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Just Cause Initiative--A Beacon of Hope
The Power of the People have served notice that the exploitation of Oakland renters shall be challenged by the signatures of 36,000 registered voters from the heart of Alameda County!
Just Cause Initiative--A Beacon of Hope
By Lynda Carson 6/16/02
Oakland, Ca--During Mondays (June 10) record breaking blazing heat, over 100 anti-eviction activists and supporters from 20 different groups around the Bay Area showed up for an event at the Oakland City Hall to turn in over 36,000 collected signatures for an anti-eviction measure. The signatures collected on Petitions for a "just cause" evictions ordinance were delivered to the City Clerks Office, and next will go to the Alameda County Registrar of Voters Office for certification. Activists are confident that the initiative petition drive will qualify if the City Council takes action by July 31 to place it on the ballot for November.
If the Just Cause Initiative becomes law in Oakland it will offer renters an opportunity to defend theirselves from un-just evictions, and total exploitation by the landlords. Recently the Supreme Court decided that it was legal for the Public Housing Agencies across America to evict the innocent as part of the war on drugs, landlords are fighting back against state and local rent control laws, and rents in Oakland have become the fourth highest in the country. The initiative process is one of the last non-violent means left available for non-propertied peoples to fight the ruling class and the corrupt system of capitalism that is stealing everything that it gets it's hands on. Enron is the latest poster child of the corrupt system run by the ruling class, and the theives of Wall Street have their sights set next on the Social Security system.
It took over 300 volunteers to fulfill the goals of the petition drive for the initiative, and during early Febuary of 2002, volunteers started collecting the signatures. Hunter Pyle a local attorney and volunteer on the steering committee for the Just Cause Organization during the past two years stated that he was surprised at how smooth the signature gathering went when I asked him what the most difficult part of collecting signatures were. Mr. Pyle was the one in charge of the signature gathering part of the campaign until the moment arrived to turn them in to the City Clerks Office for Mondays event.
Three guest speakers were invited to the rally for turning in the signatures, and speaker Phil Rapier also of Just Cause Oakland brought along his lovely 7 year old daughter Maya who joyfully handed out 48 red roses to the crowd during the event. Jenn Collins of Cherry, Illinois, who is a local receptionist for a law firm thats involved in the Judi Bari VS the F.B.I. case, says that the event was one of the most beautiful moments she has ever experienced.
Meika Johnson a community organizer with Just Cause Oakland since March of 2002, was up late the night before Mondays event to prepare herself as one of the guest speakers, and has first hand experience at being evicted on two occasions. Ms. Johnson made it clear to the media during an interview that "Rentacide" is the continous cycle of forced relocation for renters in the Bay Area, and must be brought to an end.
As of Febuary 19, 2002, voter records reveal that Alameda County has 677,667 registered voters, and being in the heart of Alameda County many believe that Oaklanders are ready to end the eviction for profit system that is at the root of the homeless problems in the county. Meika Johnson believes that 36,000 signatures is a very strong message to the Oakland City Council that action must be taken now to stop the forced relocation of so many thousands of poor people out of Oakland.
I asked Phil Rapier; what did you think of todays event? Mr. Rapier replied that he believed it was the glorious culmination of so much effort by so many people. Mr. Rapier who was not active in the signature gathering part of the campaign exclaimed his delight that more signatures were collected than the activists expected, and that now is the time to end the exploitation of Oakland renters. Evictions are still very high explains Rapier, with bigger property owners taking over medium sized buildings to dump the renters on the streets so that they may double the rents afterwards. Rapier says that a great hush fell over the crowd when Meika Johnson spoke, and says that her words touched them all on a very deep level.
Others who were part of the effort are with BOSS, ACORN, MISSION HOUSING, PUEBLO, Oakland Tenants Union, Campaign for Renters Rights, California Tomorrow, and many other groups and organizations who became creative in their efforts to support the just cause initiative. Some played large roles in the effort while others smaller, but the goals were the same regarding the collection of signatures, fundraising, and finding more volunteers. It was a massive effort.
