Evictions in the Bay Area, where the cost of living has skyrocketed in recent years, appear to have taken a fatal turn.
The death of a 97-year-old woman in Burlingame on March 3 was widely reported by local and international news agencies, with quotes from friends and supporters of Marie Hatch claiming she was “done in” by the stress of being evicted from her home of 66 years.
(First of a series) Musician Leslie James Mobley came from Oklahoma to San Francisco in 1989. His attraction to its cultural vibrancy developed into a deep love and appreciation. Leslie was able to carve-out a living with his musical talents. Since 1996 Leslie has lived at 2826 21st Street. Living in the Mission District allowed Leslie to fulfill his dream. He will tell you that “not even the big earthquake could scare this Okie boy away.”
Evictions decreased by 18 percent last year in New York City, which is their lowest level in a decade. Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration was focused on ramping up efforts to prevent increases in the numbers of New Yorkers becoming homeless.
The numbers of evictions dropped significantly within a year from 26,857 to 21,988 from the period of 2014 to 2015. According to court and city marshals figures, this drop occurred even as the number of cases filed by landlords for nonpayment of rent declined by only 2 percent.
Hundreds of San Jose residents packed a high school auditorium Monday night to hear the mayor and council members answer questions about proposed changes to the city's rent control ordinance, which covers around 43,000 units built before 1979.
The meeting took place at Overfelt High School and was organized by People Acting Together in Community, a network of religious congregations from San Jose and elsewhere that is active in social justice issues. PACT is part of the tenant advocacy group the Silicon Valley Renters' Association.
For 66 years, Marie Hatch has occupied the same two-bedroom home in the city of Burlingame, a high-priced San Francisco suburb.
The retired bakery worker thought she would live out her days in her ornately furnished cottage, where’s she’s amassed a lifetime’s worth of memories.
But earlier this month, the 97-year-old, who is battling cancer, received an eviction notice, her friends say.
Her landlord gave Hatch 60 days to vacate the home or be thrown out by sheriff’s deputies.
The Maine representative of a New Jersey investment firm says he had no choice but to evict all the tenants in the 24-unit apartment complex the company owns in the Parkside neighborhood because the buildings are in terrible condition and have become a hotbed of drug activity.
John Le, managing director of AEG Holdings, said Tuesday that he doesn’t yet know whether the complex will be renovated or torn down and rebuilt.
“What we really want to do is make the place safer and vibrant,” Le said. “It should be a safe community in the middle of Portland.”
One block north of fabled Hollywood Boulevard, and a stone’s throw from the iconic Capitol Records Building, sit three rent-stabilized, two-story apartment buildings, known to residents as the Yucca-Argyle complex. One building is peach-colored, one green and the third yellow. Each is organized around a small courtyard and in back is a parking lot for tenants’ cars. Together they are home to roughly 50 families, the residents ranging in age from young children to old-timers who have lived in the complex for more than half a century.
The tenants of a 24-unit Parkside apartment complex, most of whom are low-income or mentally disabled, are being evicted by the New Jersey-based company that owns the buildings in what city officials and housing advocates say is more fallout from Portland’s overheated housing market.
The only way out for most tenants in California who face dilemmas like that of a 97-year-old woman being evicted from her Burlingame home of 66 years is depressingly simple: Hit the bricks.
State law offers very little protection for renters who are served with eviction notices, regardless of ethnicity, longevity or income, experts say. That protection is left up to cities — and only 12 of the 482 municipalities in California offer rent control, San Francisco chief among them.
The year Marie Hatch moved into the wood-shingled cottage in tony Burlingame that she calls home, Harry Truman was president and “Goodnight Irene” was a radio hit. Her landlord and friend, Vivian Kruse, told her she could live in the cottage until she died.
Fast-forward 66 years. Kruse is dead, her daughter is dead, and her granddaughter is dead. They each passed down the lifetime guarantee of tenancy for Hatch — but when the final woman died, so did the verbal agreement, the current landlord says.