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In bizarre perverse twist of fate, anti-tenant group CAA partners with United Way

by Lynda Carson (tenantsrule [at] yahoo.com)
In a bizarre perverse twist of fate, the anti-tenant organization California Apartment Association (CAA) an organization that has been attacking renter protections that assist community members from displacement and homelessness in Richmond, while attacking renter protection proposals in Santa Rosa and San Mateo in recent weeks, has entered into a partnership with the United Way to help out the homeless!
In a bizarre perverse twist of fate, anti-tenant group CAA partners with United Way

By Lynda Carson - September 16, 2015

Richmond - As the City Council of Richmond and the renters who recently had their renter protections hijacked from them by a petition of the California Apartment Association (CAA), that many were lied to and tricked into signing by devious signature gatherers according to reports, the citizens of Richmond are patiently awaiting to hear if there were enough legal signatures to repeal renter protections, including rent control and just cause eviction protections in Richmond.

On September 11, Councilmember Gayle McLaughlin said: “As many of you know, three specific Richmond-related petitions were circulated for signatures in our city recently.  They were turned into our City Clerk's office earlier this month.  The signatures are currently being reviewed in the Contra Costa Elections Office to determine whether or not they have sufficient qualifying signatures.”

Click on link below for statements by Councilmember Gayle McLaughlin and RPA member Mike Parker…

https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/09/14/18777628.php

Meanwhile, in a bizarre perverse twist of fate, the anti-tenant organization California Apartment Association (CAA) an organization that has been attacking renter protections that assist community members from displacement and homelessness in Richmond, while attacking renter protection proposals in Santa Rosa and San Mateo in recent weeks, has entered into a partnership with the United Way to help out the homeless.

Homeless families that may have become homeless because of the brutal policies of the CAA that attack renter protections across the great state of California?

On September 15, it was announced that the CAA and the United Way formed a partnership in the Inland Empire to fight homelessness.

Click on link below for CAA/United Way partnership…

http://caanet.org/caa-greater-inland-empire-partners-with-united-way-to-fight-homelessness/

Oddly, the announcement failed to mention how the CAA stole renter protections in Richmond in recent weeks that would protect citizens from being displaced from their housing, leading to homelessness, nor how the CAA has fought against renter protection proposals in Santa Rosa and San Mateo that would assist in renters from being displaced from their housing, and becoming homeless.

In a cynical move to counter any possible bad press recently as a result of the CAA’s devious schemes to destroy renter protections across the state of California, the CAA has partnered with the United Way as a way to hoodwink the public into believing the CAA is a caring organization.

In a quote from Jennifer Bedford, Board Chairwoman of CAA Greater Inland Empire: “Inland Empire United Way has a proven framework that will mobilize our members and open more avenues for CAA to help the communities we serve.”

Additionally, in a quote from Gregory Bradbard, president and CEO of Inland Empire United Way: “We are very excited to have California Apartment Association Greater Inland Empire on board. This partnership has tremendous potential to strengthen Inland Empire United Way’s efforts to improve the lives of individuals, children and families in our communities.”

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of renters throughout California including Richmond, San Mateo, and Santa Rosa continue to be displaced and made homeless because of policies of the CAA that attack and destroy renter protections, while the wealthy landlords bank accounts get fatter by the moment with the eviction-for profit-system.

Recent comments by individuals regarding the activities of the CAA and it’s members

In opposition to the CAA and it’s efforts to crush proposals in Santa Rosa, a petition supporting rent control in Santa Rosa currently has surfaced with 2,828 signatures (supporters), or more.

Click on link below for petition supporting rent control in Santa Rosa.

https://www.change.org/p/santa-rosa-city-council-enact-rent-control-for-the-city-of-santa-rosa

Click on link below to see how the CAA is meddling in the affairs of Santa Rosa to oppose renter protections that protect people from becoming displaced, and made homeless…

http://caanet.org/call-to-action-santa-rosa-rent-control/

In San Mateo, some recent statements by activists promoting renter protections being opposed by the CAA:

“We’re talking about good landlords who will not be punished, but there are bad landlords that should be controlled just as bad tenants should be controlled,” said Jennifer Martinez, executive director of Peninsula Interfaith Action. “We don’t have the same protection as renters that we should have because the market is screaming. And many, not the good landlords, but the bad landlords want to take advantage of that and hurt our families.”

It was also reported that Daniel Saver, an attorney with Community Legal Aid Services, said: “Our organization has been contacted by 57 families that received no-cause evictions from their San Mateo homes in the last seven months alone. But we (the nonprofit) estimate the number of those evicted was much higher and it’s likely hundreds of people have been unjustly forced to leave their homes.”

