June 3rd, VOTE NO ON PROP 98

VOTE NO ON PROP 98.

The short version: Prop. 98 will end rent control in ALL of California and drastically reduce tenants rights. If you are a renter (and if anyone you know is a renter) you REALLY should share this information with them and encourage them to vote NO on 98 also.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS INFORMATION ON AND TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW TO VOTE NO ON 98!



It can be boiled down as simply as that, but if you want more information, the government of California has put out a voter information guide and it has a non-partisan legislative analysis. It also has links to arguments for and against Prop. 98 with rebuttals if you want to read through them.

The full story is that Prop. 98 proponents are trying to present this as a way to curb the power of eminent domain, the ability of the government to seize property. The government seizes property for highways, schools and other public works, but it can also seize property from one private owner to transfer it to another, (typically larger) private landowner to develop shopping malls, stadiums, etc. This is obviously terrible, BUT Prop. 98 goes FAR beyond this to limit ANY government say in private property. What does this mean tangibly? Well, anyone with a rent-controlled place from before Jan. 1, 2007 is safe ... until they move out, when landlords can set the prices wherever they want to. Additionally, the language of the law severely restricts tenants rights, so it makes it easier for landlords to evict tenants so, once the space is vacated, they can set prices however they want to (this is why the AARP is a very vocal opponent of Prop. 98). Rent controlled apartments will probably totally disappear in a very short time throughout California -- Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, San Jose. I should be clear, it doesn't just eliminate rent control; it makes rent control illegal. But Prop 98 affects every renter, not just those in rent-controlled apartments. Restrictions on how much a landlord can increase rents from year to year will also be greatly diminished. The LA Times editorial board came out against Prop. 98 on May 12th, saying that Prop 98 "masquerades as a simple correction to the notorious Kelo ruling, but really carries the long-standing agenda of interests that want to extinguish rent control and block water and air quality laws."

Gilda Haas, a professor at UCLA and the executive director of SAJE (a close partner of Esperanza Community Housing) has many posts explaining the effects of a measure like this that go far more in-depth at makingsenseblog.net, like this one about the effect of abolishing rent control in Cambridge, and this one that explains impacts of a similar proposition in Oregon. She also has a post that details her own personal story about how the eminent domain struggle got spun out of control into the current battle to eliminate tenant rights. She puts it very eloquently:

So, for example, laws that only allow landlords to raise the rent once a year or limit the amount that rent can be raised until someone moves out — typically known as rent control — would be illegal.

California cities are already restricted from creating these laws, but now they could not keep the ones we have.

Or, laws that limit the reasons that tenants can be evicted — typically known as "just cause" eviction and provide 12 sound reasons — those would be illegal too.

If a city wants to solve its affordable housing crisis by requiring large developers to include some affordable housing in their mega-projects — well that would be against the law in California. Or, if a City, like Maywood, wants more control over its polluted water system — you got it — against the law. Why? Because these laws impact the ability for an owner to maximize the profit potential of his or her land. Maximize, not earn profit, but maximize profit.

So, the fact that we want to rezone the land next to the 29th Street elementary school so that the current metal plating factory will no longer spew toxic, cancer-producing effluent on little children and teachers — well that might not be illegal under Prop 98, but it certainly would be litigable.

I really think that no matter what your political affiliation, if you are a renter in California you NEED to vote no on Prop 98 on June 3rd and you should tell as many people as you can to do the same.

_________________________________________


Even more additional information:
Another item on the ballot is Prop. 99, which is basically eminent domain reform without the drastic effect on rent control and tenant's rights. It was proposed in reaction to Prop. 98, but, as the legislative analyst says, it does not have much of an effect. If you are very passionate about eminent domain reform and you want to do SOMETHING about it but you don't want to eliminate rent control in the process, vote no on Prop. 98 and vote yes on Prop. 99. If both pass (get more than 50% "yes" votes) then the one with the greatest number of votes will supersede the other. So it's most important that Prop. 98 FAILS with your NO vote.

VOTE NO ON PROP. 98!

Meditations on the Meaning of Space (By Nancy Halpern Ibrahim)

Meditations on the meaning of Space

Senderos

The building called “Senderos” is an improbably purple-colored building in a residential area where a visitor can see Victorian-aged single-family properties of varied quality and condition, intermingled with apartment buildings, many of which conceal the slum conditions that can be found within. Esperanza owns four of the apartment buildings, which have all been beautifully rehabbed and rented to local low income families, most of whom were relocated to these buildings from surrounding substandard properties or returned to the same building once they were transformed from their former slum conditions. Senderos is one of those buildings.

