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Richmond Mayor & two council members block emergency eviction and rent increase moratorium

by Lynda Carson (tenantsrule [at] yahoo.com)
Richmond Mayor Tom Butt is a landlord who also makes a living being an architect. His vote against the proposed 45 day moratorium means that he is ignoring the plight of the poor, elderly and working class individuals and families of Richmond facing displacement from their communities due to unreasonable massive rent increase, and evictions by unscrupulous landlords!
Richmond Mayor & two council members block emergency eviction and rent increase moratorium

By Lynda Carson - September 14, 2016

Richmond - Ignoring the plight and pleas of help from renters facing eviction and massive rent increases before the voters can vote on Measure L (renter protections) in November, on Tuesday September 13, Mayor Tom Butt, and two council members blocked a proposed 45 day moratorium on evictions and rent increases from being passed by the full City Council. There were 42 speakers, mostly in support of the moratorium at the council meeting.

The median price for a rental unit in Richmond has skyrocketed to $2,388 per month according to Zillow. Evictions and rent increases have been on the rise in Richmond because landlords have been put into a state of panic by rental housing associations, realtors, and apartment associations opposed to reasonable renter protections (Measure L), that will be voted on in November. Renter protections that will help to stabilize Richmond’s families, communities, schools, and jobs.

Richmond Mayor Tom Butt is a landlord who also makes a living being an architect. His vote against the proposed 45 day moratorium means that he is ignoring the plight of the poor, elderly and working class individuals and families of Richmond facing displacement from their communities due to unreasonable massive rent increase, and evictions by unscrupulous landlords. Meanwhile, Mayor Butt feels safe and secure in a nice home in Richmond, without fear of being evicted by a landlord.

At the September 13 City Council meeting, Councilwoman Gayle McLaughlin stated that she and many others were concerned about renters being displaced from their communities because the landlords were making moves to raise the rent and evicting renters, before the voters can vote on Measure L, in November.

Councilwoman McLaughlin said, “We are concerned about kids who have to move away from their schools, and that the impact of instability in our neighborhoods is big, which is why I brought this proposal forward. Wether you agree with, or disagree with rent control and eviction protections, we need the moratorium until the voters can have their voice heard on November 8, which is why I am asking you to vote on the moratorium.”

She also mentioned that the mayor’s reply to community members concerned about the mass evictions taking place at Creekview Condominiums, is that the mayor claims the moratorium would not help the tenants from being displaced, because they have to be vacated because of repairs.

In reply to the mayor, Councilwoman McLaughlin said I disagree with that and this is why, “The moratorium would stop the current wave of evictions because it would give more time to tenants. Right now they are given 60 days, and sometimes they are only given 30 days notice to move. This would give them more time because landlords can not go through with an eviction until they go through a court ruling. And by the time we pass this emergency moratorium, the judge would know that Richmond has this new moratorium law. It would also require the landlords to offer the place back to the tenant, after repairs under most circumstances. It also requires the landlord to offer vacant units to tenants while repairs are being made to their apartments, and it prevents the landlord from having an exorbitant rent increase. It allows a 3 percent rent increase during this moratorium.”

When Councilman Nat Bates asked if a similar proposed renter protection moratorium was challenged in Oakland or Alameda recently, he was told no. And Councilwoman Jovanka Beckles said that it was unlikely that it would be challenged in Richmond.

Mayor Bates stated that he does not see any kind of enforcement mechanism for the urgency moratorium if it took effect, and asked how would the city staff get involved if any violations took place. He was told that a tenant facing eviction could go to court and tell the judge about the moratorium, as a defense against the eviction. The City Attorney also mentioned that if someone had their rent increased during the moratorium and a tenant complained to the city, that staff would contact the landlord on behalf of the tenant. If passed, Richmond would also notify the courts about the moratorium protecting the renters.