In a September 9th email from Cindy Cornell of Burlingame Advocates for Renter Protections, a tenant advocate, and supporter of renter protections for San Mateo and San Mateo County, she stated: "It turned out badly for renters. Ive sent a letter to the daily journal. They will likely publish it...just don’t know when. You can see the text of it on our fb page.”

On September 10, it was reported in The Daily Journal: “Hundreds of people from all sides of the spectrum — including property owners, real estate agents, teachers, families and low-income renters — gathered Tuesday night as Councilman David Lim sought to persuade officials to place a temporary 90-day just cause eviction ordinance for a vote Sept. 21.”

The temporary 90-day just cause eviction ordinance was pulled because of pressure from the CAA/CAA Tri-County and it’s members who pressured three members of the council into ignoring the plight of renters in San Mateo. This stalled the temporary 90-day just cause eviction ordinance proposal to protect renters. Renters who face displacement and homelessness, because of the CAA attack on renter protections.

Additionally, according to reports, Council Members Lim and Bonilla supported placing the proposal at the next council meeting for consideration on September 21, but they lacked support from the other council members being pressured by the CAA to dump the proposal, and to pretend that it needs to be studied more.

Click on link below to see how the CAA opposes renter protections that assist people from being displaced, and made homeless…

http://caanet.org/tag/councilmember-david-lim/

In Richmond, many groups supported renter protection that were hijacked recently by a petition of the CAA, that blocked renter protections from taking effect on September 4, including: AFSCME Local 3299, Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, Tenants Together, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Building Blocks for Kids Richmond Collaborative, California Nurses Association, CCISCO (Contra Costa Interfaith Supporting Community Organization), Centro Latino Cuzcatian, CUIDO (Communities United in Support of Olmstead), Eviction Defense Center, EBHO (East Bay Housing Organization), Iron Triangle Neighborhood Council, Richmond Progressive Alliance, Saffron Strand, SEIU Local 1021, Urban Habitat, and Urban Tilth.

In response to the CAA petition that hijacked renter protections in Richmond. In a statement by Eleanor Walden, former Berkeley Rent Stabilization member. “I want to congratulate Gayle McLaughlin and the Richmond Progressive Alliance for their efforts to establish rent stabilization in Richmond.”

“Rent control is about the right for decent housing for Richmond citizens who are poor and working class.  The greed of the landlords and the stupidity of those who accept their self serving line of argument obscures the facts: The unspoken underlying objection to controlled rent has to do with color and class bias in America. Small landlords who supply housing at rent controlled rates get a reasonable return on their investment or they can appeal to the Board for necessary increases upon justification. It is the corporate land holders who have the resources to mount opposition to decent housing legislation for their exaggerated profits. “

In a recent report by the Contra Costa Times, it stated. “The source of the petition has remained in the shadows, renewing fears about big-money interests meddling in local politics and generating claims of misinformation being spread by paid signature gatherers to secure support.”

Other newspapers reported that it was a mystery as to who is behind the petition to repeal renters protections in Richmond.

According to reports, one person after another has also claimed that the people gathering signatures for the petition to repeal the renters protections have been telling lies to the public in an effort to trick them into signing the petition.

Richmond Public Library assistant Stacey Agnitsch stated that she was approached twice by petition gatherers whom she believed lied to her when they falsely claimed the petition would make rent control stronger.

Another resident named Eli Moore reported that a petitioner came to his door and claimed that the referendum was to prevent rents from going up because the city has voted to raise rents by 40%, which is not true.

In an email sent out by the Richmond Progressive Alliance on August 27, it states: We are reaching out to notify you of a misleading petition to repeal the new rent control ordinance in Richmond, CA. This petition is being circulated by paid professionals who are now earning $12.50 per signature, funded by an anonymous group.

If you have been contacted by one of these circulators, please disregard their fraudulent claims that the petition will support rent control. Not all of these circulators are making misleading or fraudulent claims, but we have received dozens of reports from residents and have cause to believe that up to half of their signatures are from supporters who have been otherwise fooled.

This petition will not support rent control, and the groups working to stabilize rents in Richmond do not endorse it.

This petition if validated will SUSPEND the ordinance for up to Nov. 2016, during which landlords will be free to unfairly raise rents and evict tenants without just cause.

It has also been reported that the signature gatherers have been getting payed as much as $20.00 a signature to repeal rent control in Richmond.

Lori Kossowsky, a tenant advocate said, “I know several signature gatherers who have declined to collect signatures to repeal rent control in Richmond because they believe that it is immoral to be involved in such an endeavor. I also believe that many signature gatherers lied and confused people, as a way to get them to sign the petition.”