Senderos had been one of the most outrageous slums in the region; in fact the target of a community action held in the mid-eighties to publicize the injustice and health and safety hazards of LA’s slum housing. When Esperanza first secured this building from foreclosure, and temporarily relocated its residents, the building’s basement was a cesspool reflecting all the decay and neglect of the tiny single room units that had housed twenty-one households in squalid conditions.

Since 2001, when the rehab and lease-up of Senderos was complete, underneath its purple painted-brick exterior, the building provides quality multi-bedroom affordable housing to thirteen families. As for the basement, it has been built out as a training room for Esperanza’s Promotores de Salud. As a training room, the space is challenged by the presence of two structural pillars, which each annual class must work creatively around during their six-month intensive community health training program. It is not a luxurious space, but it is ours -- and a strong sense of ownership is felt by the promotores who train and meet there.

During the first Promotora class held at Senderos, the trainees were treated to the sounds of the family directly above them: children running up and down the corridor, in and out of bedrooms, dragging toys and furniture from one side of their domain to another. At times it sounded like a herd of small elephants. So in addition to adjusting to the peculiarities of the space, the trainees had to adjust to working under the occasional footfall of galumphing elephants. During one such session, one of the trainees asked why, whenever the running around would begin, I would laugh while others found the sound so irritating. In answer, I described the conditions that the family had lived in before this apartment: a vermin-infested single room occupied by a family of five, dank with moisture, dark with mold and failing lead-paint, reeking of cockroaches and a bathroom with faulty plumbing despite the mother’s desperate attempts to keep the place clean. Wall-to-wall mattresses were the only space for family activity – sleep, play and mealtimes. So I laugh when I hear the “elephants.” It is the sound of people celebrating the space they now call home.

In time, even though the sounds of the “elephants” would occasionally repeat, the trainees -- all community residents themselves -- would look to the ceiling, smile and continue their work. The sound had simply become a background theme, underscoring the point so often made in the class that housing is a fundamental health issue.

Miss Rose

Rose lived in our community for more than thirty years. She knew every doorway, every neighbor. She was very selective about whom she would speak to, ignoring most. She took her meals with the Sisters of Social Service who lived on the corner, stashing the bags of her belongings only in areas she felt were safe. She slept at their doorstep. She knew the birthdays of her favorite Sisters.

Before sleeping on the street, Rose had slept in her car, until mounting parking tickets and other nuisance fines forced her to give that up. The car had been impounded by the LAPD many years ago. In recent years when the police or the officious bicycle patrolmen of the Figueroa Corridor B.I.D. (“Business Improvement District”) would harass her, we would run interference, insisting that she belonged and they did not. Our community was sanctuary for Rose.

When the Sisters of Social Service relocated to their retirement center in the Valley, Rose came to Esperanza. She would sit for much of the day, with her bags, at the entranceway of the Esperanza offices. She would sleep in the foliage that landscapes the front of our building. During the day, she would sit in the doorway writing letters. Rose had a beautiful handwriting and wrote many, many letters to her family: a sister in Newport, a brother in the Mid West. Every year there would be a family reunion. Her family would make arrangements for Rose to join them. She would return from these vacations feeling well loved, and resume her life and her usual habits.

We received her mail, and gave her space to make her phone calls, for which she used a phone card. She had a preference for only one desk which she would use whenever she was ready to come up and use the phone or collect her mail. Occasionally, when one of us would come to the office and invite her in, she would look up at the interruption and say that she was not ready yet. We would make her coffee (with freshly ground beans, milk and two sugars). Sometimes she would complain that it wasn’t sweet enough. Sometimes she would disappear before it was done. She never used our mugs, preferring to drink only from the recycled Styrofoam cups that were among her possessions.

Although she was welcome to use our bathrooms, she never did. Rose had a phobia about bathrooms. Back in the days when institutions would attempt to “house” her, she would subvert the arrangement by mucking up the plumbing, shoving whole rolls of paper into the toilet. This much we knew. We respected her ways and tried to provide her with as much hospitality as she could endure.

Last January, two days following her happy return from a family reunion in Las Vegas, Rose died. The police found her, in a seated position, back to the street (rare for Rose) in one of her doorways. They identified her through the police record of ancient parking violations. Among her possessions were found the blankets, pantyhose, and socks that her friends in the community had given to her. On each object, in her beautiful handwriting was the name of the person who had given it to Rose. Several of us gathered in a memorial. In her death, she gathered a small community of folks – many of us realizing for the first time the extent of Rose’s local network. Collectively, we had provided Rose with her sense of space and belonging. We had provided her food, clothes, blankets, sanctuary and kept her dignity in tact.

