Tenants who say they’ve reached the breaking point rallied on Thursday at Delta Pines Apartments in Antioch to demand the city pass tenant-rights measures to protect them and hold landlords accountable.
Mayor Pro Tem Tamisha Torres-Walker and Councilwoman Monica Wilson proposed an anti-harassment ordinance, and another requiring landlords to prove just cause for evictions, in late 2021. But when the council approved a rent stabilization measure capping rent increases at 3% last year, it didn’t include clauses addressing either issue.
“This has got to be passed, it needs to be passed in all these cities to protect people, to protect these children,” tenant Kim Carlson said before the rally. “They don’t deserve to be harassed. I don’t pay this amount of rent to be constantly traumatized, constantly having to look out my windows.”
Members of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment Action (ACCE), First 5 Contra Costa and East County Regional Group hosted the rally in front of the Delta Pines Apartments on Sycamore Avenue, but tenants from other complexes such as Twin Creeks, Delta View and Casa Blanca apartments also joined and some spoke.
“We want Antioch to pass a tenant anti-harassment ordinance. We’re here because the people at Delta Pines Apartments are facing harassment,” ACCE Action’s Devin Williams told the crowd.
The housing advocates say they have seen rising cases of tenant harassment against struggling families in many places since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The tenants allege that they have been treated disrespectfully by Delta Pines’ manager, and have been forced to endure shoddy living conditions, broken laundry facilities, and a long-closed pool and recreation center.
Calls to the on-site manager and to Rainey Property Management, which recently began managing the complex, were not returned.
The tenants on Thursday also called for the owners of Delta Pines and Casa Blanca Apartments to fire the complexes’ property manager, whom they say won’t provide receipts for rent payments, gives tenants dirty looks, and has played menacing music as she drove past tenants. They also accused the manager’s mother of hurling expletives against tenants, including a young boy.
“I don’t deserve the harassment I’ve faced,” 9-year-old Treveyon Carlson told those gathered. “No one does.”
Kimberly Carlson, who lives at Delta Pines with her daughter, another grandson and Treveyon, says she no longer feels safe there and is taking legal action against the manager and the complex owner.
“How can you feel safe when you know you’ve got a woman (the manager) that you know is constantly watching my every move?” she said in an interview.
Other tenants shared similar stories. Jilandra Plaza said she has had to keep track of her own rent payments because the complex refuses to give receipts and she’s had to show proof after being accused a couple of times of not paying her rent.
“I get along with my neighbors, I go to work, and I pay my rent,” Plaza said. “Feeling uncomfortable where you lay your head is not OK. … Treating people like this is not OK.”
The manager drove past the crowd, briefly stopping to take photos of those gathered. A housing advocate later went up to her and tried to give her a list of their demands but she quickly walked away and could not be reached later.
Reached by phone, Mayor Pro-Tem Walker said she had hoped to add the anti-harassment and just-cause clauses last year during the rent stabilization discussions, but that didn’t happen.
“You can’t have rent stabilization without tenant protections, without just cause, because the potential for harassment continues,” she said, noting advocates and others have requested the matter return to council for consideration.
Walker said she has heard from tenants before with similar complaints, but she has had no success reaching the management company.
As for complaints about shabby conditions, Walker said the city needs to review its rental inspection ordinance regarding issues of habitability.
“It seemed to be a tool of accountability, but because it’s never really been fully implemented — and it’s kind of outdated — it will be good to look at what we already have on the books, and how we can we can update that,” she said.
“I’m hoping that we can do something to get both landlords and tenants on the same page,” Walker added.
Councilman Mike Barbanica said if tenants are having problems with habitability issues they need to call the city’s code enforcement to inspect the property.
“If tenants are truly having those issues, definitely get the city involved,” he said.
Barbanica toured one of the properties, Delta View, with Monument Impact housing advocates several weeks ago and was able to see some of the things they are concerned about, but he said some other complaints had been exaggerated.
Still others were more a matter of education, such as a moisture issue that a maintenance worker didn’t realize was a problem until the councilman, who works in real estate, pointed it out, he said.
“I got a commitment that day from management to resolve all issues,” Barbanica said. “They put a notice out to all of the units that they were going to be inspecting them starting Feb. 1 and resolving all issues.”
For Carlson, though, there’s still work to be done at her apartment complex, she said.
“It’s a whole kit and caboodle, uninhabitable living conditions, nothing being fixed,” she said of the government-subsidized complex where she lives.
“I’m not going to stop,” Carlson said regarding efforts to get anti-harassment rules passed. “We’re coming back to the table on Tuesday” when the council meets again.
Source: www.mercurynews.com