News and Views
December 11, 2009
This story covers the devastating impact that Page Mill Properties' (David Taran) predatory equity scheme has had on the community of East Palo Alto. The report includes an interview with Tenants Together Executive Director Dean Preston.
December 11, 2009
A landlord in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood is attempting to use the Ellis Act to evict his tenants, all of whom have lived in the building for at least 20 years.
December 10, 2009
Now that Page Mill Properties' predatory investment scheme with rental properties in East Palo Alto has begun to collapse, tenants blame the landlord's neglect for increased robberies and buglaries.
December 10, 2009
After failing to secure a veto-proof majority vote at the Board of Supervisors to extend eviction protections in San Francisco, tenant advocates are contemplating a pared-back version of their proposal that could nail down the one extra vote they need.
December 9, 2009
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance to expand just cause for eviction protections to rental units built after 1979. However, Mayor Gavin Newsom has stated that he will veto the measure.
December 9, 2009
San Francisco supervisors voted to expand just cause for evictions to all rental units built after 1979. Bevan Dufty – who plans to run for Mayor in 2011 – once again cast the fourth vote that would block the promised veto override by Mayor Gavin Newsom.
December 8, 2009
Mission Local covers the legislative fight in San Francisco to extend just cause for eviction protections to post-1979 rental units. While the proposed ordinance was modified to address concerns by opponents, Mayor Gavin Newsom has nonetheless insisted he will veto the measure.
December 7, 2009
Nearly 10%, or 100,000 units, of the New York's affordable housing stock were overleveraged by predatory equity investors, and several of them are heading toward financial default, according to a recent report from a housing advocacy group. On list of properties at risk are Tishman Speyer's Peter Cooper Village & Stuyvesant Town, in which CalPERS invested $500 million.
December 7, 2009
Tenants in East Vancouver, Canada say their landlord is evicting them to rent out to Olympic tourists.
December 3, 2009
A recent court case — Palmer/Sixth Street Properties v. City of Los Angeles — likely invalidated certain below market rental requirements in more than 100 localities across the state, including San Francisco.
December 3, 2009
The real estate downturn may have caused prices to dip, but it has not stopped the waves of Ellis Act evictions hitting the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco.
December 3, 2009
Facing an Ellis Act eviction a San Francisco man committed suicide last year. Now his mother faces eviction. Driven by the huge profits, the model of purchasing a building-turning it to TIC- evicting tenants using the Ellis Act is increasingly common in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco.
December 3, 2009
Twenty-five years ago, skyrocketing rents and the resulting displacement of many residents was what inspired a drive to incorporate the The City of West Hollywood.
December 2, 2009
Next week, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ Land Use Committee will vote on an ordinance to extend “just cause” evictions to all rental units. Currently eviction protections in San Francisco only apply to buildings built before 1979.
December 2, 2009
USA Today's NBA Insider gives mention to Tenants Together's campaign to hold NBA Team owner and mega-landlord, Donald Sterling accountable for race-based housing discrimination.
December 2, 2009
In a statement regarding President Obama's upcoming job summit, Dean Baker calls for right to rent for homeowners facing foreclosure.
December 2, 2009
A TED fellow collaborates with Tenants & Neighbors in NYC to develop and design a boxed set of 30 flash cards on tenants' rights.
December 2, 2009
An epic battle has been raging over who can afford to live in San Francisco. The paper trail reveals that the city’s dominant landlords, the Lembi family of CitiApartments fame, bought up every building they could get their hands on, from the Tenderloin’s rattiest dumps to Nob Hill’s ritziest penthouses, with an audacious plan to drive up everyone’s rent. And their money came from the same financial geniuses who brought the world economy to its knees.
December 1, 2009
A Superior Court handed Santa Cruz County a boost in its widely-watched effort to protect rent-controlled mobile home parks saying that county leaders have flexibility when deciding if a park owner can sell off a park's rented parcels and establish a condominium-type arrangement instead.
December 1, 2009
KCSB radio reports on the struggle to save mobilehome rent control in Goleta where torture memo author and 9th Circuit Judge Bybee ruled a mobilehome rent control ordinance was a regulatory taking. Listen to the podcast of the report.