Teams of people from the Campaign for Renters Rights took turns on the weekends to collect signatures, and eventually took to the streets with Sue Doyal and John Reimann using a bullhorn to call out renters from their buildings to sign the petitions. Others met at ACORN on weekends and one night during the week for teams of people to be assigned to bart stations, local events, grocery stores and other places that people would be found in large numbers. At one point, a large fundraising event took place at the Parkway Theatre where many signatures were collected before the feature length film played called, "Boom; The Sound of Eviction". The film stirred the crowd with emotion as the stories of eviction unfolded upon the big screen, with hisses from the crowd erupting at times.
According to Rob Rooke of the Campaign for Renters Rights; "Families we work with are being evicted so rents can be hiked". Unfortunately Oakland city councillors consider that a "just cause" to evict. It's
disgusting. Todays families facing eviction-for-profit are tommorrows homeless families living out of their cars. Oaklands rent control needs the teeth of real Just Cause protections to curb the suffering inflicted on
tenants by the profit-addicted landlords.
During a long discussion with Holly Finck who is a volunteer on the steering committee of Just Cause Oakland for over two years, she describes Just Cause Oakland as a coalition of individuals and organizations. She states that "just cause" is only one part of the social justice fabric being woven into other progressive issues, and goes on to state that the living wage campaign is another piece of the puzzle to bring about fairness in the society we live in. As for Ms. Finckes message to the readers of Street Spirit, she says that anyone and everyone can be a part of this campaign, and should be prepared to head to future Oakland City Council meetings as a strong presence supporting the "just cause" initiative. The council has to have a vote to allow it on Novembers ballot, and we will assume that they will go along with the will of the people, says Fincke.
Indeed, according to the Oakland City Charter, it says; The People of the City reserve to themselves the powers of initiative and referendum and the recall of elected officials, to be exercised in the manner prescribed by general law of the State. (Amended by: Stats. November 1988.) This may be found in Section 1104; Initiative, Referendum and Recall.
Local attorney Andrew Wolff states that if the City Council wanted to postpone the Just Cause Initiative even longer, they could seek reports from city staff which would push the deadline beyond the next election cycle coming up in November and stall the initiative process for now.
The initiative process is tricky, and at this point many landlords are outraged that they may be about to lose control in Oakland after so many years of exploiting the renters with impunity. The members of the Rental Housing Association of Alameda County are livid at the prospect of renters being able to defend theirselves from unfair evictions, offered an "anti-just cause" press release for Mondays event, and are doing their best to lobby against the Just Cause Initiative with tons of money to back them up, and noxious rhetoric to state their cause. One of their latest outrageous claims is that they will never be allowed to evict dope dealing senior citizens if "Just Cause" ever passes in Oakland.
The landlord lobby roams the halls of Sacramento on a daily basis with sacks of money in attempts to overturn rent control laws, and should not be underestimated for their dirty tricks or campaigns to fleece the renters. This lobby has many heads such as the McConnel Group, Small Property Owners of America, Berkeley Property Owners Association, Susan Luten, etc... But they all work together, with the goal to maximize their property values by taking as much as possible from the renters in their grasp. The result is that there is no affordable housing for the poor, with the homeless dying upon the streets of america from the east to the west. Rent wars are being waged across the nation to promote or end rent control laws.
Why should people get involved with just cause initiatives? According to Michael Graham, a free lance professional musician renting in Oakland; we desperately need a Just Cause law - it's a no-brainer. It's hard to understand why there is even a controversy about it, why anyone would oppose giving people the barest minimum of protection. It's telling to hear the landlord lobby railing against this law. If they are against fair protection from arbitrary eviction, against the ability to make a tenant homeless on a whim, where does that leave them in the moral spectrum?
Mamie Chow-Wang, a steering committee volunteer with Just Cause Oakland says; why should folks get involved with just cause? Because we are a bad-ass coalition of volunteers and organizations with the vision, determination and clear strategy to win in November's election. We are also a part of a much larger social justice movement that will thrive way beyond November. Why should folks get off their butts and organize to empower their communities? It's easy to feel like we can't make a difference, but that's when it's critical to do something and BE right now, to make the changes we want. Don't wait for change to happen. We've all got to make it happen everyday we are blessed to be alive.
Anti-eviction activists are keeping a close eye on the city council in hopes that they will do what is right to allow the will of the people to move forward with the just cause initiative.
To get involved with Just Cause, call 510/464-1011
To fight evictions, call the Eviction Defense Center 510/452-4541
For direct action campaigns against bad landlords,
call the Campaign for Renters Rights 510/595-5545
Are your rents to high? Join Roll Back The Rents...
