Housing & Homelessness (News)

Terminally ill woman's fight against eviction raises societal question

Editor2 — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 12:59:00 -0600

By Tom Lochner

Ann Cyrus, by her own admission, wasn't always a model tenant.

But a compassionate society ought to find a way for people like her, who face a litany of health problems, to stay in their homes, she says — especially if home is a taxpayer-subsidized affordable housing complex such as the El Paseo Family Apartments in San Pablo.

Cyrus, 53, has hypertension, depression and a case of lymphedema that is terminal, according to a letter from her doctor at Brookside Community Health Center. Cyrus's daughter, 23, suffers depression and can't hold down a job or complete her studies for lack of child care, Cyrus said. Cyrus' 12-year-old son and two grandchildren — one 6 years, the other 9 months old — round out the household.

Financial tsunami sweeps LENNAR and destroys any HOPE for recovery - housing crisis.

Editor2 — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 12:24:11 -0600

By Francisco Da Costa

The present financial crisis has hit Lennar between the eyes and swept them out to sea. LENNAR Corporation - is drowning with no - HOPE in sight. Lennar has declared so may bankruptcies - that there is no telling - how DEEP in trouble - this Rogue Company is. Lennar will fail - in the Bayview Hunters Point. We want them OUT of our community - NOW.
Some years ago when I said that Lennar would drown in the CESSPOOL of its own making - people where laughing and said that LENNAR was powerful - backed by some powerful people.

City Claims Hands Tied On Housing

Editor2 — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 13:58:24 -0500

By Amy Sylvestri

The controversy over the San Leandro Crossing housing project and the city’s Transit- Oriented Development (TOD) has led City Hall to point out that it must comply with state standards to increase the number of housing units available in San Leandro.

The state said that the nine counties in the Bay Area must add 214,500 new housing units by 2014, and the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) has set San Leandro’s housing goal (“Housing Element”) at 1,630 units.

The American Dream's $700 billion price tag

Editor2 — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 13:51:11 -0500

By Matt Smith

During the past few weeks, obscure economics professors have appeared on television screens and in the text of countless newspaper articles to explain how a host of institutions, subsidies, shadow markets, and banking tricks have pushed our financial system to the brink of collapse.

Despite this nationwide college symposium, however, the most important lesson of the country's recent financial turmoil has gone untaught: The United States might be better off financially, economically, and socially if it were more like San Francisco and were a nation of renters.

Oakland landlady to pay $31,000 in bias case

Editor2 — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:24:35 -0500

By Bob Egelko

OAKLAND -- An Oakland landlady who allegedly berated an African American tenant with racial slurs and told him that "you're not going to turn this place into a ghetto" must pay the man and his wife $31,000 in damages, a state civil rights agency has ruled. The remarks - which the landlady has denied making - amounted to racial discrimination in housing, the Fair Employment and Housing Commission said in a ruling last week.

The tenant, Dante Lemons, said he was sitting on the front porch of the Maryland Apartments at 3301 Telegraph Ave. in the spring or early summer of 2005, listening to the radio, when apartment co-owner Marlene O'Neill told him no loitering was allowed. When Lemons pointed out that he lived there, he said, O'Neill, who is white, replied that he shouldn't be outside and was turning the place into a ghetto.

East Bay incomes higher, but poverty rates not going down

Editor2 — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 17:53:53 -0500

By Matt O'Brien

If the East Bay economy could be judged by Pleasanton's median household income of $113,345, or its poverty rate of 2.1 percent, the region would seem to be doing fine.

The U.S. Census Bureau released statistics Tuesday that show the Tri-Valley city of about 68,000 people has regained its place as the most affluent midsize city in America.

"We're certainly in an enviable position and I'm not complaining," said Pleasanton Mayor Jennifer Hosterman. "We're better poised than most to ride out these rough economic waves."

Homeless issue is our community's choice

Editor2 — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 17:36:57 -0500

By Brittany Owens

A blog that I monitor called “Only In San Francisco” feeds me photos and musings from the obscure corners of the city. Among the entries is usually some quip about homelessness.

The pictures that appear on my screen often call for consideration. Most of the time they are pictures of the homeless sleeping behind cars or sidewalks. Rarely do they show the human side of these people.

The fact that we are even able to say homeless and add the suffix, -ness, to make it a condition, startles me. Is homelessness a condition and can it be cured? Have we become that immune to what is dark, decrepit and sad, like the graffiti that is scattered across the city?

NY Working Class to be Hit Hard by Financial Crisis

Editor2 — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 17:23:04 -0500

By Nayaba Arinde, Amsterdam News

“When Wall Street catches a cold, the Black community catches pneumonia,” assessed Councilmember Charles Barron. “We are in trouble.”

Before Lehman Brothers was thrown a financial lifeline late on Tuesday, and we, the people, bought an 80 percent share in A.I.G. to save the failing company, Monday saw distressed cardboard box–carrying shirt-sleeved guys and office-smart ladies streaming out of offices on Wall Street. “This fiscal approach to bailing out the rich is a reverse Robin Hood—robbing the poor to give the rich,” charged an angry Barron. “Under Bill Clinton, the conservative Democrat, and Reagan and Bush, the banking and finance industry was deregulated and they were allowed to run amok with the people’s money and make bad decisions and investments. And now, they are coming back to hurt the economy and poor people.”

Forget the Banks: Bail Out the Poor

Editor2 — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 17:09:18 -0500

By Tommi Avicolli-Mecca

Ask anyone why the government doesn’t build housing for every person in this country who needs it, and you’ll get the answer you always receive. Ask why the government doesn’t turn around tomorrow and set up a universal healthcare plan and there’s that answer again. Ditto for making education and public transportation free. It’s always the same stock response: Our government doesn’t have the dough.

Yet this same government can spend trillions on two wars that were unprovoked, not to mention completely immoral. Government also has the loot to bail out banks in our current mortgage crisis. It’s already bailed out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Millions of Americans are losing their homes because of predatory lending practices, and they don’t get any help. It’s not called welfare for the rich for nothing.

The Hidden Tenant Impacts of Proposition 6

Editor2 — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 17:00:19 -0500

By Dean Preston

Proposition 6 on the November ballot—characterized by proponents as a “comprehensive anti-gang and crime reduction measure”—is an ill-conceived statewide measure with hidden provisions that hurt California tenants.

Buried in the complex language of Prop 6 are provisions that take aim at tenants with Section 8 vouchers, as well as other provisions that target tenants who live at properties where the government undertakes anti-gang enforcement efforts.