Tag: seniors

By Posted on Posted in Actions
Rented building applying for demolition
Rented building applying for demolition

1) Rent Board Ad Hoc Committee:
Friday April 3rd @ 3 pm
Short-Term Rental Regulations
Side Entrance on Center Street @ Milvia

2) Zoning Hearing on Demolition:
Thursday April 9th @ 7 pm
Rent Controlled Triplex 1920 10th Street, UP #2007-0063
2134 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way @ Allston

3) Planning Commission:
Wednesday April 15 @ 7 pm
Short-Term Rental Regulations
Edit: vacation rentals not on this agenda
1901 Hearst Ave @ MLK

4) Zoning Board:
Thursday May 14 @ 7 pm
Removing Rent Control at 2332 Channing to add 3 units.
2134 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way @ Allston

5) Affordable Housing Week: May 8-17, 2015
East Bay Housing Organizations (EBHO)
http://ebho.org/our-work/affordable-housing-week#ahw

In Other News

Thanks to BTU Members Who Sent in Most of These Stories

The Windfall Profits Tax on High Rents (Robin Hood)
“In Berkeley, activists are in the early stage of advocating for a so-called “windfall profits tax,” which would increase the business license tax for larger property owners and thus generate revenue that could be invested into affordable housing. “This money is being extracted from tenants for the benefit of people who own real estate, and it’s windfall profits,” explained Stephen Barton, former housing department director for the City of Berkeley, who is pushing for the windfall tax. “We’re going to take some of [the money] that’s being extracted from the community … and use it to mitigate some of the harms of the system.”
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/how-east-bay-tenants-get-displaced/Content?oid=4216802

More Berkeley Seniors Threatened – Oregon Park
“While much of the conflict stems from an ongoing disagreement about the board leadership, housing attorneys said they were especially concerned about the board’s attempts to evict a number of outspoken tenants. Earlier this year, Ibrahim Moss, a management consultant, served eviction notices to at least nine residents — and subsequently filed eviction lawsuits against at least four of them.”
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/an-eviction-nightmare-at-oregon-park-senior-apartments/Content?oid=4229738

San Francisco Can’t Enforce Vacation Rentals Law
“To enforce the Airbnb law, the city needs booking data so the planning department can make sure rentals are registered with the city. It also needs a clear limit on the number of days a unit can be rented out each year. Currently, the law says an owner can rent 90 days if they aren’t home, but that’s difficult to prove.”
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/morning_call/2015/03/san-francisco-airbnb-law-unenforceable-rentals.html

SF Supervisors Want to Fix Airbnb Law
“The legislation would prohibit all tenants or homeowners, regardless of whether or not they live in their house or apartment full-time, from renting out their spare space for more than 90 days a year. If they did, neighbors would have the right to sue them. The legislation would extend the existing 90-day limit from entire homes to smaller spaces.”
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/2-supervisors-want-to-tighten-up-law-regulating-6153957.php

California Considering Statewide Law on Short-Term Rentals
“…online home-sharing companies would have to make regular reports to cities and counties about which homes in their area are renting rooms, for how many nights and how much money the homeowners are collecting for the short-term rentals.”
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article15202547.html

New York City Enforcing Vacation Rentals Law
“New York’s investigators have cited over 7,000 fire and building code violations, shut down over 200 short-term apartments and sued several operators — ending an additional 250 short-term rentals — over the last nine years, according to the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement. With Airbnb and other websites sparking a short-term rental boom, some lawmakers now want to triple the illegal-hotel investigation staff and have it go beyond answering complaints to scour the web for suspect listings.”
http://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2015/03/28/in-nyc-an-unusual-task-force-fights-home-as-hotel-rentals

SF Collective Living in Commercial Space Avoids Eviction
“Housing activists came out in full force March 2 to support Station 40 at a press conference to denounce gentrification and urge the Jolish family to accept an offer to buy the building from the San Francisco Community Land Trust.
Though the landlords at first denied the offer, which would keep the property available as below-market rate housing, Station 40 says the Jolish family is now willing to consider selling.”
http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/housing-collective-avoids-eviction-from-mission-district-home/Content?oid=2924912

