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In a historic vote last week, the Merced City Council passed the Central Valley’s first ever anti-eviction law. In a 4-3 vote, the members of city council enacted a new law which established that foreclosure is not a basis for evicting tenants who live in Merced.
The law offers protection to innocent renters from most evictions after foreclosure. As many have experienced directly and/or indirectly, renters who have continued to pay rent without fail are often surprised to learn that the home where they reside has been foreclosed, leaving renters in much distress and anxiety about their future and rights. Far too often, homeowner/landlords go into foreclosure without telling their renters. What typically follows for those renters is a Notice from the banks, seeking to recover possession of the foreclosed homes free and clear of any tenants.
While certain statewide laws have sought to protect tenants by extending the Notice period for these banks to recover possession of the homes before filing an eviction, no state law exists to stop the actual eviction of these tenants from foreclosure. The only protections for tenants in these cases are found through their City’s just cause eviction ordinance which expressly states the reason(s) (“just cause”) that the tenant can be evicted (assuming that a local eviction ordinance has been adopted by such city).
Once enacted, Merced law will stop most evictions due to foreclosure of tenants who have paid their rent on time and continue to do so throughout their tenancy. However, homeowners who purchase the foreclosed property still have the right to evict the renters should such owners choose to move into the home as their residence. Nonetheless, these homeowners must still adhere to proper Notice requirements and process to evict their renters before they are able to move in.
Some opponents – including realtors — believe that the new legislation is simply a waste of Merced’s city resources and that the law has no real effect. There will be a second reading before the proposed law will take into effect and those opponents are expected to voice their arguments then.
Such broad contentions by opponents of the legislation appear baseless given the statistics related to Merced residents. According to ABC news, Merced ranks the 9th highest in the country for foreclosure. Accordingly, 1 in every 200 homes in Merced has been foreclosed; while the national average shows that 1 in every 563 homes has been foreclosed. Surely given the high rate of foreclosure for Merced residents, the effect of stopping foreclosure evictions will be significant for renters living in these foreclosed homes based on the sheer numbers. Moreover, these renters who are not to blame for the homeowner/landlord’s foreclosure of the property will have the opportunity to have some sense of stability about their tenancy and home, amidst the unstable processes related to the Notices received, trustee sales, auctions, and other legal formalities involved in the property’s foreclosure.
Merced’s new law could take into effect by the end of the year.
According to coverage on the new legislation, Tenants Together members led the push for this new law. I applaud tenants and organizations working to help families from losing their homes during these tough financial times. Hopefully, this historic vote moves Merced’s city council to enact future legislation establishing additional eviction protections for renters, as well as encourages other Central Valley cities to enact their own eviction protections for renters.
Sources for this story include ABC News.
It’s about time…
California Attorney General Kamala Harris announced that she is withdrawing from multistate negotiations with big banks over their handling of foreclosures and instead will continue her own probe in an attempt to reform bank practices and prevent foreclosures. California now joins New York in refusing to sign off on what amounts to another massive corporate bailout.
As Matt Taibbi writes: ” The current proposed deal is a huge giveaway to the banks, a major shafting to most of the investors, and would probably give homeowners either next to nothing…”
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Although it has not been a stellar year for advancing tenant rights in Sacramento*, there has recently been a modest but important legislative victory for tenants. This month Governor Brown signed a bill allowing tenants to express political speech at the property they rent by posting political signs regarding upcoming elections.
This long overdue legislation was previously vetoed by former Governor Schwarzenegger in 2006 – citing “the rights of property owners to control the appearance of their property” – but it codifies a right to free speech already present in the California Constitution.
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It’s an idea brilliantly featured in BeyondChron by Dawn Wotapka and even covered in the Wall Street Journal last week.
Arthur C. Nelson, director of the Metropolitan Research Center at the University of Utah recommends the clever proposition of turning super-sized mansion into affordable housing or multi-housing households.
For some years, lavish mansions consisting of multiple bedrooms, rooms, bathrooms, and vast space, situated over gigantic lots were built to meet the growing demands by many families who coveted these over-sized homes also known as “McManions”.
At the pinnacle of the housing boom McMansions were popular but that’s not the case today. The article’s author seems to attribute much of the present housing trend which has veered away from these jumbo mansions to “changes in taste” and the foreclosure crisis. Such changes among families include consumer’s desire for smaller homes, ones that are more affordable to maintain, and homes that are closer to their jobs and public transportation to avoid high gas prices associated with commuting.
Essentially, the McMansions can be partitioned into housing units for different households to reside in given the size of the mansions which boasts many bedrooms, bathrooms and plenty of space throughout. “When you add up the spaces and how they’re distributed, the typical McMansion can be occupied by three-to-five households with their own splendid privacy, their own large space,” Mr. Nelson is quoted as saying.
