Tag: Lisa Stephens

By Posted on Posted in Issues
Zoning Board remand will be February 25th
Zoning Board remand will be February 25th

Berkeley Tenants and the students of the ASUC filed an appeal last summer to stop the demolition of 18 rent-controlled units on Durant. Berkeley’s City Council finally heard the appeal on December 1st, but just sent the decision back to the Zoning Board with instructions for the volunteer board to pay close attention to several issues in the appeal as well as a lengthy economic report submitted by the Rent Board.
Both the ASUC and BTU had dozens of speakers present to highlight various aspects of the problem, and emphasize that this would be a far-reaching policy decision for the Council, not just about this one project. The Council seemed particularly swayed by a letter from a former student tenant. But in the end, there wasn’t even that much deliberation, and no decision, just a remand.

On the one hand, BTU is pleased that the Council did not uphold approval of the project, because this would be the first time in history that our city would agree that a developer can’t make a profit by rehabilitating an older building instead of tearing it down. On the other hand, it would be nice to see our elected leaders stand up for affordable student housing. BTU had hoped the Council might chastise the developer for encouraging damage to his own building in order to claim he could not afford to fix it.

It is not yet known when the ZAB (Zoning Board) will hear the appeal. In the meantime, the 4×4 Committee, which is where the Rent Board meets with the City Council, discussed changes to allow more demolitions while protecting tenants and creating affordable housing.

“In approving the demolition permit, the ZAB agreed with the owner’s financial projections that it could not make a fair rate of return on its investment if it were to rehabilitate the building in its existing configuration — a notion contested by Pamela Webster, Lisa Stephens and Matthew Lewis in an appeal on behalf of the Associated Students of the University of California. The trio noted, moreover, that the owner allowed the building to deteriorate by keeping it vacant and inviting the Berkeley Fire Department to do training exercises there in late 2014, which involved cutting holes in the roof.…
Dozens of speakers warned that upholding the demolition permit would set a dangerous precedent. They warned that it would encourage landlords to pay exorbitant prices for rent-controlled buildings and let them go to waste while expecting the city to guarantee them a good return by allowing them to tear down the buildings and build larger ones with market-rate apartments.”
http://www.contracostatimescom/breaking-news/ci_29192392/berkeley-council-sends-permit-demolish-rent-controlled-building

For More About the Demolition Ordinance:
https://www.berkeleytenants.org/?page_id=773

Zoning Board Approved Kennedy Bait-and-Switch
A while ago, infamous Berkeley developer Patrick Kennedy (Panoramic) got approval for a residential hotel which was to house folks making less than 120% of area median. The other day, Zoning allowed him to change the project to tiny studio apartments (300 square feet) with no parking. Kennedy will make two of the 22 units at 2711 Shattuck affordable to 120% AMI, and two affordable to folks making 50% of Area Median Income. The other 18 will be market rate. Commissioner Denise Pinkerton was particularly vocal, condemning other ZAB members for calling for more affordable units.
http://www.berkeleyside.com/2015/12/14/berkeley-zoning-board-approves-new-units-on-telegraph-shattuck/

By Posted on Posted in Actions
2401 Warring
2401 Warring

We at the Berkeley Tenants Union need your support on Tuesday, December 9 at the City Council meeting.

First, Council are considering a suggestion to tax the benefits of rent control on any long time tenant the government decides is earning a living wage. (Item 17)

Also, BTU members have appealed a dangerous decision by the Zoning Board which would set bad precedent and put over 4,000 units in Berkeley at risk. (Item 39)

Both items are expected to be near the beginning of the meeting, as early as 7:30 PM. Council meetings take place in Old City Hall, 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way.

2401 Warring Street Appeal by Harr and Stephens

This is the latest in a series of disputes BTU has fought at the Zoning Board – at the core is the interpretation of the Demolition Ordinance. In this case, a huge building on Warring near Channing has been under rent control for many years because it was used as a boarding house. Now, a new owner has removed all the renters and wants to turn it into a triplex. Rent Board staff and the owner appeared at the Zoning Board in the summertime. BTU was there as well. Everyone – even the owner Nathan George – seemed to agree that it was fair that one of the triplex units would be new construction because the owner is adding a lot of space, but that the other two units needed to stay under rent control.