Cooperative Housing
“One way to attack escalating property costs is to increase the number of limited equity cooperatives, where people own property collectively, run it democratically and don’t extract profit from it, says Bay Area Community Land Trust Executive Director Rick Lewis.”
http://www.contracostatimes.com/tri-valley-times/ci_27706941/berkeley-runaway-housing-costs-make-co-ops-attractive

SF Rents – Cool Map!
“This map from the folks at Zumper found that we reached an all time high for a 1-bedroom apartment in February, clocking in at an average of $3,460.
On top of that, it’s only going upwards. They reported that San Francisco rents have “continued upwards, increasing 1.5% month over month and 3.3% over the last quarter.”
http://www.upout.com/blog/san-francisco-3/san-francisco-rents-hit-record-high-again-last-month-its-only-getting-worse

Daily Cal Housing Issue
“Berkeley has the 10th-highest income inequality in the country, according to a ranking of 300 cities with more than 100,000 people in the United States by Bloomberg.
“Our city is at a crossroads,” Arreguin said. “We’re becoming the city of the haves and the have-nots.”
http://www.dailycal.org/2015/03/13/berkeley-residents-priced-homes-rental-rates-rise/

By Posted on Posted in Issues

Riverwood_Gardens_DDC-1“Before vacancy decontrol modified rent control in California, 42 percent of tenants in rent-controlled units in Berkeley were 55 or older. But since 1999, because of California’s Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, landlords can charge market rates each time new tenants move into a rent-controlled unit. (Apartments built after 1980 are not under rent control.) Today, just 6 percent of people in regulated units are 55 or older, Harr said, adding that the situation is getting worse due to skyrocketing rents.”

Actually, what I said was rent controlled units with people who moved in before 1999 – before vacancy decontrol – CURRENTLY have 42% over 65 but only 6% of post-1999 tenancies have seniors. I also pointed out that senior housing is identified as a growing need throughout Berkeley’s Draft Housing Element, but there are few programs in the plan to actually address that need.

With me on the Gray Panthers panel was former Rent Board Commissioner Eleanor Walden, who spoke of senior and disabled residents feeling harassed by management at Redwood Gardens. That’s a 169-unit, HUD-subsidized senior housing complex on the Clark-Kerr part of campus, at the top of Derby. It’s a problem BTU has been getting a lot of mail about: affordable housing now managed by for-profit corporations, and Boards at “cooperative” senior housing that are not responsive to residents. We’ve heard from seniors in two places just this month!

Coverage of the Gray Panthers Meeting
http://www.contracostatimes.com/breaking-news/ci_27443340/berkeley-seniors-call-affordable-housing

Problems at Redwood Gardens
http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2014-12-19/article/42869?headline=Troubles-in-Berkeley-s-Redwood-Gardens–Lydia-Gans
http://www.thestreetspirit.org/tenants-seek-fair-treatment-at-berkeleys-redwood-gardens/

Berkeley’s Draft Housing Element Goes to City Council in April or May
http://www.contracostatimes.com/breaking-news/ci_27491384/berkeley-commission-examines-housing-issues
http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/housingelement/

 

By Posted on Posted in Actions

Household-Income-DistributionOn Wednesday February 18 the Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on the Housing Element of Berkeley’s General Plan. The hearing is at 7 PM at the North Berkeley Senior Center. BTU needs tenants to come speak out!

Berkeley’s 2015-2023 Housing Element is the basis for housing goals and policies for the next eight years. It is important that renters comment on this draft now, in order to maintain tenant protects and expand development of actual affordable housing.

