Pasadena residents are being evicted from their apartments (Photo – ColoradoBlvd.net).
Change, it is said, is good, but when people are hard up against economic realities–such as a city that operates without rent control or a Just Cause for Eviction policy–change is a harbinger of potential disaster.
By Garrett Rowlan
Consider the situation at 120 S. Roosevelt in Pasadena. There tenants are about to be displaced by the previous owner’s daughter, who issued to all occupants of the 18-unit building a 60-day notice to vacate. Many of the tenants have lived there for a dozen to 30 years, only to be given a boot on the backside.
On June 3, tenant Vera Krekour, who has dwelled at the property for three years, reports that she was summarily handed a piece of paper with her marching orders: two months to get resettled (July 31st was the date given to vacate).
The news couldn’t have come at a worst time, as Ms. Kerkour recently had gallbladder surgery and cannot, on doctor’s orders, lift boxes or other implements of removal, for six months. Furthermore, the mandate smacks of ingratitude. Many maintenance issues–old pipes spewing dirty water, expired fire extinguishers, and exposed electrical wires–have been left unreported so as to not rock the boat.
“I requested assistance from the Housing Rights Center at Jackie Robinson Center,” said Ms. Krekour, “I attended the Mental Health Advocacy Services monthly legal clinic and contacted Jim Wong (Senior Project Manager of Pasadena Housing & Career Services).
She added:
Mr. Wong confirmed my worst nightmare. There are no protections. We are not protected by Pasadena’s Tenant Protection (Title 9). The response is we have no legal protections for notice to vacate and no moving cost to assist tenants displaced by no-fault eviction.
This is only one example of many why a Just Cause for Eviction policy is supported by the Pasadena Tenants Union, who still fights for tenant’s rights despite lacking the 2,000 signatures to put the issue on the November, 2018, ballot.
This is going to keep happening in big cities. The only way you can know that you will have a roof over your head is to find middle ground between renters and landlords or for cities/non profits to buy abandoned houses and fix them up to sell at cost or rent for just enough to cover cost of upkeep