jamie

City: 
Santa Cruz
Residence Type: 
3 or 4 units
Landlord Type: 
Private Landlord -- No Rent Control

The 4 units in our building received a 40% and 65% increase within a 60 day period directly after the sale of our building in June of this year. Bailey Property Management offered us $2900.00 plus our security deposit back to leave the apartment 'immediately'. We could not accept their offer because we had no place to go to and we had no way of leaving in such short notice. They responded by serving me with a 3 day notice to quit on the @nd of September, only 24 hours after Sept. 1. I believe they are using intimidation tactics to get me and my family out of our unit so the new owners can 'remodel'. We have been long0term tenants with a perfect rental history of payment and getting along well with our neighbors.

I wrote to all my city council members about my situation and recently invited them to my eviction sale. Two council members responded but none showed up. I also wrote to my District Supe rep, Ryan Coonerty, but he did not either respond or show.

I am also pasting a diary of my good efforts in letter form to provide rent, communicate with the new property management company, and so on with KSBW news in Monterey. I am hoping someone will take some interest in this story. I also hope that there is some other organization out there that can help me with the UD 105 and other paper work that is coming down the pike for me.

Here is the latest letter I copied and pasted to city council and KSBW:
Sept 9 2015

Dear City Council Members and District 3 Rep Ryan Coonerty,

I would like to thank M. Posner and R. Noroyan for responding to my invitation to come to my eviction sale this past Sunday and Monday.
From meeting some of my neighbors for the first time since our tenancy beginning in 2009, and from meeting many transients who came by for snacks and lemonade, I can see that Santa Cruz has more problems than my silly little eviction proceedings.

I would like to keep all of you appraised on a weekly basis as to my situation. I also want to help other families and individuals in Santa Cruz who are struggling with housing issues like mine. Please take it seriously when landlords raise rents $600.00 and $900.00 overnight.

i am currently awaiting service of an Unlawful Detainer. This week is especially busy for me because I am making preparations to see my (disabled) son again for the first time in two months. He has been at a special military-style charter school in San Luis Obispo learning how to take care of himself and working toward his high school diploma. He is very vulnerable and got caught in drug use culture and borderline gang-activity here in Santa Cruz. They are having a Family Day on base, and we have been planning this event for a long time. Unfortunately, I also have a funereal to attend in Mendocino this month also.

I have been to legal-aid drop-in for 3 consecutive Mondays' (not this past one) to get support, assistance, advice, suggestion on how to handle my rent-increase situation. The receptionist looks me up and down like I'm a low-life, and a young 20-something intake worker 'hears' my issue and says there isn't anything they can do to help b/c the landlords haven't done anything wrong.

I went to my appointment at Community Action Board Sept 3, for rental assistance, and the situation there is very bleak to say the least. The office was barely functional, the worker did not have a record of my phone call or appointment. She fumbled through my paper work with little attention to detail, and haste. She said there is no funding according to my address in Santa Cruz. I asked her for other resources, and to use her phone. The phone in the office was not functioning property and out-going calls could not be made. I needed a record of my visit with her to give to my landlord. She wrote something down on a scrap of paper. She said there is no stationery. It was totally hopeless and useless.

I called my case manager, Joan McDonald of Cal-Works and Food Stamps: she said that to get their one-time rental assistance, rent can be no more than 80% of our gross income. This would have amounted to our rental allowance being $917.00. These are impossibly low standards according to those who preach 'rental market values' in Santa Cruz.

I"m sure you are all very comfy and cozy in your homes and using your iphones and looking forward to meeting the day tomorrow. Not so much me. I use a hand-held T249 from 1999, I am sick with stress, migraines, and using dysfunctional computers at the law library. I hope you will take an interest in my path and sit in on my civil case when I give you notice of such.

I hope all of you are working hard for everyone in the community to: 1) fight unreasonable rental increases like ours; 2) pour funding into homeless services and especially, making beds available to working poor families like me in clean, safe and healthy shelters, 3) fund Community Action Board with monies to help secure working families in their homes for such outrageous rent hikes, 4) consider balanced laws that discourage rent gouging that contribute to the already embroiled homeless crisis, and 5) go through the process of a homeless intake yourselves so that you are aware of the morally denigrating and impossibly sad circumstances people face when they have lost their home. Surely then you would become impassioned to provide the best services available to the least of us.

I have a BA in the Humanities and a BA in Art History from the University of Kansas. I wrote my senior thesis on Max Weber's theory of Disenchantment. I think he must have had Santa Cruz in mind.

Sincerely,
Jamie

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