Advocates for tenants' rights say the California Public Employees' Retirement System didn't merely blunder into a couple of bad deals.

Rather, they say the $200 billion investment fund was party to a pair of schemes to jack up rents at the expense of thousands of working-class and middle-class tenants.

"There's absolutely no reason a public employee pension fund ... should choose to invest in that," said Dean Preston, executive director of San Francisco advocacy group Tenants Together.

The controversy could become another public-relations headache for CalPERS, which is struggling with heavy investment losses and a possible influence-peddling scandal. The system manages retirement benefits for more than 1.6 million California public employees, retirees, and their families.

We were also pleased to see that the article included quotes from tenants and allies in East Palo Alto including Mayor Rubin Abrica, Juliet Brodie of the Stanford Community Law Clinic, and tenant activist, Chris Lund.

Once again, we call on CalPERS to take responsibility for its involvement in these schemes and work with tenant advocates to adopt predator-free investment policies that will prevent it from ever again entangling itself in schemes of these type in the future.

Racist Landlords and the NBA

Today Trina Chiasson of YouthNoise Play City posted an excellent piece on her organization's blog about race-based housing discrimination, encouraging folks to sign our petition which demands that the NBA condemn racist housing discrimination and discipline Donald Sterling.

YouthNoise Play City is a nonprofit that promotes sports for social change.

Thanks Trina for letting us repost!

Racist Landlords and the NBA
by Trina Chiasson
YouthNoise Play City

Yesterday a California renters' rights organization, Tenants Together, launched a new campaign called NBA: Show You Care.

Their goal? To prompt the NBA to discipline LA Clippers owner and big-time landlord Donald Sterling for his willful engagement in housing discrimination. A Tenants Together press release said this:

According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), Sterling “Engaged in a pattern or practice of discriminating on the basis of race, national Origin, and family status.” The DOJ stated that Sterling “refused to rent to African Americans” and that his conduct was willful.

Indeed, Sterling was forced to pay a whopping $2.725 million in the largest housing discrimination settlement to date. But even this sizable chunk of change isn't enough to compensate for the damages caused by many years of racial discrimination and unlawful activity in the housing market. Many would like to see further discipline for Sterling's actions. Many would like to see the NBA acknowledge and take action to address racism within its ranks.

Political sportswriter Dave Zirin added: "Court testimony claimed that Sterling had said he did not like to rent to Hispanics because "Hispanics smoke, drink and just hang around the building." Witnesses testified that he also said, "Black tenants smell and attract vermin."

Woah. Is this really the type of leadership that we want to see in the NBA? I sure hope not.

Housing discrimination is insidious and largely invisible to enforcement agencies. Most people of color won't start a lawsuit after experiencing housing discrimination on a personal level. It's expensive and difficult to prove. If you're renting, you probably don't have the cash to hire a lawyer or the time to research tenants' rights. Most folks will just silently wonder: Is it just me? Is it a personal fault? Is it my credit score? My references? But then there's that nagging question: Or could it be the color of my skin?

How could one possibly know the precise motives behind an isolated decision to deny housing to a family or an individual? Generally, you don't know. That's why Sterling's case required a major lawsuit to look into broad demographic information and testimonials over a period of years. When lawsuits like this actually come to fruition, you know that there's something very wrong.

I'm hoping that this case involving a high-profile NBA team owner will serve as a warning to landlords all over the country that housing discrimination won't be tolerated. I'm also hoping that the NBA will step up its game and start a dialogue about how the organization plans to address racism in sports and beyond.

In the meantime, there's a petition that you can sign over at NBA: Show You Care "to urge the NBA to condemn racist housing discrimination and discipline Donald Sterling."

Go ahead; sign it.

NBA: Show You Care" Campaign Demands League Condemn Racist Housing Discrimination and Discipline Team Owner

Join the Facebook group.

Sign the petition.

Tenants Together launched a new online petition and video today as part of campaign urging the National Basketball Association to discipline Los Angeles Clippers’ owner Donald Sterling. The campaign follows the announcement last week by the U.S. Department of Justice of the largest settlement ever obtained in a rental housing discrimination case.

Referencing the NBA’s own “NBA Cares” slogan, we are demanding, “NBA: Show you care” and have launched the website www.NBAshowyoucare.org. The website includes a short video and a petition to NBA Commissioner David Stern.

According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), Sterling “Engaged in a pattern or practice of discriminating on the basis of race, national origin, and family status.” The DOJ stated that Sterling “refused to rent to African Americans” and that his conduct was willful.

This is not the first time that Sterling has paid out millions to make housing discrimination claims go away. In 2006, the Housing Rights Center in Los Angeles sued Sterling for discrimination, a case that Sterling settled for an undisclosed amount that included over $5 million in fees. Sterling has also been sued for harassment and employment discrimination based on race by NBA legend and former Clippers General Manager Elgin Baylor, a case that is pending.

According to the “NBA Cares" mission statement, “the NBA is dedicated to demonstrating leadership in social responsibility.” However, when sportswriters responded to the DOJ announcement by asking the NBA what it plans to do in response, the NBA has said it has no plans to comment or investigate Sterling. As noted by Jemele Hill of ESPN, “The Commissioner has offered only disappointing silence.” Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports asks, “Where is the outrage?”

We launched the online video and petition to put pressure on the NBA to discipline Sterling. “The DOJ busts this NBA team owner for denying housing to people based on the color of their skin, and the NBA has nothing to say?” commented Dean Preston, our Executive Director, “The NBA must take swift decisive action to condemn racist housing discrimination and discipline this team owner.”

The NBA’s inaction contrasts with how the National Football League and Major League Baseball have handled allegations of racism by team owners. In 1996, MLB suspended Marge Schott, owner and GM of the Cincinnati Reds, for over a year for racially insensitive remarks. More recently, the NFL excluded talk show host Rush Limbaugh from becoming a team owner after a firestorm of controversy over past racist remarks. Clippers’ owner Sterling was accused not only of making racist remarks like Schott and Limbaugh, but also of engaging in a pattern of illegal racist housing discrimination against minority tenants, yet the NBA has no plans to discipline Sterling.

The video and petition, along with more information, is available at NBAshowyoucare.org.

LA Real Estate Mogul Pays Record $2.7M Settlement in housing discrimination lawsuit

The Justice Department announced yesterday the largest monetary payment ever obtained by the department in the settlement of a case alleging housing discrimination in the rental of apartments.

According to the Los Angeles Times:

Los Angeles Clippers owner and real estate mogul Donald T. Sterling has agreed to pay a record $2.725 million to settle allegations that he discriminated against African Americans, Hispanics and families with children at scores of apartment buildings he owns in and around Los Angeles.

From a statement by the Justice Department:

"Housing is a basic human need, and yet decades after passage of the Fair Housing Act, far too many still encounter barriers like discrimination. Particularly in times of economic distress and rising foreclosures, we must remain vigilant to ensure all individuals have equal access to housing," said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. "The magnitude of this settlement should send a message to all landlords that we will vigorously pursue violations of the Fair Housing Act."