SAN JOSE (BCN) — Tents were set up outside San Jose City Hall Wednesday afternoon to demonstrate the number of people who’ve been forced to move out of their homes and onto the streets.
About 50 people gathered Wednesday afternoon to call for more protections for renters, who say they’ve been facing high rents and unfair evictions.
The rally, organized by Renters Rights Coalition of Silicon Valley, a group of community organizations, was held before the City Council is expected to vote on changes to the apartment rent ordinance at its Tuesday meeting.
Among the changes, the council will consider matching the annual allowable rent increase to the Bay Area Consumer Price Index instead of the current 8 percent cap.
The increases wouldn’t go lower than 2 percent or higher than 8 percent.
While the coalition is supportive of the proposal on the annual rent increase it is also calling for just-cause eviction protections and penalties for landlords who retaliate against their tenants, said Liz Gonzalez of Silicon Valley De-Bug.
The coalition has focused their efforts on adequate enforcement of any new policies to ensure any follow-up work on a complaint will involve hearing from not only the landlord, but also the tenant, Gonzalez said.
Nina Gomez is renting a room with her adult son at an East San Jose home, where the landlord said she has to move out by May 1 but hasn’t explained why or given her a written notice.
The landlord has been abusive and thrown furniture around at the home where children also live, Gomez said.
“All this has caused a lot of friction and fear in the people that are there as well as myself,” Gomez said.
Raquel Ordonez, a pastor at Exodus to Serenity Ministry, has seen homeless people in the city find shelter, only to find themselves back at square one.
One of the homes in San Jose the ministry uses to house the homeless was evicted in January because the landowner wanted to raise the monthly rent from $3,000 to $5,000, Ordonez said.
Four adults and four children who had lived at the home for three and a half years were forced to move out, some were able to move out and others ended up couch surfing, Ordonez said.
In February, Ordonez was forced to move from a South San Francisco home she was renting for six and a half years due to a no-cause eviction from her landlord.
Ordonez and her three adopted children, ages 4, 11 and 16, who are refugees from Guatemala, now live with extended family.
The group then went inside City Hall to the 18th floor where they delivered letters and small pots of flowers to Mayor Sam Liccardo and each council member to show that the city’s future is in their hands.
Many held signs, including some that read, “Renters are not disposable” and “People’s need over greed.”
The city currently allows for no-cause evictions that have led to “unpredictable” living situations for renters, who at times fail to report basic maintenance problems out of fear that they’ll be kicked out, Sacred Heart Community Service organizer Mathew Read said.
“There are a lot of people who don’t stand up for basic rights around habitability, around rights of families to have children in their homes,” Read said.