A Personal Story: The Persistence of Memory

My father-in-law is a refugee. Like thousands of other Palestinians, he was expelled with his family from his village in 1948. Like so many other villages, his was entirely destroyed. Leaving his family in the refugee camp, in 1955 he came to this country, moving to the same New York City street my father was born on, in an earlier, different immigration wave a generation earlier. Over the years he relocated his family, one by one, also assisting his eight brothers and sister and their families to make a new life in this country. Here he has worked hard to raise his nine children, and provide loving support to his twenty-four grandchildren and growing number of great-grandchildren. Retired now, he is a respected community elder, social activist, family chronicler and poet. In recent years he has grown profoundly hard of hearing. He has taken on the attributes of a cantankerous old man, living very much in the isolation of his own head, although still brightening at the sight of his family - present or in photographs. He rallies to be social when he is (often) asked to preside at family or community functions.

Over the past several years, in the privacy of his home and the isolation of his thoughts, my father-in-law has quietly, persistently and painstakingly been working on a project in a new medium. Using a retractable window shade as his canvas, my father-in-law has recreated a map of his beloved village, a detailed map that includes every road, lane, well, fruit tree, each olive orchard, olive press and wheat mill, the community oven, and every single household of the village. Although the space has been completely occupied and destroyed since 1948, the map of Jimzu lives, and with it a roadmap of the heart for all those displaced from their beloved community.

Mi Realidad (By Monic Uriarte)

Mi Realidad

Lamentablemente mi realidad es la realidad de muchos. Empezaré compartiendo que soy sobreviviente de violencia doméstica, por consiguiente una madre soltera con cuatro hijos MARAVILLOSOS. El poder sobrevivir en este sistema es muy difícil cuando la economía no está a tu favor, día a día mis hijos y yo luchamos por salir adelante y ser útiles a la sociedad a la cual correspondemos, aunque difícilmente la sociedad reconoce nuestros esfuerzos. En muchas ocasiones he recibido quejas ó me han etiquetado, el porque no participo más en las escuelas de mis hijos, o porque no asisto a reuniones comunitarias, o porque no pertenezco a ningún comité de la iglesia al cual asistimos. Son innumerables los adjetivos que utilizan para etiquetarme como mala madre, o mala vecina, o mala creyente – en fin adjetivos que no comparto con nadie.

Lo único que yo se es que tengo que trabajar dos tiempos completos para poder proveer y cubrir la necesidades de mi familia y hogar. Mi día empieza a las 6:30 AM preparando el desayuno para mis hijos y posteriormente llevarlos a sus respectivas escuelas. Mi primer trabajo es de nueve a cinco de la tarde, regreso a preparar la cena, ayudar con la tarea y prepararme para mi próximo trabajo que es de nueve de la noche a cuatro de la mañana. Eso es de lunes a viernes. ¿Me pregunto que más puedo ofrecer a esta sociedad si lucho día a día contra mis propias fuerzas para salir adelante? No soy una carga pública y mis hijos son estudiantes y atletas que han representado a USA internacionalmente, los educo con valores y la calidad de tiempo que compartimos es invalorable.

Me encantaría pertenecer a grupos comunitarios, o ir a reuniones para saber más de lo esta pasando en mi vecindario pero mi prioridad es otra. El poder sobrevivir en este sistema con tanta desigualdad económica no es nada fácil. Me siento frustrada en ocasiones al darme cuenta que son tantas cosas que puedo compartir con mi comunidad y que al igual son tantas la cosas que puedo aprender de ellos, pero el miedo de no tener el dinero necesario para poder pagar la renta, la comida, las consultas medicas, medicinas y las utilidades me llena de angustia…Angustia que comparto con miles y miles…lamentablemente ésta es nuestra realidad.

En mi personal opinión el haber elegido Lincoln Heights es muy importante en pensando por la historia, es uno de los primeros suburbios de Los Ángeles, la cercanía con la cuidad, su interesante distribución geográfica, la diversidad cultural que está presentando en los últimos años, la disposición que tienen los residentes para apoyar sus propios comercios, me preocupa la vulnerabilidad, de esta comunidad para posibles desalojos. Es un blanco muy interesante. ~ m.u.