Yet when the decision was written up by the staff from the Planning department, they chose to word the agreement in a way that would be legally unenforceable. This can get complex, but the gist of it is that Planning wants to give the building a new certificate of occupancy, and state law Costa Hawkins says a new COO means no rent control.

This is not what the Zoning Board intended. So BTU members Katherine Harr and Lisa Stephens filed an appeal.

Once again, the City Attorney is saying the units are empty and therefore not rent controlled units under the Demolition Ordinance. This means any building where the landlord can get the tenants out could easily be torn down with no mitigations for the loss of rent controlled housing.

The City is also saying that although Planning was aware that the building was a boarding house, it was not licensed to be one. This opens up over 4,000 units that have rent control but are not in Planning records as “permitted units” to lose rent control because they, too, could get a new certificate of occupancy.

Means Testing

Yes, you heard us right: the Housing Advisory Commission has asked Council to begin the process of means testing rent controlled tenants. Item 17 on the City Council agenda for Tuesday is the first step toward a plan by certain bitter property owners and the Council majority to tax middle income renters on their low rents.

“One approach we believe should be explored is to determine if some of the long term tenants in Berkeley’s rent controlled housing have been enjoying low rents while their incomes have been rising,” they wrote. There are many disturbing things about the proposal: the underlying assumption that rent control is a charity program and only the very poor deserve housing stability; the invasive nature of the proposal wherein longer term renters would be forced to disclose their income while owners do not have to do so; and the idea that measuring only income and rent would give the government any idea who can afford to pay more for housing, without considering medical bills, student tuition or student loans, number of dependents or other factors.

While BTU is pretty sure portions of the plan are actually illegal, and we expect the Rent Board will work to educate Council on that aspect, we need renters to stand together to show that local efforts to whittle away tenant protections and pit lower income folks against teachers, firefighters and small business owners making mid-range salaries will not be tolerated. Means testing would make Berkeley a city of just the very rich and very poor – just what rent stabilization was designed to prevent!

This type of proposal would never have been considered in the progressive Berkeley of the past and is clearly retaliation against tenants for supporting the “Robin Hood” ballot measures to tax owners of multiple rental units on their profits under vacancy decontrol.

JOIN US TUESDAY at CITY COUNCIL – items are early on the agenda

RSVP to info at berkeley tenants dot org to learn the plan!

Council Item 17
http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/Clerk/City_Council/2014/12_Dec/City_Council__12-09-2014_-_Regular_Meeting_Agenda.aspx

Warring Street Appeal

Council Item 23
http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/Clerk/City_Council/2014/12_Dec/City_Council__12-09-2014_-_Regular_Meeting_Agenda.aspx

By Posted on Posted in Actions
BTU at the Farmers Market
BTU at the Farmers Market

Saturday May 10 will be the last day to sign the citizens initiatives from the Robin Hood Committee at the Berkeley Tenants Union table at the Center Street Farmers Market.

The Windfall Profits Tax on High Rents will increase the business license tax on landlord investors and speculators by 1.9% – the ballot measure will not raise the tax on single family homes, duplexes, and landlords who live in the building and own less than ten units. The increase will not apply to units rented under Section 8 and the measure would eliminate the existing tax on rents from long-term rent-controlled units. This is a tax designed to capture a small portion of the $100 Million a Year in excess profits that investors take from Berkeley renters, and put that 1.9% to use for our most vulnerable citizens.

The Affordable Housing measure addresses the top concern on the recent Community Survey: Berkeley needs to build more affordable housing. This companion measure takes $3.5 million of the Windfall Profits Tax and dedicates it to the Housing Trust Fund. The fund is used by the city, housing developers like Satellite and RCD, limited equity co-ops and student co-ops. The portion of the money from the Windfall Profits Tax dedicated to affordable housing is expect to generate 40 units of Affordable Housing a year for Berkeley.

