BASTA, Inc.

"Our group and our allies in California have been planting the seeds and nurturing local movements to pass new rent control laws, says [Tenants Together ED] De...an Preston. There was an assumption they couldn’t pass any new laws. Now, a number of cities will vote on such measures this election. But tenants’ rights has been a tougher sell, according to Preston, because by making it harder to evict, it takes away some of the power of landlords. The elephant in the room is the powerful landlord and real estate lobby. There’s a willingness to talk more about the housing, but only by talking about solutions that don’t challenge real estate and profits, he says."

"A minimum-wage worker would have to put in lots of overtime to be able to afford a modest, two-bedroom apartment anywhere in the country. And downsizing to a one-bedroom pad barely helps. "Even the $15 hourly wage touted by labor activists would not be enough to make housing affordable in the overwhelming majority of states, the coalition found. Nationally, someone would need to make $17.90 an hour to rent a modest one-bedroom or $22.10 an hour to cover a two-bedroom place. "Renters across the country earn an average hourly rate of $16.88, the report estimated, a finding that illustrates how even folks earning more than the minimum wage scramble to pay for housing."

From Curbed LA: A primer on Tenant rights... and who can help. BASTA: This vast tenants’ rights organization has offices in LA, Long Beach, Lancaster, and Van Nuys, with more on the way in Boyle Heights and Santa Monica. They offer eviction defense services as well as education for rentersthey’re in the midst of an ongoing series of tenants rights workshops in conjunction with the Los Angeles Public Library.... Los Angeles Public Library

This is a good time to remind everyone that we defend families from evictions and offer help for other housing concerns REGARDLESS OF STATUS. Visit or call if you or someone you know needs help.

The economy’s booming. Some states have raised minimum wages. But even with recent wage growth for the lowest-paid workers, there is still nowhere in the country where someone working a full-time minimum-wage job could afford to rent a modest two-bedroom apartment, according to an annual report released Wednesday by the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

Tired of getting your rent increased?! Received a 30, 60 or 90 Day Notice? Can't get those repairs you need? Come to our Renters Rights & Legal Clinics at BASTA, Inc. - Long Beach from 5-8pm.

I’m not against student housing, don’t get me wrong, said Robert Evans, a 32-year-old African American security guard who makes $14.50 an hour and shares a $1,700 three-bedroom unit with six people in one of Kim’s buildings. But if you want to come in and invest in property, you can’t just put people out on the streets.

Life as an independent adult can be tough in cities like Los Angeles, where three minimum wage jobs aren’t enough to afford a two-bedroom apartment. For those coming out of foster care, it’s an even more uphill battle. Extraordinary Families works to level the playing field with advocacy and direct services. On April 10, BASTA attorney Magda Madrigal joined legal experts Paul Freese and Jessica Kastner at the nonprofit organization’s Koreatown facility, where they spoke with ...current and former foster youth about housing, criminal and employment law with a focus on scenarios common to everyday life. Read the full story:

The Fair Housing Act at 50: "The California experience demonstrates the ways in which advocates for fairness, inclusion, and affordability are navigating the politics around exclusionary zoning. The enduring arguments about the need to address discrimination and segregationthe motivation for passage of the 1968 Fair Housing Actremain with us. But as millennials grow as a proportion of the population, a new set of arguments around affordability appears to be increasing in salience. When large swaths of the American publicnot just the poor and disadvantagedare finding housing unaffordable, political leaders will have to revisit exclusionary policies that are at once a familiar part of the background of American life and also deeply discriminatory and destructive." http://prospect.org/article/reviving-fair-housing-act-50

From NY Times: "Mr. Desmond’s team found records for nearly 900,000 eviction judgments in 2016, meaning landlords were given the legal right to remove at least one in 50 renter households." "Families lose their food stamps and Medicaid benefits when they lose the permanent addresses where renewal notices are sent. " 'An eviction isn’t one problem,' said Amy Woolard, a lawyer and the policy coordinator at the Legal Aid Justice Center in [Richmond, VA]. 'It’s like 12 problems.' "

Victor Chacon, an 81-year-old Long Beach resident, had been living at the Driftwood Apartments in DTLB for nearly 30 years when he received a notice that he had... 60 days to vacate his home after the 13-unit building was sold to an Irvine-based real estate investment and development firm. This was and remains entirely legal. However, Long Beach Councilwoman Lena Gonzalez refused to just let this happen and did the not-so-easy task of bartering with the new property owner. She not only got a 30-day extension for the tenants but much-needed relocation money to assist them in finding a new home.

Some important advice for people facing evictions, by Kevin Hermansen, Esq. "Unlike small claims cases, evictions known as unlawful detainers in legalese are complicated civil actions that require parties to understand the rules of civil procedure and evidence. Simply filing a written response and waiting for trial sets cases up for failure. In between the response and trial is the critical discovery period, in which parties can compel the other side to answer questions and produce documents under oath to be used as evidence at trial. Parties can also request depositions, requiring their opponents to come to an office to answer questions for up to seven hours."

BASTA founder/president Daniel Bramzon in The Sacramento Bee: "Local governments need assistance from the private sector to enforce tenant rights. Municipalities have passed laws to encourage such enforcement by allowing attorneys to be paid when they successfully help tenants who could not otherwise afford legal services. Such enforcement costs taxpayers and local governments nothing but tragically, this important and cost-effective private option is going away."