Affordable housing

Activists erected a mock tent city outside the Grove shopping complex on Friday afternoon while calling on city leaders to create more affordable housing in Los Angeles.

"You may think this will never happen to you," said Section 8 housing resident Emily Martiniuk, who lost her job and then her home several years ago. "And please believe me, I hope it doesn't. But it happened to me."

Protester Dina Brown, of the nonprofit group L.A. L.O.V.E., wore a T-shirt that read "Gentrification is Warfare."

National City residents called for rent control laws and demanded more affordable housing Thursday.

Community groups, tenants and other allies launched a campaign for local rent control and just cause eviction protections, according to the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment.

The group met at the 130 block of East 8th Street at noon to call for change in their city.

El Cerrito also wants to encourage homeowners to build smaller accessory units on their property or adding space to their homes that they could be rented out, by easing development restrictions and parking requirements.

The Planning Commission two weeks ago threw out suggestions for the final draft, including binding or nonbinding mediation for landlords and tenants, enacting a just cause for eviction ordinance and exploring crowd funding to provide first and last month’s rent and security deposits for low-income tenants, along with other ideas.

As Bay Area residents continue to face high housing costs, tenants and community activists are calling on corporate landlords to stop rent increases and for support in broadening rent control legislation.

Merika Reagan, an East Oakland resident who owns a pet care and dog walking business, is part of Housing Now! — a statewide coalition of more than 50 tenants rights groups, labor unions, community organizations, housing advocates and small landlords — who are fighting to make housing more affordable.

Most days, Linda Trevino and her husband Angel wake up around 7 a.m. She'll brew a fresh pot of coffee while he scans the local alt-weekly. After taking their two dogs out for a quick walk, Linda and Angel will sit at their modest Formica kitchen table, quietly sipping from their mugs and watching morning television.

An ordinance that would prevent landlords from evicting tenants on month-to-month leases without just cause is one of the strategies that Marin supervisors will consider Tuesday when they review their progress in preserving housing affordability and preventing displacement.

A “just cause” ordinance is one of several of options that county planning staff will present to the Board of Supervisors when it meets at 5:30 p.m. at the Marin County Civic Center.

Few facets of our society offer a better display of the depravity of capitalism than the housing industry.

Recently, the Grenfell Tower tragedy killed hundreds of poor people and displaced hundreds more in London. In the United States, we have also seen the displacement of thousands, if not millions, in the wake of the financial crisis. While entire city blocks lay vacant, people sleep on the street or bounce from place to place in search of permanent housing.

Los Angeles ranked among the top cities for "cost-burdened" renters in the latest "State of the Nation's Housing" report from Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies. Greater L.A., including Orange County, was grouped with Miami, New York, Daytona Beach, Riverside and Honolulu when it comes to metros with the biggest rent problems.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved two pieces of legislation intended to keep lower- and middle-class residents in the city, each requiring a hard-won compromise between the board’s moderate and progressive wings.

The first law lays out several proof-of-residency requirements for landlords who evict their tenants, saying they want to occupy a dwelling themselves. The supervisors approved it unanimously on the first reading. It is expected to come back for final passage next week.

It was a brutally hot and humid day in the nation’s capital and Margie Mathers needed a cane to get up to the podium, but the Florida senior had a story she was determined to tell.

“When I moved into our manufactured housing community in North Fort Myers, it was a beautiful, peaceful place,” Mathers told the crowd of around 1,000 activists who’d converged on the city for a July 13 Tenant March on Washington. “Now I have neighbors who are really struggling. They’re taking their medications every other day instead of every day and not eating the food they need to be healthy.”