Below are video testimonies of rent control supporters who were misled by signature gatherers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRlksxPgv3w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xg2vNx1wx9I

Most unseemly, the CAA has been bragging about the way renter protections have been hijacked from Richmond’s renters.

Click below for details.

http://caanet.org/caa-petition-puts-brakes-on-richmond-rent-control/

In Santa Rosa, citizens including the working class, and school teachers, construction workers, store clerks, city workers, union members, veterans, the elderly, disabled, tenant activists, and families with children are urging the City Council to pass a rent control ordinance that includes protection for Section 8 voucher holders from discrimination.

In opposition, the 13,000 member California Apartment Association (CAA) is pressuring Santa Rosa officials to oppose much needed renter protections, including rent control, and Section 8 voucher protections. The renter protections are needed to protect working class and low-income families, including disabled and elderly family members from displacement from their communities.

The CAA is meddling in the affairs of Santa Rosa, and is against renter protections everywhere in the state of California, including Santa Rosa.

Click on link below to see how the California Apartment Association (CAA) is meddling in the affairs of Santa Rosa in the effort to protect escalating high rents that are displacing people from their communities, landlords who discriminate against Section 8 voucher holders, and the CAA’s efforts to protect the eviction-for profit-system.

http://caanet.org/call-to-action-santa-rosa-rent-control/

As was reported on September 1, in The Press Democrat. During a crowded standing-room only September 1, City Council meeting: “I’m hearing every day about families losing their homes because of skyrocketing rents,” said Councilwoman Julie Combs, one of the council’s staunchest advocates for rent control. “And I think I have a responsibility to do all I can to help working families in our community stay in their homes.”

In regards to proposals in the Santa Rosa City Council to enact renter protections being opposed by the CAA, in a September 15 email from Councilwoman Julie Combs as an update to the City Council meeting yesterday, she said: “We had a study session so no action taken at this time. The council did direct staff to bring back a draft rent control ordinance with options in it to discuss at a future council meeting. (this happened at the previous meeting).

“At tonights meeting we discussed fair housing and non discrimination against voucher users. Also in a study session so no action yet. We will be discussing many aspects of the housing crisis between now and Nov 3d. I do not expect to have action on any of the items until the Nov 3d meeting or the one after that one.”

In addition to opposing rent control, the CAA is also opposing legislation being proposed in Santa Rosa to stop landlords from discriminating against Section 8 voucher holders (Housing Choice Voucher Holders). Presently, many landlords discriminate against Section 8 voucher holders by refusing to rent to them, just because they have a Section 8 voucher that is subsidized by the government. This is unfair to the many low-income families with children, disabled and elderly members, using Section 8 vouchers to subsidize their housing needs.

The Housing Choice Voucher Program (Section 8 program) assists around 2.1 million households in the United States with their rents and utilities, and is run by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). According to HUD’s records, Santa Rosa has 1,849 units in their Section 8 inventory, and Alameda has 1,845 units in their Section 8 inventory. San Francisco has 8,972. Berkeley has 1,935. Oakland has 13,380. Richmond has 1,750. Contra Costa County has 6,381. Alameda County has 6,282, and Marin County has 2,145.

Low-income families in the Section 8 voucher program pay 30 to 40 percent of their income in rent each month, and the rest of the rent is paid to the landlord by the federal program. President Richard Nixon (Tricky Dick), allowed for the creation of the Section 8 voucher program while he was in office, to assist low-income renters in the private housing market.

According to a San Diego company named CoStar that tracks rental properties with five units or more during the second quarter of 2015, the average cost of a rental unit in Santa Rosa is $1,359, a 9.2 percent increase during the past year.

It is a bizarre perverse twist of fate, that the anti-tenant organization California Apartment Association (CAA) an organization that has been attacking renter protections that assist community members from displacement and homelessness in Richmond, while attacking renter protection proposals in Santa Rosa and San Mateo in recent weeks, has entered into a partnership with the United Way to help out the homeless.

The United Way should be ashamed of having a partnership with an organization that spends a fortune annually to oppose renter protections throughout the state of California that assists tenants from being displaced from their communities. Thousands of tenants who are being tossed onto the streets as part of the homeless population, because of the inhumane policies of the CAA.

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

A peak at CAA the nonprofit that stole Richmond’s renters protections

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/09/07/18777219.php

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Click below for more on Renter protections in Richmond

http://tinyurl.com/p52llcr

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(Nonprofit Quarterly)
Landlords Organize Petition Campaign against Rent Control
By Spencer Wells | - September 14, 2015

https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2015/09/14/landlords-organize-petition-campaign-against-rent-control/

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