Your discussion group for items & resources related to rent control, tenant rebellions, tenant unions, tenant rights,etc...
Join Now! Send e-mail to;
RollBackTheRents-subscribe [at] yahoogroups.com
In memory of Abbie Hoffman/free copy
of Steal This Book...Click below...Enjoy...
http://www.tenant.net/Community/steal/index.html
*************************
Just Cause Eviction Story/Just Cause Story/Petitions
http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82%257E1865%257E665911,00.html
***************************
International Union of Tenants
http://www.iut.nu/
*******************
California Tenants Rights
http://www.tenant.net/Other_Areas/Calif/
*************************
Bad News For Renters of Affordable Housing
http://www.inman.com/InmanStories.asp?ID=30390&CatType=R
*************************
Links to rent control
http://www.smrr.org/
*********************
A real look at rent control
http://tenant.net/Alerts/Guide/papers/reallook.html
*********************
Rent Control/LLs View
http://www.spoa.com/pages/rent-control.html
*********************
Rent Control in California/LLs View
http://www.spoa.com/pages/rentconA2.html
************************
Rent Control In The United States
http://tigger.uic.edu/~wplotk1/rent/rc1.html
*************************
Organizing for Tenants
http://www.tenant.net/Organize/
*************************
Tenant Net Homepage/NY Renters Revolt Site
http://www.tenant.net/
*******************
Rent Control/Honolulu
http://www.millennianet.com/glondon/rent.html
*********************
NCPA View/Rent Control In San Francisco
http://www.ncpa.org/iss/sta/2002/pd021202f.html
**********************
BPOA--Links (inside view of LLs interests)
http://www.bpoa.org/linksweb.htm
**************************
Discussion: Pros & Cons of Section 8 Program
(lacks tenant Perspective)
http://www.inman.com/inmanstories.asp?ID=30242
****************************
LLs View/Nightmares?
(may have problem with Nester.com)
http://www.re-nightmares.com/
*************************
Economcs & Law of Rent Control/World Bank Views
http://netec.wustl.edu/BibEc/data/Papers/fthwobaco1968.html
*************************
Housing Supply & Markets/World Bank Views
http://netec.wustl.edu/BibEc/data/JEL/R31.html
**************************
By Lynda Carson 6/16/02
Oakland, Ca--During Mondays (June 10) record breaking blazing heat, over 100 anti-eviction activists and supporters from 20 different groups around the Bay Area showed up for an event at the Oakland City Hall to turn in over 36,000 collected signatures for an anti-eviction measure. The signatures collected on Petitions for a "just cause" evictions ordinance were delivered to the City Clerks Office, and next will go to the Alameda County Registrar of Voters Office for certification. Activists are confident that the initiative petition drive will qualify if the City Council takes action by July 31 to place it on the ballot for November.
If the Just Cause Initiative becomes law in Oakland it will offer renters an opportunity to defend theirselves from un-just evictions, and total exploitation by the landlords. Recently the Supreme Court decided that it was legal for the Public Housing Agencies across America to evict the innocent as part of the war on drugs, landlords are fighting back against state and local rent control laws, and rents in Oakland have become the fourth highest in the country. The initiative process is one of the last non-violent means left available for non-propertied peoples to fight the ruling class and the corrupt system of capitalism that is stealing everything that it gets it's hands on. Enron is the latest poster child of the corrupt system run by the ruling class, and the theives of Wall Street have their sights set next on the Social Security system.
It took over 300 volunteers to fulfill the goals of the petition drive for the initiative, and during early Febuary of 2002, volunteers started collecting the signatures. Hunter Pyle a local attorney and volunteer on the steering committee for the Just Cause Organization during the past two years stated that he was surprised at how smooth the signature gathering went when I asked him what the most difficult part of collecting signatures were. Mr. Pyle was the one in charge of the signature gathering part of the campaign until the moment arrived to turn them in to the City Clerks Office for Mondays event.
Three guest speakers were invited to the rally for turning in the signatures, and speaker Phil Rapier also of Just Cause Oakland brought along his lovely 7 year old daughter Maya who joyfully handed out 48 red roses to the crowd during the event. Jenn Collins of Cherry, Illinois, who is a local receptionist for a law firm thats involved in the Judi Bari VS the F.B.I. case, says that the event was one of the most beautiful moments she has ever experienced.
