Tag: affordable housing

By Posted on Posted in Actions

April-28-BTU---02

In general, activists’ response led to deeper discussion of the issues but we need ALL members to respond to these action requests if we are to impact policy and decisions!

The Planning Department and the Rent Board have agreed on language for the Demolition Ordinance, thanks in part to public pressure from BTU members at the Planning Commission hearing last month!

However, our City Council is known for laying a brand new draft on the table at the last minute, so everyone should be prepared to both Write and Attend the Council Meeting on Tuesday June 4. BTU also has some concerns regarding legalization of duplexes that have been turned into single family homes without permits in the past decade. Watch this space for more info – it would be great if we can get letters to Council in advance since, for a change, we know this item is coming up.

By Posted on Posted in Actions

1930 and 1922–24 Walnut Street (photo: Daniella Thompson, 2009)
1930 and 1922–24 Walnut Street (photo: Daniella Thompson, 2009)

In general, activists’ response led to deeper discussion of the issues but we need ALL members to respond to these action requests if we are to impact policy and decisions!

The Zoning Adjustments Board continued the appeal of Equity Residential’s mega-development. ZAB got about a dozen letters from BTU members objecting to a new interpretation of the Demolition Ordinance that would allow destruction of any empty rental unit without replacing it with affordable housing. This issue dominated the ZAB discussion but was continued to Thursday JUNE 13. BTU needs you to SHOW UP and STAND AGAINST UNMITIGATED DESTRUCTION OF RENT-CONTROLLED UNITS! This decision will certainly impact how the City Council decides on the new version of the Demo Ordinance. Don’t allow them to say empty units can be torn down – or you will be evicted soon!

By Posted on Posted in Actions

No More Shit From LandlordsIn general, activists’ response led to deeper discussion of the issues but we need ALL members to respond to these action requests if we are to impact policy and decisions!

Four Berkeley Fair Campaign Committee members – appointed by TUFF Slate endorsers from the City Council – voted for a slap on the wrist. A dozen citizens made public comment asking for a real investigation and meaningful penalties. The commission also got four letters from BTU members, but voted 4-3 to approve the settlement agreement with low fines and no formal investigation of the faux tenant slate, and no investigation of the nearly $50,000 they accepted from landlords and property management firms. At least our public pressure led to them taking out the part of the agreement that said Rent Board Commissioner Judy Hunt and the other candidates didn’t do it on purpose! It would have been shameful to make such a declaration when there was no investigation or hearing.

There is still an ongoing investigation of the violations at the state level.

Berkeley Daily Planet:
http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2013-05-17/article/41082?headline=The-Berkeley-Fair-Campaign-Practices-Commission-Hears-TUFF-Charges–By-Dave-Blake

Contra Costa Times (link doesn’t work on phones, only computers):
http://www.contracostatimes.com/west-county-times/ci_23269400/berkeley-landlord-group-fined-violating-election-laws

Berkeleyside:
http://www.berkeleyside.com/2013/05/20/landlord-backed-group-fined-for-campaign-violations/

By Posted on Posted in Actions

April-28-BTU---02

Tonight the Fair Campaign Practices Commission meets (7 pm, North Berkeley Senior Center) to consider the stipulation offered by members of Tenants United for Fairness (TUFF)—a slate that ran for Berkeley’s Rent Stabilization Board in the November election—and the landlords who illegally funded their campaign.

The proposed stipulation would fine the TUFF slate members $300 each, and their backers under $3000 total.

In comparison, at the same meeting the people who raised money to defeat the street-sitting prohibiting Measure S and who failed to properly report $500 in late contributions in a timely manner are proposed to pay a penalty of that amount—$500, the amount they received. Nothing illegal about the contributions, they’re just paying the amount of the contribution for failing to report it on time.

TUFF raised and spent over $50,000 from landlords, over $30,000 from one PAC alone. Berkeley has a $250 per candidate donation limit and bars business donations, the vast bulk of those donations.

