Santa Cruz Tenant Power

Tenant solidarity with houseless people - most of us are a paycheck or two away from joining them!

¿Necesita ayuda para pagar la renta? California puede ayudar. https://housing.ca.gov/covid_rr/index_esp.html

Bus operators are unionized!

https://shelterforce.org//activists-win-control-of-vacant/ Philadelphia Housing Action got 59 buildings from the city of Philly, many that that they were already using to house homeless families - this is huge!

This energy - let poor people have nice things and stop blaming poverty on personal failings. Start blaming mass poverty on class society, exploitation, and wealth hoarding.

Troy Swanner is a local business owner with a clothing shop near the roundabout to the wharf. He's been threatening violence against houseless people on facebook for weeks. https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2021/02/08/18839848.php

Something about the Council meeting tonight really bothered me: I'm grateful that the City Council unanimously passed an updated ordinance that makes affordable... housing more possible here in Santa Cruz. Now, I'd like to ask the City to drop its double standard as a next step. Last week, the centerist City Council majority excitingly approved the Riverfront project, which will lead to a development containing 175 market-rate units and only 20 affordable units. The market-rate developers were granted a density bonus to build bigger because they threw the community the crumbs they could. Tonight, the City Council had before them a 100% affordable housing project -- also downtown -- with around 65 units. It is at this project that the City asked the developer to pay for public improvements, expressed concerns about "public safety" issues created by the housing, and closed with a rare concern about scale and design. None of these were raised for the market rate development. The overt bias toward market-rate development and the suggestion that public housing is dangerous explains too much about the problems we face here. Thank you to all the people out there doing work to undo this tired way of thinking.

While the CDC has extended federal eviction protections CA has not yet finalized its new protections. Regardless, we know tenants will still be threatened or intimidated into leaving their homes. Landlords must follow legal procedures to in order to evict - but we can’t expect them to inform tenants of this. If you have availability this weekend, join us for a no-contact know-your-rights literature drop! DM us for logistics. Any help is appreciated.

Folks should know that the CDC has extended federal eviction protections for tenants across the US until March 31. Despite these extensions, we know tenants will still be threatened or intimidated into leaving their homes. Landlords must follow legal procedures to evict! https://www.cdc.gov//r/2021/s0121-eviction-moratorium.html

Your landlord has to follow legal procedures to evict you - no threats, no utility shutoffs, no lockouts! #stopevictions #covidpandemic #housingisthecure

There’s a concerning amount of sympathy afforded to landlords when we know their role is exploitative in nature. Millions of renters are currently experiencing rent burden (paying more than 30 percent of their income for rent and utilities) while (as of 2018) over 10 million people were paying more than 50% of their income to rent and utilities. (Source below) Our housing supply is severely lacking in purpose built low income housing and is full of "market rate buildings. ...And as many in Santa Cruz can attest, higher-cost housing does not equal high quality housing. And protections for tenants are limited, if they’re there at all. How many of us have had to hold our tongue because of potential retribution from our landlords? This year has shown us how precarious our situations actually are. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to save up for a rainy day when the rain lasts an entire year. Don’t do the PR for them.

Evictions will undoubtedly rise if there is any lapse in protections. We cannot wait for federal and state officials to take action. Local government must act NOW to extend eviction moratorium. https://evictionlab.org/missing-eviction-filings/ #CancelRent #StopEvictions

https://theintercept.com/2020/12/09/biden-hud-marcia-fudge/ OK, this title is fucking clickbait, but its an informative article about Fudge's existing expertise, legislative priorities, and attitude towards this post. tldr: she wanted Sec of Agriculture but got Housing, no experience in this field. Opposed LGBTQ+ anti discrimination in housing bill on technicality.

https://abc7.com/el-sereno-homelessness-protest-eviction//

Tonight the police volunteer Deborah Elston hit a community member with her car who was trying to take a picture of her after she wrote a ticket. She hit the i...ndividual intentionally. For damage control and to cover their asses they wrote the individual a citation for false imprisonment, trying to say that he should not have stood in front of her vehicle to take the photo. Best believe we are following up on this incident. We were already having problems with her targeting homeless individuals and writing false tickets.