Meika Johnson a community organizer with Just Cause Oakland since March of 2002, was up late the night before Mondays event to prepare herself as one of the guest speakers, and has first hand experience at being evicted on two occasions. Ms. Johnson made it clear to the media during an interview that "Rentacide" is the continous cycle of forced relocation for renters in the Bay Area, and must be brought to an end.
As of Febuary 19, 2002, voter records reveal that Alameda County has 677,667 registered voters, and being in the heart of Alameda County many believe that Oaklanders are ready to end the eviction for profit system that is at the root of the homeless problems in the county. Meika Johnson believes that 36,000 signatures is a very strong message to the Oakland City Council that action must be taken now to stop the forced relocation of so many thousands of poor people out of Oakland.
I asked Phil Rapier; what did you think of todays event? Mr. Rapier replied that he believed it was the glorious culmination of so much effort by so many people. Mr. Rapier who was not active in the signature gathering part of the campaign exclaimed his delight that more signatures were collected than the activists expected, and that now is the time to end the exploitation of Oakland renters. Evictions are still very high explains Rapier, with bigger property owners taking over medium sized buildings to dump the renters on the streets so that they may double the rents afterwards. Rapier says that a great hush fell over the crowd when Meika Johnson spoke, and says that her words touched them all on a very deep level.
Others who were part of the effort are with BOSS, ACORN, MISSION HOUSING, PUEBLO, Oakland Tenants Union, Campaign for Renters Rights, California Tomorrow, and many other groups and organizations who became creative in their efforts to support the just cause initiative. Some played large roles in the effort while others smaller, but the goals were the same regarding the collection of signatures, fundraising, and finding more volunteers. It was a massive effort.
Teams of people from the Campaign for Renters Rights took turns on the weekends to collect signatures, and eventually took to the streets with Sue Doyal and John Reimann using a bullhorn to call out renters from their buildings to sign the petitions. Others met at ACORN on weekends and one night during the week for teams of people to be assigned to bart stations, local events, grocery stores and other places that people would be found in large numbers. At one point, a large fundraising event took place at the Parkway Theatre where many signatures were collected before the feature length film played called, "Boom; The Sound of Eviction". The film stirred the crowd with emotion as the stories of eviction unfolded upon the big screen, with hisses from the crowd erupting at times.
According to Rob Rooke of the Campaign for Renters Rights; "Families we work with are being evicted so rents can be hiked". Unfortunately Oakland city councillors consider that a "just cause" to evict. It's
disgusting. Todays families facing eviction-for-profit are tommorrows homeless families living out of their cars. Oaklands rent control needs the teeth of real Just Cause protections to curb the suffering inflicted on
tenants by the profit-addicted landlords.
During a long discussion with Holly Finck who is a volunteer on the steering committee of Just Cause Oakland for over two years, she describes Just Cause Oakland as a coalition of individuals and organizations. She states that "just cause" is only one part of the social justice fabric being woven into other progressive issues, and goes on to state that the living wage campaign is another piece of the puzzle to bring about fairness in the society we live in. As for Ms. Finckes message to the readers of Street Spirit, she says that anyone and everyone can be a part of this campaign, and should be prepared to head to future Oakland City Council meetings as a strong presence supporting the "just cause" initiative. The council has to have a vote to allow it on Novembers ballot, and we will assume that they will go along with the will of the people, says Fincke.
Indeed, according to the Oakland City Charter, it says; The People of the City reserve to themselves the powers of initiative and referendum and the recall of elected officials, to be exercised in the manner prescribed by general law of the State. (Amended by: Stats. November 1988.) This may be found in Section 1104; Initiative, Referendum and Recall.
Local attorney Andrew Wolff states that if the City Council wanted to postpone the Just Cause Initiative even longer, they could seek reports from city staff which would push the deadline beyond the next election cycle coming up in November and stall the initiative process for now.
The initiative process is tricky, and at this point many landlords are outraged that they may be about to lose control in Oakland after so many years of exploiting the renters with impunity. The members of the Rental Housing Association of Alameda County are livid at the prospect of renters being able to defend theirselves from unfair evictions, offered an "anti-just cause" press release for Mondays event, and are doing their best to lobby against the Just Cause Initiative with tons of money to back them up, and noxious rhetoric to state their cause. One of their latest outrageous claims is that they will never be allowed to evict dope dealing senior citizens if "Just Cause" ever passes in Oakland.
