Hearing Brings Out Measure EE Supporters

Hearing Brings Out Measure EE Supporters
Rental Housing Association Attacks Eviction Protections

By Lynda Carson October 27, 2005

Oakland CA - On Wednesday October 26, Oakland tenants did not let a cool wet rainy day keep them from showing up at the Alameda County Supperior Court in support of Oakland's Just Cause eviction protections, known as Measure EE.

"I think that the attorneys defending Measure EE from the landlords lawsuit against it did very well in court today," said Adam Gold of Just Cause Oakland.

Measure EE has been under attack ever since the voters of Oakland approved the ordinance in 2002, and the Rental Housing Association of Northern Alameda County (RHANAC), is doing everything possible to make sure that tenants will lose their right to fight unfair evictions in the City of Oakland.

Since December of 2002, Measure EE has saved thousands of people in Oakland from being evicted by greedy landlords wanting to use "No Cause Evictions," and the City of Oakland is required to enforce the voter approved ordinance.

Landlords and realtors have already spent over $500,000 in a vicious smear campaign meant to frighten Oakland voters into voting against Measure EE before it even went into effect, and they failed to do so.

"I was happy to see the number of tenants that showed up at the hearing in support of Measure EE, and hope that Judge Steven Brick will not rule in favor of the landlords that are trying to kill eviction protections in Oakland," said Sue Doyle.

It was on November 5, 2002, that voters in the City of Oakland approved the Just Cause eviction protections and Measure EE went into effect on December 27, 2002.

On January 31, 2003, attorneys Steven S. Rosenthal and Jonathan Seigel, Esqs., sued the City of Oakland over Measure EE on behalf of two landlords and the Rental Housing Association of Northern Alameda County (RHANAC).

The law suit against the City of Oakland to over turn passage of Measure EE, is known as, Kim, et al. Versus City of Oakland, et al., and Oakland tenants have been trying to keep track of when this crucial hearing would finally take place.

After a recently delayed hearing that was supposed to take place on October 12, 2005, the hearing finally occurred on October 26, in the court room of Judge Steven Brick.

At the hearing, about thirty supporters of Measure EE showed up at Department 19, and some supporters had to be turned away from Judge Brick's court room because the room was to small to accomodate everyone.

There were also a number of local landlords and a class of students from Boalt Law School seated in the court room, to observe the proceedings of law and motion.

The hearing started around 2 pm, and ended at around 4 pm, after each side took it's turn to argue for, or against Measure EE.

The attorneys for the plaintiffs tried to convince Judge Brick that all of Measure EE’s procedural hurdles are superseded by a California Supreme Court case, which would render Measure EE's local procedural requirements as being unconstitutional. They want Measure EE thrown out in it's entirety.

Just Cause eviction protections are laws intended to protect renters by ensuring that landlords may only evict with proper due cause, in such cases as a tenant’s failure to pay their rent or for the destruction of rental property, and a number of other reasons such as drug dealing or nuisance violations.

Before Measure EE took effect in Oakland, tenants were being evicted by the thousands each year for no reason at all, with 30-day no cause evictions.

It was known as the Eviction for Profit System. The landlords kept evicting their low-income renters in hope of finding a wealthier tenant to exploit.

It was between September 1998 and December 1999, that 30-day no cause evictions increased by 300 percent, according to Sentinel Fair Housing, with 75 percent of those evictions being brought against people of color.

During 1999, there were so many loopholes in Oaklands rent control laws that according to city estimates, the rents increased by 20 to 30 percent. Within a few years the landlords were doubling the rents at many properties in Oakland, and there was no end in sight to the mass evictions or never ending rent increases to follow.

Rents shot up so high in Oakland since 1998, that the latest survey of metropolitan areas by the National Low-Income Coalition reveals that Oakland is in fifth place in terms of being one of the least affordable cities to reside in.

"Since Measure EE took effect, the main reason for evictions in Oakland are for non payment of rent," says Anne Omura, the Executive Director of the Eviction Defense Center.

The Eviction Defense Center has been on the front lines to protect low-income renters from evictions in the Oakland area, and has saved thousands of renters from homelessness.

According to the California Administrative Office of the Courts, there were approximately 192,591 evictions in California between 2002 and 2003, with around 23,815 of those evictions occurring in the Bay Area, and around 5,879 of those evictions took place in Alameda County.

Just Cause eviction protections have been established in such cities as San Francisco, San Jose, West Hollywood, Berkeley, Los Angeles, and Seattle, Washington. In each of these cities the landlords also claimed that Just Cause eviction protections were unconstitutional, and the courts have ruled that these types of tenant protections are constitutional.

Surveys reveal that the number one cause for evictions during the past few years, are due to high rents, low vacancy rates, a lack of affordable housing units, and a lack of income to cover the never ending rent increases. In addition, it cannot be ignored that landlords are doing more evictions during the past few years because of their never ending search for the higher income renter.

Through their attorneys, RHANAC and the landlords that are trying to kill eviction protections in Oakland, are seeking a ruling from Judge Steven Brick that would allow them to move forward with their lawsuit against the City of Oakland and Measure EE.

Oakland renters and the attorneys defending Measure EE, are seeking a ruling from Judge Steven Brick that would support Measure EE in it's entirety, and stop the law suit dead in it's tracks.

Regardless of which way Judge Brick makes his ruling, an appeal by either side of Measure EE is expected to occur in the future.

Judge Brick is expected to make his ruling within the next 90 days.

Lynda Carson may be reached at tenantsrule [at] yahoo.com