Melvin Willis was a speaker who asked the council to support the moratorium, and said, “I am asking the council to support the moratorium because we have seen the news of what is happening at Creekview Condominiums and more and more buildings are coming up where the tenants are claiming the evictions are hitting them, and they do not know where to go. Its expensive, and people want to stay in Richmond. I am begging the council to pass this moratorium to protect the tenants they will be hearing from this evening.”

Debbie Bear also spoke in favor of the moratorium, as did many others. On behalf of the landlords Jill Broadhurst of the East Bay Rental Housing Association spoke out against the 45 day moratorium that would protect the renters from displacement from housing, and their communities.

Despite the passionate pleas of the renters asking for help and the council to pass the 45 day moratorium, it failed to pass by three votes out of the six votes needed. The council meeting became heated when Councilman Bates called the moratorium a “charade,” and many renters yelled out “shame,” when the vote failed to pass the 45 day moratorium.

A day after the 45 day moratorium failed to pass, Councilwoman Gayle McLaughlin said, “I am troubled by the lack of humanity by some on our City Council.  Even those who don't support rent control should have had the decency to support the moratorium to stop these mass evictions in the interim period before the voters weigh-in on Measure L.  I find this extremely disturbing and an affront to our democracy.”

People across the City of Richmond had high hopes that the council would help them stay in their housing and communities, and were let down by the three councilmembers who voted against the moratorium during their time of need.

Long-time Richmond renter Jim Lynch, said, “Well what do you know. The proposed 45-day moratorium on rent increases and evictions in Richmond was blocked by Mayor Tom Butt and councilmembers Nathaniel Bates and Vinay Pimplé last night. Mayor Butt is a true friend to landlords by saying Trump-like things like ‘rent control is a lot like putting water on a grease fire.’ It’s going to take a lot more than our progressives on the council representing the interests of renters getting evicted and priced out of the poorest city in the Bay Area. We need more people like renter activists like Lynda Carson of IndyBay and Mike Parker of Beyond Chron to get the voice of the people heard on this issue.”

Renter protections will be on the ballot in 6 cities during November in the Bay Area. No matter how hard the landlords and the California Apartment Association are trying to stop the renters movement, tenant advocates across the Bay Area are urging renters to vote on strong renter protections during the upcoming November elections in the cities of Richmond, Oakland, Alameda, Burlingame, San Mateo, and Mountain View. The activists are urging people to vote “no” against any weak proposals placed on the ballot by the City Council in Alameda, and Mountain View.

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

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Comments (Hide Comments)
by Register Peace & Freedom or Green
Richmond, as with many Bay Area cities, requires that all its elected and appointed officials not be Republicans due to the high voter registration for Democrats. While these local offices may be non-partisan, you can be sure the Mayor Tom Butt and Councilmembers Nathaniel Bates and Vinay Pimplé are Democrats. Only Peace & Freedom and the Green Party are 100% pro-tenant. For more on this story with the names of the anti-tenant council members, see http://www.eastbayexpress.com/SevenDays/archives/2016/09/14/richmond-rent-increase-and-eviction-moratorium-blocked-by-mayor-tom-butt-and-two-councilmembers

For more on the biographies of these council members, see:
http://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/149/Biographies-Terms

In Tom Butt's biography at http://ca-richmond.civicplus.com/2950/About-me, you will see that Butt "served in the Vietnam War from 1968 to 1970." It is unknown if he was drafted or enlisted or how he served, whether he was a medic, in the infantry, an officer or what. We do know from this statement that he was not a conscientious objector or a draft resister to American War Crimes against the Vietnamese people, resulting in the deaths of 3 million Vietnamese, 1 million Cambodians, 58,000 Americans and thousands of other people. There were thousands of people who opposed the American killing machine that outdid Nazi Germany who could not get conscientious objector status, or a student deferment, or a political-psychiatric deferment. Political meant the organization to which you belonged was on the Attorney General's subversive list, which included all socialist and communist organizations, as well as some fascist organizations, but the purpose was to attack the left, and you had to be willing to admit you belonged to such an organization in the anti-communist hysteria of the 1960s. Psychiatric meant that you were gay, which was illegal and most people who were gay did not openly admit they were gay. Those people who opposed American War Crimes in Vietnam and could not get deferments went to jail for a year rather than be drafted or they fled to Canada or Sweden or anywhere else that offered refuge for draft resisters.

