News and Views
April 30, 2009
A federal judge ruled against closing a camp of farmworker housing on tribal land in Riverside county and has appointed a court receiver to oversee repairs to the park.
April 30, 2009
A 68 year-old resident of Santa Cruz county faces eviction as her rental home of 12 years is scheduled for a foreclosure sale.
April 28, 2009
Representatives of several banks met in New Haven to hear a proposal on stopping foreclosure evictions of tenants.
April 27, 2009
The city of East Palo Alto intends to put a revised rent control ordinance on the ballot this November.
April 24, 2009
A fourth condo complex in San Diego is linked to an investment scam that puts renters at risk of eviction.
Last week a very curious article and a very curious blog post appeared in the Bay Area online media. The article appeared on the San Francisco Sentinel and is credited to the website's founder Pat Murphy. The blog post by Zennie Abraham appeared on the San Francisco Chronicle's website SFGate.com under a new blog section called "City Brights."
April 21, 2009
A group of low-income families who have been occupying seasonal farm worker housing are facing a deadline to vacate the housing for the farmworkers.
April 21, 2009
Tenants of a building in San Francisco's Mission neighborhood face displacement through an Ellis Act eviction.
April 20, 2009
In a closely watched case, Court of Appeal upholds Los Angeles' right to control rents at newly constructed units built on property that had previously contained rent controlled units.
April 19, 2009
This week, the Santa Cruz county supervisors will hear the request of mobile home park owners to allow the conversion of spaces to owner-occupied parcels. Residents are worried that the conversion will price them out of the park.
April 19, 2009
The Press Enterprise looks at the effects of foreclosures on the rental market in the Inland Empire.
April 19, 2009
This San Bernardino Sun article discusses the competition for rental housing in the Inland Empire.
April 19, 2009
A controversial large mixed-use complex, containing more than 200 residential units, will earn California State University, Fresno more than a $1 million annually in rent.
April 18, 2009
Mason Gaffney, a professor of economics at UC Riverside, believes that the foreclosure crisis will turn many former homeowners into renters for the rest of their lives.
April 17, 2009
This week the National Low Income Housing Coalition released its Out of Reach 2009 Report. The report compares wages and rents in every U.S. county. California, on average, has the second highest housing costs in the country, after Hawaii. The housing wage (how much an individual would have to earn an hour working full time in order to not have to spend more than 30% of their income on housing) is $24.83 in California. Furthermore, five out of ten of the most expensive metro areas in the U.S. are in California.
April 17, 2009
Tenants from San Francisco's Central City SRO Collaborative spoke out against the proposal to replace a $5.47 flat rate with an option that would give phone companies the option to raise rates.
April 16, 2009
The Desert Mobile Home Park on the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indian reservation might be shut down by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs over health and safety concerns. The mobile home park houses over 2,000 migrant workers and their families.
AB 494, introduced by Anna Caballero (D-Salinas) would allow farmers to build more housing for workers on their land.
Dan Levy and Ari Levy of Bloomberg News have published an important story on renters in foreclosure situations in California.
April 15, 2009
KALW public radio has been doing an extraordinary series on the impact of the economic crisis on people's lives called the "Economic Edge."