The landlord lobby roams the halls of Sacramento on a daily basis with sacks of money in attempts to overturn rent control laws, and should not be underestimated for their dirty tricks or campaigns to fleece the renters. This lobby has many heads such as the McConnel Group, Small Property Owners of America, Berkeley Property Owners Association, Susan Luten, etc... But they all work together, with the goal to maximize their property values by taking as much as possible from the renters in their grasp. The result is that there is no affordable housing for the poor, with the homeless dying upon the streets of america from the east to the west. Rent wars are being waged across the nation to promote or end rent control laws.
Why should people get involved with just cause initiatives? According to Michael Graham, a free lance professional musician renting in Oakland; we desperately need a Just Cause law - it's a no-brainer. It's hard to understand why there is even a controversy about it, why anyone would oppose giving people the barest minimum of protection. It's telling to hear the landlord lobby railing against this law. If they are against fair protection from arbitrary eviction, against the ability to make a tenant homeless on a whim, where does that leave them in the moral spectrum?
Mamie Chow-Wang, a steering committee volunteer with Just Cause Oakland says; why should folks get involved with just cause? Because we are a bad-ass coalition of volunteers and organizations with the vision, determination and clear strategy to win in November's election. We are also a part of a much larger social justice movement that will thrive way beyond November. Why should folks get off their butts and organize to empower their communities? It's easy to feel like we can't make a difference, but that's when it's critical to do something and BE right now, to make the changes we want. Don't wait for change to happen. We've all got to make it happen everyday we are blessed to be alive.
Anti-eviction activists are keeping a close eye on the city council in hopes that they will do what is right to allow the will of the people to move forward with the just cause initiative.
To get involved with Just Cause, call 510/464-1011
To fight evictions, call the Eviction Defense Center 510/452-4541
For direct action campaigns against bad landlords,
call the Campaign for Renters Rights 510/595-5545
Are your rents to high? Join Roll Back The Rents...
Your discussion group for items & resources related to rent control, tenant rebellions, tenant unions, tenant rights,etc...
Join Now! Send e-mail to;
RollBackTheRents-subscribe [at] yahoogroups.com
In memory of Abbie Hoffman/free copy
of Steal This Book...Click below...Enjoy...
http://www.tenant.net/Community/steal/index.html
*************************
Just Cause Eviction Story/Just Cause Story/Petitions
http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82%257E1865%257E665911,00.html
***************************
International Union of Tenants
http://www.iut.nu/
*******************
California Tenants Rights
http://www.tenant.net/Other_Areas/Calif/
*************************
Bad News For Renters of Affordable Housing
http://www.inman.com/InmanStories.asp?ID=30390&CatType=R
*************************
Links to rent control
http://www.smrr.org/
*********************
A real look at rent control
http://tenant.net/Alerts/Guide/papers/reallook.html
*********************
Rent Control/LLs View
http://www.spoa.com/pages/rent-control.html
*********************
Rent Control in California/LLs View
http://www.spoa.com/pages/rentconA2.html
************************
Rent Control In The United States
http://tigger.uic.edu/~wplotk1/rent/rc1.html
*************************
Organizing for Tenants
http://www.tenant.net/Organize/
*************************
Tenant Net Homepage/NY Renters Revolt Site
http://www.tenant.net/
*******************
Rent Control/Honolulu
http://www.millennianet.com/glondon/rent.html
*********************
NCPA View/Rent Control In San Francisco
http://www.ncpa.org/iss/sta/2002/pd021202f.html
**********************
BPOA--Links (inside view of LLs interests)
http://www.bpoa.org/linksweb.htm
**************************
Discussion: Pros & Cons of Section 8 Program
(lacks tenant Perspective)
http://www.inman.com/inmanstories.asp?ID=30242
****************************
LLs View/Nightmares?
(may have problem with Nester.com)
http://www.re-nightmares.com/
*************************
Economcs & Law of Rent Control/World Bank Views
http://netec.wustl.edu/BibEc/data/Papers/fthwobaco1968.html
*************************
Housing Supply & Markets/World Bank Views
http://netec.wustl.edu/BibEc/data/JEL/R31.html
**************************
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