How big money stole Richmond’s renters’ protections in less than a month

Part 1: 7,000 signatures collected to repeal rent control

by Lynda Carson

Sept. 3, 2015 – According to the Contra Costa Times, the California Apartment Association announced today that they collected over 7,000 signatures from Richmond residents to repeal renters’ protections. They need 4,100 valid signatures to turn in by Sept. 4. The signatures still need to be validated and turned in before they can be used.

According to the city attorney, if 10 percent of registered voters sign the petition and the signatures are validated, the ordinance is suspended. Then the City Council could repeal the ordinance or put it on the ballot at the next regular municipal election, scheduled for Nov. 16, 2016.

During July, a majority of Richmond City Council members voted to pass an ordinance to protect renters from displacement, which included rent control and just cause eviction protections.

It was a long-term effort to stop the displacement of renters facing eviction from increasing high rents, greedy landlords and sales of rental properties by realtors displacing families in the process. Rents have increased more than 24 percent in recent years in Richmond.
During July, a majority of Richmond City Council members voted to pass an ordinance to protect renters from displacement, which included rent control and just cause eviction protections.

It was also the first time in 30 years that rent control was passed by a California city to protect vulnerable renters facing the choice of going hungry to pay the rent or being pushed out of their housing.

Many groups were behind the organizing effort to protect renters from displacement in Richmond, including AFSCME Local 3299, ACCE (Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment), Tenants Together, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Building Blocks for Kids Richmond Collaborative, California Nurses Association, 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.

On the other side, many landlords, realtors, speculators, apartment owners and the wealthy elite have been opposed. Renters’ protections prevent the maximum exploitation of renters, especially the many families with children and the elderly who are being forced out of their housing due to increasing rents or no-cause evictions.

While announcing how many signatures were collected to repeal renters’ protections in Richmond, Tom Bannon of the California Apartment Association is reported as saying, “Rent control has been a failed public policy and doesn’t do what it’s intended to do.”

Eleanor Walden, former Berkeley Rent Stabilization member, is on the other side. “I want to congratulate Gayle McLaughlin and the Richmond Progressive Alliance for their efforts to establish rent stabilization in Richmond,” she said. “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 landholders who have the resources to mount opposition to decent housing legislation for their exaggerated profits.”

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[Source]: SF Bay View