News and Views

A new report from Tenants Together, Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), PICO California, and the Housing NOW! coalition reveals that Wall Street real estate investors are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to lobby California legislators and prevent 17 million California tenants from enjoying commonsense housing protections.
  • Legislative victories/defeats
  • Costa Hawkins Act
  • Eviction
Tenants Together is proud to stand in solidarity with UC academic workers on strike. As a coalition of tenant organizations mobilizing for better conditions for renters, we find common cause with workers organizing against any employer that fails to treat them with dignity, respect, and sufficient wages and benefits. As a public university, UC must sign a fair contract and pay living wages for the workers who are educating our communities. As Californians, our tax dollars should be spent on the public good. That can only happen under fair working conditions.  
  • Affordable housing
With ballots arriving in the mail as we speak, Tenants Together is happy to share our statewide coalition's endorsements of eight local pro-renter ballot measures, up for a vote on November 8th. Housing instability often means that renters vote less often than homeowners. It's very important to make your voice heard if you're eligible to vote! (If you haven't registered to vote, or have had to move since your last registration, you can register here.)   Tenants Together's statewide membership is proud to support:  
  • Rent control
  • Legislative victories/defeats
  • Affordable housing
With state protections for California renters due to expire April 1, a new survey of 58 organizations across the state shows that hundreds of thousands of California renters and families are experiencing significant barriers to accessing the state’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) and are at significant risk of eviction or homelessness.  
  • Retaliation/harassment
  • Eviction
June 24, 2021: With the clock ticking as the state legislation barring eviction for nonpayment of rent, (Senate Bill 91) nears its June 30 expiration, the California Apartment Association (CAA) intervened to water down legislation from Governor Gavin Newsom, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, and State Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins to extend eviction protections.
  • Retaliation/harassment
  • Rent increases
  • Legislative victories/defeats
  • Credit blacklisting
  • Discrimination
  • Eviction
  [más abajo en español]   With Assembly Bill 3088 set to expire February 1, 2021 and stay-at-home orders sweeping California as COVID-19 infections skyrocket, tenant advocates are renewing the fight to close loopholes that allow unjust evictions to proceed. AB 15 & 16, authored by Assemblymember David Chiu (D-San Francisco) and backed by Tenants Together & Housing Now!, both large statewide coalitions representing scores of tenant, housing, education, and labor groups across the state.  
  • Retaliation/harassment
  • Legislative victories/defeats
  • Eviction
Tenants Together and our coalition of members are proud to endorse three ballot measures. Click on each one to learn more, and sign up to volunteer and support!   Yes on Measure C will create rent control and just-cause for eviction in the city of Sacramento.   Yes on Measure RC will create rent control and just-cause in the city of Burbank.  
  • Rent control
  • Legislative victories/defeats
  • Costa Hawkins Act
With California courts poised to restart eviction and foreclosure proceedings on September 1, Governor Gavin Newsom has scrapped Assembly Bill 1436 in favor of an eleventh-hour legislative deal that may still lead to waves of eviction and displacement during the coronavirus pandemic.  
  • Legislative victories/defeats
  • Eviction
  With California courts poised to restart eviction and foreclosure proceedings on September 1, Assembly Bill 1436, the last hope in the State Legislature to prevent a catastrophic displacement crisis, faces a steep challenge. AB 1436, authored by Assemblymember David Chiu (D-San Francisco), would prevent foreclosures and evictions for inability to pay rent in full during the COVID-19 pandemic and for a year thereafter. The bill must clear the State Senate and the Assembly by Monday, August 31, the last day of the legislative session.   
  • Legislative victories/defeats
  • Eviction
A Sacramento Superior Court judge ruled Friday to pull a citizen’s initiative charter amendment from the ballot after the City of Sacramento sued to remove it. The ballot measure, which would have enacted rent control in Sacramento if approved by voters, was validated by over 50,000 signatures from Sacramento residents.
  • Rent control
  • Litigation
  • Legislative victories/defeats
As a staff and coalition of housing justice organizations rooted in BIPOC communities, we are crushed & angered by the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Nina Pop, David McAtee, Sean Monterrosa, George Forbes, Rayshard Brooks, Rem’mie Fells, Riah Milton, & so many more, and by the unending brutality that police have inflicted on Black Lives Matter protests all over the country.
  • Discrimination
  • Foreclosure
  • Eviction
S.F. must lease 8,250 hotel rooms for homeless, frontline workers under emergency ordinance  San Francisco Chronicle
Alameda Attorney’s Office: Island eviction bans explained  East Bay Times
Sup. Preston calls for permanent ban on evictions due to COVID-related rent debt  48 Hills
Opinion: Why San Diego Tenants Should Join a Rent Strike on May 1  Times of San Diego
Santa Ana Freezes Rent Increases for Residents  VoiceofOC
Inside the national rent-strike movement: Red thermometers, tenant manuals & more  The Real Deal
LA’s coronavirus renter protections little comfort to many tenants  Curbed LA
In the face of corporate bailouts, rent strikers demand relief - Waging Nonviolence  Waging Nonviolence
Rent Strikes Gather Steam As Campaigners Call For Payments To Be Waived  Newsweek

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