Rent control

Rebecca Schulman loves living in Ocean Beach.

"I have ocean views, you know that's pretty nice, great little sunset out there," said Schulman. The glimpse of the sunset that she sees from her kitchen window doesn't come cheap.

She pays $1,750 a month for her one bedroom apartment above a garage on Saratoga Avenue.

"Pretty much everyone else in the country is like, 'I don't know how you do it, how is it possible?'" said Schulman. Still, she feels like it's a deal compared to what her last landlord pulled.

The Alameda Renters Coalition (ARC) will file the “Alameda Renter Protection and Community Stabilization Charter Amendment” initiative at Alameda City Hall Monday for inclusion on the November ballot in response to a crisis of mass evictions and average rent increases of more than fifty percent over a span of only four years.

ARC spokesperson Catherine Pauling says, "We are filing this initiative so the people of Alameda can do what its City Council has been unable to do: enact a firm set of laws to stabilize our community and protect renters from greedy investors."

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.

A new push to implement rent control in Richmond seeks to qualify the policy for the November ballot.

An attempt last year to pass a rent control ordinance failed after being opposed by landlords and three members of a divided City Council.

Rent Control Ordinance Could Appear on November 2016 Ballot

February 23rd, 2016 led by Richmond City Council Member Gayle McLaughlin, Fair and Affordable Richmond, a coalition of renters, labor and homeowners (of which Tenants Together is a key member), requested from the City Clerk, title and summary for a potential November 2016 ballot measure. The ballot measure, if approved, would protect Richmond renters from being evicted without just cause and establish rent control.

Diane Fjelstad knew for months that her rent was going up. Her landlord had told her the increase was coming.

But when she finally read the official notice last year, she remembers feeling numb. She would have to pay $1,000 more per month for her two-bedroom apartment, a 54 percent hike.

“It was quite shocking,” says Fjelstad, a retired psychiatric social worker. “I just immediately went into crisis management to figure out what I could do personally.”

Residents living at a San Francisco building that was damaged by a fire are being forced out permanently.

The apartment building at Mission and 22nd streets was severely damaged in January last year.

The people who were forced out stand to lose not only their homes, but their right to rent-control as well.

Marcela Cordova still has nightmares about being trapped in her apartment by a wall of smoke and flames. "I remember trying to save my life and my daughters life, I didn't think we were going to make it," she said.

The Department of Building Inspection on Friday ordered the demolition of the fire-damaged building at the corner of 22nd and Mission streets, citing a concern that a moderate earthquake would collapse the building outward and cause harm to the public.

If the building is demolished, more than 60 tenants displaced by the fire may lose the right to return to their units after reconstruction.

Early Wednesday morning, the Alameda City Council unanimously extended the City’s moratorium against evictions and rent increases. The moratorium was set to expire January 9, 2016. It has been extended 60 days. Under the law, landlords must have “just cause” to evict and cannot impose rent increases above 8%.

Cities can impose restrictions on the grounds for eviction.