It Isn’t About Building More Housing…

It’s about regulating landlords

Dear California Lawmakers,

I’m sure by now you have heard the horrifying stories of displacement, eviction, and homelessness in the San Francisco Bay Area. Coupled with these stories are skyrocketing rent and housing costs, creating a market in which regular, middle- and low-income families can no longer afford housing. Shelter. A place to call home.

In all the articles that I have read about evictions across San Francisco, the South Bay, and the East Bay, almost none of them has included a response from you, the lawmakers.1

Which makes me wonder…

What are you doing to address this dire problem that is affecting 
 thousands of California’s residents, many of whom voted for you?

I understand that you might consider this issue more local than a state-wide concern. Cities and counties should be addressing the issue of affordable housing in their jurisdictions. But this crisis is affecting the entire state. Families in Santa Rosa are living in squalor because of delinquent and greedy landlords. People in Los Angeles are being evicted out of their homes so that the landlords can list their apartments on AirBnB and similar apps.2

I’m am writing because I am afraid. I live in a rent-controlled apartment in Berkeley, and it is the only way I can afford to live near where I work, in my community, and close to my family. My landlady, while she is a cheapskate like so many landlords, at least keeps the buildings somewhat up to code. Sure, there’s black mold in the bathroom, the upstairs neighbor’s water heater burst at 3am in the morning and the water damaged our ceiling and walls because there was no drainage pan underneath it, and the pipes regularly drip (hence the mold). And sure, the basement floods every time it rains. But at least we have a working heater and a roof that doesn’t leak. The super is helpful, responsive, and responsible. We live in a relatively safe neighborhood with walkable restaurants and public transport. Berkeley has some of the toughest tenants’ protections in the region. Some renters are not so lucky.

• There are people in San Francisco who rent from one Mrs. Lau, who notoriously has raised one tenant’s rent from $1,800 a month to $8,000 a month (maybe you heard this story?), and who has been skirting California building and property codes for years. I encourage you to read the reviews on Yelp, with 1-star reviews going back to 2006.3 That’s 10 years ago. Somehow, she’s still in business.
• And maybe you heard about the story of a woman, a schoolteacher, who is being evicted from her apartment for using appliances after who new landlords deemed her in-law unit “illegal.”4 Her landlord gave her and her teenage daughter only 3 days to vacate the property. How is that legal?
• Then across the bay in Oakland, a landlord raised his tenants’ rent from $1,080 a month to $3,870 a month to force them out.5 Why force them out? To make way for “luxury condos.” Some of the residents have been there for over 20 years. That’s their home.
• Of course there are the tales of “enterprising” young (white, middle/upper-income, well-educated, single) men who build themselves boxes in which to reside (illegally) in friends’ living rooms, or who convert trucks or tents into makeshift living spaces in order to save money. Their friends and colleagues appear to glorify their ingenuity, but really they are romanticizing the fact that living in a proper apartment or home is a not a given, but rather a luxury.6
• In Burlingame, Marie Hatch received a 60-day eviction notice from her landlord, to vacate the home that she had lived in for 66 years. Marie was 97, and died while embroiled in a legal battle to remain in her home.7
• Just north of San Francisco, in Petaluma, a business major at Sonoma State University struggled to focus on her studies and find an affordable apartment with her family after the landlords issued a 60-day eviction notices to eight tenants in her building. Of course, they could stay if they could pay the $700 per month rent increase. Most of the residents there are Latino, a population that already faces greater economic struggle and marginalization than their white counterparts.8
• Speaking of marginalized peoples, there are more than several instances of black families in Oakland forced from their homes9 or living on the streets with their families10 because they can no longer afford to live there. Not to mention the many families who have been forced out of their homes through gentrification. Institutional racism is alive and well in the housing crisis of the Bay Area.
• Rising housing costs and displacement is also a public health issue. A recent report found that as families struggle to pay rent, they are unable to afford basic healthcare, and many crowd into small units to divide the burden of monthly rent further. A recent study shows that the rate of asthma-related emergency hospital visits increases more than a four-fold as the number of residents living in overcrowded conditions increases. And this isn’t even to mention the psychological toll. Failure to address the housing crisis is a failure to protect our well-being.

Landlords, However, Make Plenty of Money

I heard from my apartment’s super that our landlady makes at least $60,000 a month in rent income. That’s more than most of us see in a year. Let me say that again. $60,000 a month. A. Month. And she doesn’t even own that many properties. And most of them are paid for. With pre-Prop 13 tax rates. If you believe that these landlords are hurting for money, you are being sold a bill of questionable goods.

These landlords claim that rent-control hurts their business. Well, their business is providing homes and shelters for human beings with lives, with families, with belongings that hold decades of memories. If they want to be in business to make money, maybe they should learn how to code? Meanwhile, landlords who are invoking the Ellis Act to “get out of the rent business” are destroying people’s lives. And for what? For more money. To sell their properties to multi-million dollar condo developers to build more housing for the wealthy and for overseas investors looking for a “safe place” to stow their cash.11

The United Nations also deems adequate housing a human right. When we turn a blind eye to those who lose their homes to greed and development, we are denying our fellow citizens a basic human right.12 We tell them to “move somewhere cheaper.” That’s callous and shallow advice.