For more on Nathaniel Bates, see
http://ca-richmond.civicplus.com/398/Nathaniel-Bates
You can see from Bates' biography that he is an African-American and proud Democrat. He has clearly turned his back on the workingclass of Richmond. Richmond is 25% African-American and 39% Latino, and the whole town of some 100,000 is overwhelmingly workingclass. For more on Richmond, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richmond,_California

Vinay Pimple was selected by the Richmond City Council to fill Tom Butts' seat, who had become mayor. Clearly, he is reactionary. See http://www.eastbayexpress.com/SevenDays/archives/2015/02/25/richmond-selects-new-councilmember-finally



by Zak Wear
Just like that, homeless

The RPA did not organize a disruption at the 9/13 City Council meeting. On Tuesday night, after dozens of public speakers and four Council members respectfully advocated for a temporary 45-day moratorium on evictions and rent increases over 3%, which required a 6/7 vote supermajority, the item failed. Nat Bates, Tom Butt and Vinay Pimple voted no.

And just like that, there were people in the room who were made homeless. Some audience members, including tenants who have recently been unjustly evicted, were so frustrated that they erupted into a spontaneous chorus of "Shame on you!" This chant was directed at council members who appeared to have not heard nor responded to the reasoned explanations for enacting a temporary moratorium until voters can make the decision in November.

The Mayor described this yesterday, in an article, as “a riot.” Nat Bates and Vinay Pimple wrote long articles to explain how they felt disrespected by those in the room. Instead of defending their position, instead of defending their choice, these politicians are projecting a political sideshow to deflect the gravity of what they had done to our community.

We urge all Richmond residents to watch the full council meeting of 9/13 and judge for themselves who was uncivilized. http://richmond.granicus.com/MediaPlayer... (at 2:42:40).

The council members who voted against it have not and will not want to talk about the merits of a moratorium specifically. In the Mayor’s comments he tried odd discussion points such as equating the moratorium with chickens and turkeys. This seriously is not funny nor illuminating discourse from Mayor Butt. He wants to divert the conversation as much as possible from this indefensible position.

It was frustrating to hear the lecture by Councilmember Bates that the people who had come to the Council meeting to plead their case for temporary action by the Council were wasting the Council’s time. It was clear that the three had made up their minds prior to the meeting that they would not let anything said at the meeting change their minds.

In the frustration following the vote some individuals made verbal personal attacks on Councilmembers. We do not support these and we do not support disrupting the normal process of the Council. But we understand where the strong feelings are coming from when people are losing their homes. RPA member and Council member Jovanka Beckles became understandably angry at the thought of seniors, families and children not getting the support of their Council members, and has since apologized.

Denying the moratorium not only denied people their homes, they were denied the right to vote. One tenant discussed in her testimony how these evictions may function as a form of voter suppression. When tenants don’t get the chance to vote, and instead have to uproot their lives, the community loses its voice.

This moratorium was not a radical move to make. As Jael Myrick pointed out, in Alameda and Oakland, the much more conservative City Councils voted unanimously for an emergency moratorium on evictions and high rent increases. They understood that it was not fair to the public to deal with a market panic in the run up to a rent control vote. A few of our council members are dead set on sabotaging rent control and blaming anyone else possible for their inaction. Tom Butt and Nat Bates are both landlords themselves.

We could have stopped the evictions. Whether you agree with rent control or not doesn’t matter, just let people stay long enough to vote and figure out places to go and vote. The moratorium would have cost almost nothing and would have hurt no one. A lot of people are needlessly suffering.

So while tenants take their evictions to the courts, what we have left is to pass Measure L. If passed, it will go into effect January 1st, 2017. Join us at http://www.fairandaffordablerichmond.com. Thank you.

The RPA Steering Committee
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