Surprisingly, the article assesses that there are approximately 30 million more homes on large lots than the market needs based on data from The Atlantic Cities. Based on these numbers alone, I think using these McMansions to house millions of families (particularly given the current economic climate) is an innovative idea.
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Brazilian federal judge Carlos Eduardo Castro Martins has, at least for now, blocked the highly controversial Belo Monte hydroelectric dam, from being constructed. His order was issued last week against Norte Energia because “it would harm fishing by indigenous communities, including on the Xingu River in Para state.” The order stated in part that they were barred from the following: “building a port, using explosives, installing dikes, building canals and any other infrastructure work that would interfere with the natural flow of the Xingu River, thereby affecting local fish.” The judge also ordered that should the company not follow the injunction, they will be fined about the equivalent of $110,000 a day.
The approximately $11-billion, 11,000-megawatt dam project has been strongly supported by the Brazilian Government because they believe that it is the answer to their energy needs. The government will be appealing the ruling. The dam project was already blocked once in February 2011, but that ruling was overturned by a higher court.
“The Brazilian government had pledged to minimize the environmental and social impact of the dam and asserted that no traditional indigenous land was to be affected. However, in June of this year, the government granted an installation license for the dam, clearing the way for construction to start.”
Many major environmental groups, including Rainforest Action Network, International Rivers Network and Amazon Watch have devoted a tremendous amount of resources and energy to fighting the dam. Environmentalists and indigenous groups say the dam would devastate wildlife and the livelihoods of 40,000 people who live in the area to be flooded. CONTINUE READING →
Christine Minnehan, the Executive Director of the Western Center on Law and Poverty (WCLP), has retired. Ms. Minnehan was known all over the state of California by tenant and housing activists who needed to see legislation in Sacramento to help their causes. She began her career with WCLP in 1974 and she was there for about 7 years at that time. In 1981 she became the Legislative Coordinator for the Department of Housing for the State of California during Jerry Brown’s first term. She subsequently worked for about 10 years as Principal Consultant, Housing, for Senate President David Roberti. In 1992, she moved back to WCLP.
Ms. Minnehan likely accomplished more for tenants legislatively than any other individual in California history. One of her biggest accomplishments was establishing the 20% revenue set-aside for housing by redevelopment agencies, which has helped create much more affordable housing in SF and the greater Bay Area. She worked closely with former Senator John Burton to promulgate Proposition 46, a $2.1 billion bond issue for affordable housing. She was instrumental in the change for most no-cause eviction notices to go from 30 to 60 days. She helped pass a law prohibiting housing discrimination based on the source of a tenant’s income. There are a plethora of other fair housing and landlord-tenant reforms she played a major role in getting passed.
This year Ms. Minnehan received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the California Housing Consortium at their 2011 Spring Policy Forum. The award was presented by Former Department of Housing Director Lynn Jacobs who said that nothing would have been accomplished in affordable housing in the last 30 years without Ms. Minnehan’s participation.
You likely have heard of the statewide budget problems this year and funding cuts to many government branches, including the Courts. You may not have heard that, in San Francisco, the looming effect of those cuts appeared to be a massive drawback and dismantling of the San Francisco Civil Court. According to three recent press releases from the Court [1 : 2 : 3], the funding shortfall was threatening to cause the layoff of 200 Court employees, and the closure of 25 Courtrooms, along with several departments that facilitate the litigation process, including hearing motions and discovery-related litigation disputes, and managing complex cases. Presiding Judge Katherine Feinstein promised that, when the adjustments to deal with the funding shortfall went into effect October 3, 2011, that Civil litigants would find themselves waiting 5 YEARS for access to courtrooms for their cases.
“The civil justice system in San Francisco is collapsing,” Judge Feinstein said. “We will prioritize criminal, juvenile, and other matters that must, by law, be adjudicated within time limits. Beyond that, justice will neither be swift nor accessible.”
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“The Governor and the legislature, in enacting their budget some weeks ago, have left this Court with no alternative other than to slash judicial services, layoff our skilled, hard-working employees, and compromise the timely delivery of civil justice to the citizens of this county,” Judge Feinstein said. “It is with deep regret that we today make known the specific consequences of these sweeping budget cuts.”
It certainly appeared that a new era was at the door for San Franciscans, an era where civil justice would be exceedingly slow, difficult, frustrating, wholly out of reach even, for many.
But, yesterday came a new press release from the Court, which appears as a harbinger of some unexpectedly good news. As there stated, the SF Court reached an agreement with the overseeing body, Administrative Office of the Courts, for additional emergency funding. While the funding will not be able to restore all the contemplated cuts, the situation appears to look much less dire for the immediate future: CONTINUE READING →
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