California Apartment Association is afraid of coronavirus rent strikes

California Apartment Association is afraid of coronavirus rent strikes

By Lynda Carson - August 4, 2020

With millions in California losing their jobs, income, food, and healthcare, while being ordered to shelter-in-place as a result of the coronavirus pandemic spreading across the state and the nation, it seems reasonable to many that a rent strike not only seems feasible, but necessary.

Enrique Z. Manheim, and Katalin G. Manheim, owners of Saturn Management Inc, who reside at a home worth nearly $9 million in Beverly Hills, are reportedly facing a rent strike after an official with Saturn Management sent out a threatening email to around 300 tenants, in the Los Angeles area.

Apparently, Saturn Management screwed up and sent a threatening email to around 300 tenants, but forgot to hide the tenant email contact addresses as a blind carbon copy (BCC), which made it easier for the tenants to contact each other and organize.

As a result, reportedly a tenant named Roberto Torres suggested to the other tenants that they should have a rent strike. And according to the Curbed news article, “They quickly created a communal Google document and a Slack channel, where they have continued to compile complaints about building management and have started to organize plans for a potential strike, which would likely happen in May.

California Apartment Association is afraid of coronavirus rent strikes

On April 1, 2020, the CAA sent out a sample letter to its members, that is being sent out by the landlords to tenants across the state that may be participating in rent strike.

Additionally, in an April 1, 2020 blog posting on the CAA website called ‘Rent strikes being organized, activists demand rent forgiveness’, it states, “Tenant activists are organizing rent strikes in a number of California cities, with landlords in Los Angeles, Oakland and San Francisco as apparent targets.

The more radical tenant groups are spearheading the strikes, calling on tenants to withhold rent payments and demand that unpaid rent be forgiven in light of the COVID-19 crisis.

The demands come despite a statewide moratorium on evictions for non-payment of rent attributable to COVID-19. The California Apartment Association, too, called on all rental housing providers to adopt its Safe at Home Guidelines, which include a voluntary rent freeze and halt on evictions for residents affected by the pandemic.

CAA contends, however, that tenants who cannot pay rent now due to COVID-19 financial hardships will still need to compensate landlords for unpaid rent within a reasonable time frame after the crisis subsides.

Moreover, CAA has urged all tenants who can pay their rent on time to do so. The association condemns organizations using the COVID-19 crisis as an excuse for renters unaffected financially by the virus to withhold payment.

“Calls for a general rent strike — where nobody pays the rent and back rent never gets paid — are irresponsible, unethical and illegal,” said Tom Bannon, chief executive officer for the California Apartment Association. “Any organization that is promoting general rent strikes is reckless, and either thoughtless or incredibly self-serving. Rent strikes will have a detrimental impact on housing opportunities for everyone, especially for working-class families.”

This unreasonable line of B.S. is coming from the same group of wealthy board members of the CAA, that have squeezed every last penny they can out of the tenants in California for years, for any reason possible, without any mercy.

The California Apartment Association (CAA) which has stalked the tenant movement for years, and have fought against the efforts of tenant activists trying to pass reasonable rent control measures and just cause eviction protections at every turn, is afraid of rent strikes that are a reasonable action for the tenants to survive.

Rent Strike Are Reasonable When Considering What Is Happening With The Coronavirus Pandemic

In contrast to the notorious efforts of the CAA and its affiliates, in a release on IndyBay it states, “Anti-Eviction Mapping Project, Tenant and Neighborhood Councils, and other Bay Area folks are producing and sharing information on how to organize a rent strike. They write: It is now common sense that our health depends on one another—how we act, and what we do. On April 1st, when millions of us are out of work and we’re still expected to pay our rent or mortgage, we will need each other even more. Right now, 78% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. 58% can’t weather a $500 unexpected expense. And 20%, about 31 million workers, are already experiencing reduced hours or unemployment as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even if everyone receives a check from the government, millions will still be forced to choose between groceries and rent.”

Reportedly, Terra Thomas has gone on a rent strike, in Oakland, and reportedly tenants across the nation are being urged to go on a rent strike.

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

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