The Robin Hood measures have been endorsed by BTU Steering, as well as The Green Party of Alameda County, Berkeley Citizen Action (BCA), East Bay Housing Organizations (EBHO), Satellite Affordable Housing, Resources for Community Development (RCD), Bay Area Community Land Trust (BACLT), Democratic Socialists of America, Council Members Jesse Arreguin, Kriss Worthington and Max Anderson, Rent Board Chair Lisa Stephens, Vice Chair Harr, Rent Board Commissioners Soto-Vigil, Webster, Shelton, Blake, Dodsworth and Townley, Housing Advisory Commissioners Darrow and Tregub, former School Board leader John T. Selawsky and many more.

Full text of the measures: http://www.fundaffordablehousing.org/

Transfer of wealth from tenants to investors: https://www.cityofberkeley.info/uploadedFiles/Rent_Stabilization_Board/Level_3_-_General/Economic%20Effects%20of%20Rent%20Stabilization%20in%20Berkeley_Cleancopy.pdf

By Posted on Posted in Issues
Photo courtesy https://www.flickr.com/photos/andscene/
Photo courtesy https://www.flickr.com/photos/andscene/

Robin Hood Committee Aims to Tax Landlords and Fund Affordable Housing
The city’s landlords charge high rents and gain free money simply by their Berkeley location. The public makes Berkeley property valuable “by investing in the university, parks, transit, and through all their economic, cultural and social activities,” Barton told the City Council at an April 1 meeting.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/breaking-news/ci_25580122/berkeley-initiatives-would-tax-landlords-create-redistricting-panel

Volunteer to help Robin Hood fund affordable housing by calling 510-585-FAH1 

Berkeley Rent Board Invites League of Women Voters
…extending this invitation specifically to the League in response to your letter of November 7, 2013. The letter contains a great number of inaccuracies and misconceptions regarding the current functions of the Rent Stabilization Program, our budget and the appropriateness of the current registration fee.
http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2014-04-18/article/42024?headline=An-Open-Letter-to-the-League-of-Women-Voters-from-Lisa-Stephens-Chair-of-the-Berkeley-Rent-Stabilization-Board–From-Lisa-Stephens-Chair-Berkeley-Rent-Stabilization-Board

Redistricting Referendum Panics Council Majority, City Sues Itself
The city’s lawsuit, filed April 3, names county registrar Tim Dupuis and city clerk Mark Numainville as defendants, along with nine others who are listed as “real parties of interest”: council members Worthington, Arreguín and Anderson, as well as Stefan Elgstrand, Paul Kealoha Blake, Matthew Lewis, Stephanie Miyashiro, Phoebe Sorgen and Alejandro Soto-Vigil.
http://www.berkeleyside.com/2014/04/09/city-of-berkeley-heads-to-court-over-redistricting-lines/

By Posted on Posted in Actions

Torn windowPlease join us tonight, when controversial rules about tearing down rent controlled buildings will be before Berkeley’s City Council.

The Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association, Berkeley Neighborhoods Council, and Sierra Club joined with the East Bay Community Law Center, Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board, and 136 members and friends of the Berkeley Tenants Union to inform the City Council that proposed changes to the part of the Zoning Code called the Demolition Ordinance will be bad for Berkeley.

Council will consider changes TUESDAY JULY 2 but are likely to continue the discussion in coming weeks. BTU will present a petition with over 135 signatures at the meeting.

One major reason everyone is objecting: the Council majority wants to ask for a fee of only $20k for each rent controlled unit destroyed – but it costs $400,000 to build a new unit of affordable housing! So under this July 2 draft of the Ordinance, for every 20 rent controlled units lost, one replacement unit might be built many years from now. And what will happen to the tenants?

Below are links to letters from the other organizations.

Please join us TONIGHT – JULY 2 – at 7 PM

  • Say you support the Berkeley Tenants Union position on Item 17, the Demolition Ordinance.
  • State that no occupied units should be eliminated for any reason.
  • Emphasize that units emptied via the Ellis Act cannot be eliminated.
  • Ask that demolished empty units be replaced with permanently affordable housing.
  • Argue that this new draft will violate the Neighborhood Preservation Ordinance.
  • Point out that a mitigation fee will not meet our housing needs soon enough.

Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board letter
Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA) letter
East Bay Community Law Center letter
Sierra Club letter
Berkeley Neighborhoods Council Shirley Dean letter