Read the entire article here:

http://berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2013-05-13/article/41068?headline=Berkeley-s-Fair-Campaign-Practices-Commission-Meets-Tonight-To-Consider-Light-Penalties-for-Flagrant-Election-Law-Evaders-News-Analysis—By-Dave-Blake-and-Dean-Metzger

By Posted on Posted in Actions

Justice?Berkeley’s Rent Board will discuss support for the state bill SB603 which would provide further protections for tenants and their security deposits. All-too-often, landlords don’t return security deposits or follow state laws, such as the rule that they have to let tenants know they can request a pre-move inspection, or the law that landlords must send copies of receipts. SB603 would allow a chance for tenants who have to take owners to small claims court to get damages. And if landlords risk having to pay the tenant MORE than just their deposit, maybe landlords won’t try to keep it for no good reason.

Tell the Rent Board what you think on Monday, or write them here: rent@ci.berkeley.ca.us
If you write the Rent Board, please say you support BTU and make sure you title your email “For the Commissioners re: May 13 Meeting” so it gets to them.

Tenants Together, the statewide group leading the charge on this issue, just published a report about security deposit theft.

The report contains the following findings from a survey of Tenants Together members from across the state:

  • 60% experienced unfair withholding of some or all of their deposit;
  • 53% did not receive any of their deposit funds within 21 days of vacating the last time they moved;
  • 36% reported that their entire deposit was never returned the last time they moved.

The report also analyses of the outcomes of security deposit cases filed by tenants in small claims courts to recover their deposits. The three-courthouse study, the first of its kind in California, found:

  • Tenants prevailed in over 70% of the cases that went to judgment;
  • In only 3.5% of the security deposit cases filed by tenants was a landlord assessed a penalty by the court.

read more here:
http://www.tenantstogether.org/article.php?id=2707

state bill:
http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140SB603

By Posted on Posted in Actions
1930 and 1922–24 Walnut Street (photo: Daniella Thompson, 2009)
1930 and 1922–24 Walnut Street (photo: Daniella Thompson, 2009), courtesy of BAHA

Berkeley’s Zoning Adjustments Board voted unanimously to approve Acheson Commons in December – but their vote included allowing a dangerous new interpretation of Berkeley’s Demolition Ordinance which will certainly lead to future evictions in Berkeley! Please write them NOW!

Thursday May 9 the ZAB is to reconsider allowing deep-pockets developer Sam Zell’s Equity Residential to tear down eight rent-controlled units on Walnut Street, but not replace them with affordable housing at the 205-unit development, which is one of the first under the Downtown Area Plan.

It seems the City has a new view of the Demolition Ordinance which allows destruction of empty rent controlled units without requiring replacement. They say if no one lives there, it isn’t “rent-controlled” – this will lead to evictions! This is also the view city staff were pushing for the revision of the Demo Ordinance, which should be before the City Council later in the summer, so we need to show that Berkeley won’t stand for unmitigated destruction of affordable housing while developers make billions on new bedrooms for dot-com commuters.

PLEASE WRITE TO ZAB RIGHT NOW! TBlount@CityofBerkeley.info

Read more »

By Posted on Posted in Actions

Turret

You are invited to the Berkeley Tenants Union May Potluck.

Come break bread with tenants, smart landlords, activists, and everyone who wants to keep rent control strong and working in Berkeley.

When: May 8, 6:30-8:30 pm
Where: Grassroots House, 2022 Blake, Berkeley between Milvia and Shattuck
RSVP: info (at) berkeleytenants.org (Children are welcome. Please include in RSVP. There will be childcare.)

There will be a brief presentation by the Oakland Tenants Union.

By Posted on Posted in Issues

Our awesome web guy and I went to the Berkeley Public Library and took some photos from their file on the history of the rent strike, the birth of rent control, and the struggles of the Berkeley Tenants Union in the 1970s and 1980s. We will post some of the scans and copies of full-text articles at a later date – here’s the really fun stuff!

Click on each photo for a closer view.

April-28-BTU---01April-28-BTU---03

April-28-BTU---02