Rent control

Tenant rights advocates in Oakland have joined in a nationwide campaign for affordable housing that would toughen rent controls in Oakland.

Promoting Measure JJ on the November city ballot, Oakland demonstrators converged on City Hall as part of a national “Renter’s Day of Action” on September 22. The demonstrators said the city’s character was at stake. They held banners and chanted slogans proclaiming housing as a “human right.”

“Oakland is a melting pot, but it won’t be if rent keeps rising,” lifelong Oakland resident Zane Burton said.

Protesters picketed the offices of the California Apartment Association in Santa Rosa on Thursday to call attention to what they say are fraudulent efforts by petition gatherers trying to overturn the city’s new rent control law.

Five Bay Area cities will be voting on whether to implement rent control in November, but a California law has long-restricted rent control statewide.

Five cities, five ballot propositions all with the goal of stopping big rent increases and protecting tenants.

The proposition in Burlingame says they’ve suffered from unreasonable rent increases, in San Mateo it says exorbitant rent increases, in Mountain View, excessive rental increases, in Richmond it says housing has reached a crisis level, and in Alameda, it says high rents are an immediate threat to the public.

On Thursday, just days after city officials adopted Denver’s first dedicated affordable housing fund, community organizers marched to demand rent control from state lawmakers.

Advocates for the implementation of a rent control policy joined the like-minded in 45 other cities nationwide, taking to the streets of downtown as part of a national day of action on Thursday, September 22.

The newest story in our occasional coverage of extraordinary cases of evictions and rent hikes in and around the Upper Haight is that of Kate Lust, who's been living at 544 Clayton St. (pictured above) for 22 years.

On June 3rd, Lust received a notification from her landlord that her rent is being raised from $3,105 to $8,500 per month—a 174 percent increase over what she's been paying.

Over 100 tenants of the Creekview condominium complex at 3535 El Portal Drive have 60 days to find a new home.

They are being forced to move out as a result of a mass eviction by the complex owner, PMI Property, a Beverly Hills investment company.

PMI gave tenants until October 15 to vacate the property so the apartments can be renovated due to extensive mold damage.

But tenant Eric Hattrup believes Richmond’s November ballot Measure L, which would limit evictions and impose rent control, is the other reason he and other tenants are being thrown out now.

Four seats are opening up on the Santa Rosa City Council this year, and with two incumbents bowing out, voters soon will have a significant say in the political priorities for the North Coast’s largest city.

Housing, homelessness, roads and cannabis regulation are all on voters’ minds this year, but one issue is dominating the city’s political discourse: rent control.

The controversial policy, passed Aug. 29 and set to go into effect Friday, has not only split the City Council down the middle, but it has sharply divided the six candidates, as well.

Political fervor is boiling over with nearly $1 million being shoveled into fiery campaigns regarding measures Q and R — controversial ballot measures seeking to institute tenant protections.

The debate over the merits of rent control has created a deep divide in San Mateo and Burlingame where opposition groups have a steady stream of campaign financing, while proponents are contrasted by a slower trickle of donations.