News and Views
East Palo Alto residents surrounded city council members as they attempted to enter City Hall tonight. Residents of Page Mill Properties and their supporters rallied in front of the building, formed a huddle, and created a game plan to secure the support of council members in the tenants' long battle against mega-landlord Page Mill.
December 1, 2009
As the economic downturn worsened last year, the nation’s poorest households found it increasingly difficult to find housing they could afford, according to a new report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition. In 2007, there were 24 affordable units for every 100 extremely low-income California renters.
November 30, 2009
The city of San Jacinto requested a delay to finalize details of a rent control agreement with owners of Country Lake Mobile Home Park, which would be included in a prposed annexation of about 500 acres.
November 27, 2009
Larry Gross of Coalition for Economic Survival looks back at the founding of the city of West Hollywood, a city that was created to save and strengthen rent control.
November 27, 2009
Average advertised rental rates in Glendale rose as much as 8% during a three-month period in spring, even as other cities saw their rents decrease, according to a city report.
November 27, 2009
Late last month, the California Supreme Court declined to review and therefore let stand a controversial lower court decision precluding the city of Los Angeles from enforcing affordable housing rules on a new apartment development.
November 26, 2009
Under a proposal for dealing with displaced low income tenants being considered by the Mountain View City Council, certain landlords would be required to help tenants relocate when a rental is demolished, redeveloped or converted to condos.
November 25, 2009
Twenty-five years ago members of the Coalition for Economic Survival (CES) rejoiced after a 7-year campaign to secure tenants' rights and preserve affordable housing in the then 1.9 square mile LA County unincorporated area of West Hollywood.
November 25, 2009
Despite a long history of bad behavior including what the U.S. Department of Justice called "willful" mistreatment of African American and Latino tenants, the National Basketball Association has refused to discipline or comment on team owner Donald Sterling's misdeeds.
November 25, 2009
After a six-city tour of the United States, Raquel Rolnik, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing reports that many tenants and homeowners in the United States are spending 80%, and upwards, of their income on housing. See the video from RT News.
November 24, 2009
Three months after the Monterey County Housing Authority decreased Section 8 rental assistance for thousands of local households, due to a lack of federal funding, local officials have been given the go-ahead to restore part of the cut.
November 23, 2009
A new wave of foreclosures stands to hurt people who may have never taken out a mortgage: renters. In cities such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, where many investors are carrying upside-down mortgages on large rental buildings, some tenants are watching their homes fall apart along with the financing.
November 23, 2009
As the exodus of families from San Francisco continues, policy makers are looking to eviction laws to keep families in the city and City Supervisor Eric Mar has proposed legislation to include them as a protected class under owner move-in evictions.
November 22, 2009
In this Project Sentinel advice column for California tenants, a renters asks about a lease agreement that waives the tenants' right to a 60-day notice to vacate after renting for more than a year at the residence.
November 22, 2009
A plan in San Bernadino for 100 apartment units to be rehabilitated for low-income tenants, and another 144 units to be torn down to make way for 40 to 55 homes and senior housing, moves ahead. The project has been a source of uncertainty for people who live in the area, since plans require them to find new homes.
November 21, 2009
The Santa Monicans for Non-Smoking Renters Rights wants the city to expand non-smoking laws by creating non-smoking sections in multifamily residential buildings, including individual units.
November 21, 2009
A Santa Monica landlord, real estate broker, and Rent Control Board member said Friday he will sponsor a ban on smoking in all apartments that share common floors or ceilings with at least one other unit.
November 20, 2009
Fannie Mae announced it will give homeowners facing foreclosure the chance to stay in their properties as renters. But as past efforts to stem the foreclosure crisis have already shown, even well-intentioned programs haven’t managed to reach significant numbers of people in peril.
November 20, 2009
The Department of Fair Employment and Housing announced that the Huntington Villas Apartments in Huntington Beach has agreed to pay a former tenant nearly $300,000 to settle her suit claiming she had been discriminated against because she is disabled and had an animal companion.
November 19, 2009
Renting costs in Southern California fell at an annual rate for the first time in 14 years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index.