Translation of Mi Realidad

My Reality

Unfortunately my reality is the reality of many. I will start by saying that I am a survivor of domestic violence and a single mother of four marvelous kids. The power to survive in this system is very difficult when the economic forces are not on your side, day after day my kids and I struggle to get ahead and to become useful to the society we belong to, despite the fact that society seldom acknowledges our efforts. On many occasions I have received complaints and/or I have been labeled, because I do not participate enough in my kids’ schools, or because I do not attend community events, or because I do not participate in any committee from our local church. Countless efforts are utilized to label me as a bad mother, a bad neighbor, or an unfaithful believer-finally there are many accusations that I do not share with anyone.
The only thing that I know is that I need to work two full time jobs to be able to provide and cover the needs of my home and family. My day begins at 6:30 AM preparing breakfast for my kids and dropping them off at their schools. My first job is from nine in the morning to five in the afternoon. I return home to prepare dinner, help my kids with their homework, and to get ready for my next job that starts at 9:00 PM and ends at 4:00 AM. This routine takes place Monday through Friday. I ask myself, what else can I offer this society if I struggle day after day against my own power to get ahead? I am not a public burden and my kids are students and athletes that represent this nation internationally, I educate them with values and the quality of time we spend together is invaluable.
I would love to belong to community groups and to attend meetings to learn more on what is happening in my neighborhood but that is not my priority. To be able to survive in this system with so many economic inequalities is not easy. I feel frustrated on many occasions as I realize that there are so many things that I can share with my community and at the same time there are many things that I can learn from them, but the fear of not having the money necessary to pay rent, food, medical bills, medicines, and the utilities fill me with anxiety…Anxiety that I share with thousands and thousands…unfortunately this is our reality.
In my personal opinion, haven chosen Lincoln Heights as our class study area is very important starting with its history, it is one of Los Angeles’ first suburbs, the proximity to downtown, its interesting geographic distribution, the cultural diversity that has resulted in the last couple of years, the position that residents have to support their own businesses. I worry about the vulnerability of displacements in this community. It is an interesting case study. ~m.u.

On a lighter note ...

The Onion (a publication not intended for readers under 18) has had some funny articles on gentrification:

"Sometimes I Feel Like I'm The Only One Trying To Gentrify This Neighborhood" is an article written from the point of view of someone who has recently moved into an ethnic community and who wants to attract people of his own demographic to the neighborhood -- by rendering it completely unrecognizable.

and

Report: Nation's Gentrified Neighborhoods Threatened By Aristocratization is a great re-imagining of the classic narrative of upper-middle class populations entering a low-income area. It describes a situation where the incredibly rich (like 18th-century-dukes-and-duchesses-rich) move into already gentrified neighborhoods. A favorite quote:

"A three-block section of [Chicago neighborhood] Wicker Park that once accommodated eight families, two vintage clothing stores, a French cleaners, and a gourmet bakery has been completely razed to make way for a private livery stable and carriage house," Kennedy said. "The space is now entirely unusable for affordable upper-income condominium housing. No one can live there except for the odd stable boy or footman who gets permission to sleep in the hayloft."

These are really funny commentaries that touch on some of the main concerns of Esperanza, but, in my opinion, their focus is a bit off. I say this because it seems that the main targets in these articles on gentrification are "hip" stores that attract upper-middle class gentrifiers. The primary effect of gentrification -- the displacement of low-income families -- is not the primary subject of satire.

Of course, the effects of gentrification are severe for low-income families, so I can understand that it doesn't necessarily make for comedy-gold. I just wanted to point out that the worst part of gentrification -- in my opinion -- isn't just an influx of trendy coffee shops. It's that families must uproot themselves from their homes and must search for units with ever-increasing rents that are further and further away, breaking ties with communities, schools, medical homes and more.

Buuuuuut ... that being said, these articles do a GREAT job of lampooning how the privileged can blindly seek the satisfaction of their own desires without thinking about how this pursuit affects those less privileged than themselves. In the article about "aristocratization" the aristocrats respond to the complaints of the "merely wealthy":

"These accusations are pure, slanderous rubbish ... If anything, the layabouts and wastrels have been afforded a veritable glut of new and felicitous opportunities as bootblacks and scullery maids."

our sisters in action shaking up downtown

One of the collaboratives that Esperanza supports is the Downtown Women's Action Coalition a group whose purpose is to "empower women who live and work downtown to influence public policy change that promotes health, safety, and economic and social justice for women through collective action, public education, community building, advocacy and leadership opportunities." Centering the needs of extremely low-income and homeless women in downtown.

A month ago was the release of the Downtown Women's Action Coalition (DWAC) third Needs Assessment. In this post you'll find a clip of Sonali Kolhatkar's March 28th, 2008 show where two DWAC members -- Deborah Burton, longtime downtown resident and LA CAN staff member, and Fabiola Sandoval, asset manager at Esperanza -- participate in the release of the study and share their insights via the radio. Uprising Radio clip

Stay tuned for the PDF version of 2007 Needs Assesment.