News and Views
September 30, 2009
An attorney and blogger tells the story of a tenant in Palo Alto who paid rent late due to being in a coma and was evicted. Project Sentinel reached a settlement for the tenant including $32,000 cash and and an affordable apartment.
September 30, 2009
Wells Fargo & Co. has begun foreclosure proceedings on more than 100 parcels and 1,800 apartments in East Palo Alto. The properties back a more than $240 million loan extended to Page Mill Properties during the height of the commercial real estate boom. The loan has now gone into default.
September 29, 2009
The 9th Circuit ruled in a 2-1 decision yesterday that the City of Goleta's mobile home rent-control ordinance in Goleta amounts to an unconstitutional taking of property. The Pasadena-based appellate panel ruled that the city should compensate the trailer for capping the amount of rent they could charge their tenants.
September 29, 2009
About $1.6 million worth of help for the homeless is on its way to Napa County as part of the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Napa County’s portion of the funds,is intended largely for low-income renters in danger of losing their homes because of job losses.
September 29, 2009
The city of Carson is considering whether it can facilitate the sale of two mobile home parks to a nonprofit group in order to preserve rent control.
September 29, 2009
Hemet city officials hope to revitalize the Mobley Lane, where nearly every property is in foreclosure, by buying up, rehabilitating and managing a group of foreclosed four-plex apartments.
September 28, 2009
Almost every apartment unit on the 500 block of Mobley Lane in Hemet has gone into foreclosure. And residents say they're being told to leave, even if they've paid their rent.
September 25, 2009
After the San Francisco Planning Commission approved the demolition of three rent-controled apartments in 18 months, Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi drafted legislation requiring all demolished, merged or converted homes to be replaced with similarly affordable housing units.
September 25, 2009
Page Mill's plan in partnership with CalPERS, to buy up more than half of all the rent-controlled units in East Palo Alto and jack up rents, appears to be on the verge of collapse.
September 25, 2009
After just 10 months renting a new home where they planned to settle for several years, A Turlock family learns the home is going into foreclosure.
September 25, 2009
Banks may becoming less eager to acquire homes partly because of new legal restrictions on evictions of owners or tenants and because they are reluctant to become landlords.
September 24, 2009
The state has awarded $1.5 million in federal recovery money to provide rental assistance for Turlock residents hit hard by the recession. The grant was awarded this week to the nonprofit Stanislaus Community Assistance Project, which worked with the city of Turlock and other groups to apply.
September 23, 2009
A court-ordered receiver who took over operations for East Palo Alto's biggest landlord earlier this month has hired a new property management company to oversee about 1,800 units in the city.
September 23, 2009
New census data reveals that nationally, California renters pay the second highest average monthly rent and pay the second highest percentage of their income on rent.
September 23, 2009
Here's a report on Tenants Together member organization, Just Cause Oakland's 10th anniversary celebration and an overview of some on the work over the last 10 years.
September 23, 2009
Full-time residents of Surf and Sand Mobile Home Park would be paid up to $133,000 to leave the 73-space oceanview property and those with second homes $2,000 if a formula developed by an ad hoc subcommittee is approved by the City Council tonight.
September 22, 2009
Immediately after the home Anthony Moore, his wife, and four kids rent in Bakersfield was foreclosed, Anthony began to get harassed by his new landlord who wanted him out within 3 days. Anthony called Tenants Together's Tenant Foreclosure Hotline and learned that, under the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act, he is entitled to stay in his home until his lease expires next year.
September 22, 2009
Half of U.S. renters paid 30% or more of their before-tax income on housing costs, which is the limit the government sets for determining that housing is unaffordable, according to 2008 Census data. The number of renters increased nationally, while the number of homeowners declined.
September 22, 2009
A Visalia tenant caught unexpectedly in a foreclosure situation faces utility shutoffs and homelessness.