Some of Us Can’t “Just Move”

Usually, at this point, when “discussing” this issue on the internet (always a perilous endeavor), some bitter soul suggests if we can’t afford the rent or if we are evicted, that we “just move.” “Move out of the Bay Area,” they say. Then there is the inevitable qualifier: “I did.” As if their decision is the best for all of us. Some of us cannot “just move.” Some of us don’t have the money to move (moving is expensive). Some of us can’t afford to be so far away from our jobs that it costs us more than $50 in gas a week to get there in back (that’s assuming one tank of gas a week in a car with decent gas mileage, and not even counting the cost of car maintenance). Some of us can’t take the toll on our health to commute for more than two hours in and back from our jobs. Some of us can’t move because we don’t own cars, and rely on the meager public transportation available to us now. Some of us can’t move because we have children. Some of us can’t move because we rely on the social services available to us where they live now. Some of us can’t move because we are caring for family members who live nearby.

We can’t take our friends, our culture, our community, our schools, our jobs, or our neighborhoods, with us when we move. And many landlords are taking advantage of the scramble for housing by putting increased restrictions on their potential tenants. Renters are giving up their pets because they can’t find an apartment that allows them.13 Some renters with decent incomes and good credit (like this family in Santa Cruz14) have tried for over a year to find a new property. Telling someone that they can “just move,” is unhelpful at best and sociopathic at worst.

Meanwhile, middle class families are moving.15 To the tune of 61,000 people a year. Taking their money and their contributions to state productivity with them. With every middle class person who leaves the state because it is increasingly untenable to live here, the gap between rich and poor grows. Every day the Bay Area creeps closer to becoming a Dickensian urban nightmare.

We Need YOU to Do Something

We are experiencing an epidemic of a loss of compassion in the Bay Area. Landlords evict long-time residents with the promise of tech and condo development cash. Recently I read that a developer in San Jose plans to demolish 216 rent-controlled units to build 640 market rate units.16 Do you know what market rate units rent for in San Jose today? I’ll wait while you look it up on Craig’s List. That’s right. Anywhere from $2,500 to $4,000 a month. How is anyone who makes minimum wage going to afford rents like that?17 Oh. Right. They can’t.18 One has to work 130 hours a week at minimum wage to afford an average two-bedroom apartment in California.19

I can tell you that among my friends who live in the Bay Area, the term “luxury condos” elicits a spitting hate and contempt. Luxury condos only provide housing for those making more than $150,000 a year, and I can tell you right now that the artists, teachers,20 firepeople, police officers,21 bus drivers, and even middle-class office workers don’t make that kind of money. A friend of mine has worked for Chevron for over a decade and doesn’t even make that much money. Middle class workers can no longer afford to live in urban spaces, leaving our cities to become playgrounds of the remorseless rich.22

Many tech workers do not see that the buses they use to commute to and from work not only disadvantage the disabled from using the real public transportation available to them in San Francisco but also are driven by workers who can’t afford housing. Just this week, a woman called into KQED’s Forum radio show saying that she is homeless, but also drives a shuttle for a tech company.23 Mira Ingram, who moved to San Francisco when she was 25, uses a wheelchair, has missed many doctor’s appointment because a tech shuttle was in the MUNI bus stop. She also says that at least half of her friends have been evicted from their homes under the Ellis Act.24 It’s appalling. It’s unconscionable. It’s unacceptable in a region of the United States known for its innovation and for being awash in money.

We Need Landlord Oversight and Affordable Rentals

The issue is not only that we have a “housing shortage.” Putting new rentals on the market at market rate isn’t going to help the thousands of people who are being displaced from their apartments today, and who need affordable housing. And I don’t mean Section 8, although we need more of that too. I mean housing that isn’t going to cost them $3,000 — $4,000 a month. Housing that is actually the definition of affordable, and isn’t going to eat up more than 50% of one’s income. Housing that isn’t out of financial reach because many landlords face no strict oversight. Because, again, if you’ve been paying attention, that’s what’s happening, not only in the Bay Area, but also in urban centers across the country.

It’s time that landlords and property management firms in the State of California face tighter regulations. They must be held to higher standards of human decency.

No one should ever fear losing their home.

Ever. And yet so many of us do. There’s absolutely no excuse for that in a society that dares to call itself “civilized.”

Please take some time looking through the articles that I have collected on the rental and housing crisis plaguing not only San Francisco, but California at large. Some of the articles here are also about how affordable housing is eluding people across the United States. You’ll notice how so many issues are intertwined: Tech boom, AirBnB, Ellis Act, homelessness, stagnant wages, and automation… just to name a few. https://www.pinterest.com/asharah/rent-battles/

California legislature has led the way on so many other issues, from environmental protection to anti-smoking laws to marriage equality.

It’s time that we step up and lead the way on rental reform and state oversight on landlords and property managers.

Show us that you are paying attention. Create legislature that will protect the remaining middle class families in California. Show us that you care.

We are relying on you.

Sincerely yours,
 Abigail Keyes