Your Berkeley Tenants Union has written an extensive critique of the draft, linked below. We hope you will attend the hearing or write the Planning Commission right away supporting our goals:

  1. Demo Ordinance: Rent controlled housing must remain protected from demolitions.
  2. The Affordable Housing Mitigation Fee charged to developers should be high enough to actually mitigate the lower-income housing needs created by new development.
  3. “Illegal” Units: City should provide path to legalize 4,000 rent controlled units which do not have permits – San Francisco’s program could be our model.
  4. Code Enforcement / Habitability: Increase proactive inspections; allow anonymous complaints.
  5. Better monitoring of Below Market Rate “Inclusionary” Rentals

Write to planning: JHarrison@cityofberkeley.info; aamoroso@cityofberkeley.info–

Full BTU Letter to Planning
2015.Planning Commission Feb 18.BTU

Article on first Housing Element hearing:
http://www.contracostatimes.com/breaking-news/ci_27491384/berkeley-commission-examines-housing-issues

Draft Housing Element itself:
http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/housingelement/

By Posted on Posted in Issues

Screen shot 2015-03-09 at 7.55.51 PMThis is from John’s letter to the Planning Commission for the February 18 hearing:

It is clear from the Draft Berkeley Housing Element document that Berkeley is falling short of providing a mix of affordable housing for lower income AND middle income residents. I will focus on middle income residents, and particularly in my view an acute need for additional family housing within the City of Berkeley. Recent projects within the City have included a limited mix of primarily studio rentals and high-end rentals and condos, but units falling in the middle of these two extremes are, in comparison, few. I cite Table 1-1 as an example, which indicates that between the years 2000 and 2006 Berkeley provided only 4% of the Regional Housing Needs Determination as set by ABAG for moderate-income residents. Further, Table 2-14 indicates a lack of Renter Occupied 3 and 4 bedroom units, units which could be utilized by moderate to large size families.

I quote from the Objectives section of the Draft: “Berkeley residents should have access to quality housing at a range of prices and rents.Housing is least affordable for people at the lowest income levels, and City resources should focus on this area of need.”

I do not argue with the egalitarian goal of this statement, but in reviewing the documentation in this Draft it is clear to me that the middle class, and particularly moderate-income residents with children (i.e., families) are the ones primarily being squeezed for housing in Berkeley. I do not see that trend reversing without an emphasis on strategies and programs to address this essential need.

John T. Selawsky
Member, Berkeley Tenants Union
Commissioner, Rent Stabilization Board

By Posted on Posted in Actions
day-of-action-2014-flyer-image_Page_1
Renters’ Day of Action
Tuesday February 18
Click to download a PDF

Berkeley Tenants Union members will join with tenants from around the state in the first tenant March and Rally in Sacramento in many years.

On Tuesday February 18, Tenants Together is leading member organizations like BTU to the capital. BTU members and friends are invited to hop on a bus in the morning and return by about 1 PM to the East Bay. If you live in Berkeley, please email us for more information. Sign up directly on the Tenants Together website if you are not a Berkeley tenant.

With evictions in California’s larger cities creating panic among long-term renters, it is time for solidarity. State cuts to affordable housing threaten to have long-term impacts unless restored, and elimination of the renters’ rebate in state income taxes has left low-income senior and disabled tenants with less food on the table. These are the issues we will march to support on the Renters’ Day of Action.

Signing an online petition is not enough. Even writing to your state representatives is not enough. It’s time to take to the streets!

◘ Restore the Renter’s Rebate For Seniors and Disabled

In 2008 the Governor cut the Senior Citizens Renters Tax Assistance Program from the California budget. The program allowed disabled and senior tenants making less than $44,096 a tax rebate of about $300. Fixed income renters relied on this rebate.

http://www.tenantstogether.org/section.php?id=136

◘ Support the Homes and Jobs Act

State Bill 391 puts a fee on recording of real estate transactions – except home sales – which would generate $500 million a year to fund construction of housing for working people. California could use this money to leverage another $2.78 billion in federal assistance and bank loans to boost construction and create 29,000 jobs.

Homes and Jobs PDF

◘ Reform the Ellis Act

Speculators are misusing the state law to get around local tenant protections. In San Francisco, over 3,700 families have lost their homes through this type of eviction. This reform asks that local governments have more control over how Ellis evictions are carried out.

http://www.antievictionmappingproject.net/ellis.html

If you have not, please sign the ELLIS REFORM PETITION:

http://bit.ly/reformellis