Oakland Renters News

OaklandCa - Christmas Evening

East Bay Renters Newz...

Campaign for Renters Rights Under Siege By Labors Militant Voice!

Members of the Campaign for Renters Rights rebell against those in Labors Militant Voice who have turned the CRR into their front group. Labors Militant Voice had the audacity to claim that they control all the images of the tenants group called the Campaign for Renters Rights. John Reimann and Richard Mellor of LMV have done thier best to silence critics in the CRR who found their photos being used by the LMV without their permission in recent past issues. Rob Rooke also a member of LMV ducks the issue, and lets the LMV Members run rough shod over the tenants group.

Good newz...

Reports are streaming in about evictions in Oakland being dropped like hot potatoes because of the anti-eviction Measure EE or as some call it Just Cause!

Sources from around Oakland are confirming reports of
renters under attack, suddenly finding themselves free
from the eviction proceedings instituted against them
while the landlords have hidden theirselves away for now to re-group...

The effects of Measure EE already are starting to appear as the landlords quickly are realizing that their attempts to evict were to late. Measure EE goes into effect on Dec 27, 2002.

Corrine James is one of the lucky ones who realized upon late Dec 23 that her landlord had already cashed her rent check back on Dec 20, and had never bothered to contact Corrine to let her know that the OMI eviction
was called off. Sounds like a case of pain and suffering or inflicting emotional distress on Corrine to the last drop by her landlord...

According to a local tenant attorney (another info source), she also is aware of eviction cases suddenly being dropped due to the effects of Measure EE on Oakland landlords...She is losing business already as a result of Measure EE, which is good for the renters...

Reports from tenants also seem to confirm what Leah and Corrine have become aware of.

Yes, on Measure EE!

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Other Newz...

Seems that the non-profit housing organizations are some of the worst offenders as of late.

Sources say; recently Affordable Housing Associates took over a Berkeley Building of Narci Davids (Narci's), and tried to jack up the rents for a huge rent increase. Tenants spoke up, and they backed off of the rent increases after it was revealed or hit the light of day....

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Sources say; Jubilee West recently was called to task for a lock out of tenants at one of their properties after locking up the premises and boarding up the windows to keep the renters with contracts out of their homes. They (Jubi West) claimed ignorance, and thought that they were exempt from rent laws...Jubi West went on to claim that they were dope dealers that had to go....

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Sources say; East Bay Asian Land Development Corporation (EBALDC) is still making the rounds demanding a 10% rent increase from tenants at Effies House in Oakland. During Oct 2001-Oct 2002 EBALDC raised the rents over 20% at Effies House on very low-income renters. The latest, is that one of their renters of the non-profit EBALDC, received a notice
of the 10% rent increse by someone that slipped it under his door. He was instructed to sign the notice of the rent increase, and then ordered to return it back to EBALDC. EBALDC is trying to have all notices returned to them so that no records are left about so that they may not reach public scrutiny, or they often use the name Ivy Hill Development Corporation on notices to hide behind. Lately, they use notices claiming to be from MANAGEMENT, with no corporate names at all mentioned.... Another new tactic of EBALDC is to set up a system of pre-made "Quick Notes" to Management--for repairs or what have you, so that renters stop sending letters that may be addressed to EBALDC or to someone that actualy has a name. The idea is for tenants to fill out the forms without making copies, to send in to Management for whatever reason, and to no one in particular...Slippery stuff...

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Coincidently, these 3 non-profits....

Affordable Housing Associates & EBALDC have partnerships in housing going on, as well as does Jubilee West & EBALDC with their own partner projects happening together. EBALDC alone has over 700 rental units, and 100,000 square feet of retail space for rent...

Combined, they control much needed housing for low-income renters.

EBALDC has dumped the resident managers in most of their properties to pocket the extra rents after renting out the managers apartments, in spite of state laws making this illegal.

Also under fire for building new exterior stairs (4 flights) recently at a building the wrong way, EBALDC try's to play hard ball rather than explain why someone was dumb enough to build stairs that people can not use...Only 4 units have access to the stairs that were meant to be built for 6 units needing access...Dumb...A fortune was spent on this mess....Records exist at City Hall regarding this scenario...Renters are under pressure to remain silent about this unsafe situation...

EBALDC & Affordable Housing Associates have run the Oak Park Apartments in Oakland after David Choo a notorius slumlord lost the place after the tenants won a million dollar suit against him for slum conditions. To their disgrace, EBALDC could'nt ignore all of those
families who each got a part ($20,000) of the settlement money, and got right in there and talked most of the immigrant families into giving the money up to them. $20,000 per family! The immigrants were not offered a piece of the property for their own as partners of EBALDC! How do you convince renters to pay up a year or 2 years worth of rent in advance to live in a place with slum like conditions without becoming partners in the project? Theres a real story here...

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Seems to be that many of the non-profits in housing have the Mother Teresa syndrome, believing that they cannot do no harm, are exempt from the rent laws, and have no need to brush up on the existing laws in place that do apply, such as Measure EE, state laws, etc....

Many fail to even bother to read the existing laws, let alone the new ones coming into play.

Many believe that the non-profits are quickly becoming the worst of the landlords despite the good that they have done to keep the rents affordable, to some...At fault is the misbelief that they can do no wrong, and they believe their own propaganda...

Many of the properties are being run like little prisons to scare the renters into silence, or strip them of their rights because low-income renters are at the bottom of the food chain...Shame on the non-profits that have gone the way of the bad landlords, and thank the stars for the ones treating their renters well while keeping the rents low...

Only by keeping tabs on the worst of the non-profits, can we hope to keep this all in perspective.

A recent blow to the good non-profits in housing, is the Oakland Forrest City Deal where $60 Million of affordable housing money is going to the rich...The whole system is becoming corrupted to the core...The bad hurt the good, and the good need support...

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