The current depreciation of the economy has not only impacted the country as a whole, but has hit historically disadvantaged communities at a much greater extent.  With the real estate decline in California affecting thousands of home owners, apartment rents have continued to increase.  The most affected by this are low income families who already struggle to pay the rent and make ends meet.  In our community of East Palo Alto, tenants have been forced to pay ridiculous rent increases or face eviction. In November of 2007 Page Mill Properties sent increase notices to hundreds of tenants.  As the largest landlord who owns about 65% of apartments in East Palo Alto, they hold the fate of many tenants' livelihoods.  Community member Jackie Davis received an increase notice for her rent of an extreme of $700.  Mrs. Davis is a senior on Section 8 housing and has not ever received such a drastic rent increase. Other community members have seen increases of more than 120% from what they were previously paying.  Lonnie Anderson has said that he will be leaving East Palo Alto due to the rent increase on his apartment.  While the legality of the increases is still contested and tied up in litigation, the tenants are still being forced to pay the increases.  Tenants have told us that they have to decide between paying the rent and buying enough groceries for their family.  In addition to this local dilemma, tenants rights as a whole were recently in question with the state ballot measure Proposition 98.  If passed, a series of environmental regulations, a city's zoning power, and the ability to manage rents through rent control programs would have all been eliminated.

According to research by the Fair Rent Now Coalition, the casualties are alarming. Based on 2000 census data, the vacancy rate in the area of East Palo Alto where all of Page Mill Properties are located hover around 2%. With Page Mill’s swoop to raise the rents, the vacancy rate jumped to a whopping 24% in the last year and a half. This translates to a loss of roughly 1,500 people to harassment and evictions over the past 18 months, an average of 20 people per week. Those that do stay are barely hanging on, surviving with two or three jobs and pushing a younger generation to enter the workforce to help support at home. A small segment of this population have become East Palo Alto’s new homeless population with families living in cars or crowding with other families in one-bedroom apartments. Replacing the now-defunct Romic, Page Mill has emerged as the City of East Palo Alto’s new nemesis.

When nearly 200 Page Mill tenants spoke at the East Palo Alto City Council meeting in December 2007 asking for help with the rents, YUCA youth immediately sprung into action. Since then, we have been educating, organizing, and supporting tenants to become fully aware of their rights, pushing the City Council and Rent Stabilization Board to tighten rent control laws, working with a community coalition to implement a multi-level strategy to lower the rents, exposing the conditions that tenants face, organizing community support at court hearings, and pushing
Page Mill Properties to lower the rents through direct action. Most recently,
the San Mateo County Superior Court awarded Wald Realty
court-appointed receivership because Page Mill defaulted
on a $50 million loan payment to Wachovia Bank. As the drama unfolds
in the next year, YUCA youth will continue to pressure decision-makers
to roll back the rents that tenants deserve!

To join our work, you can come to our Tuesday campaign meetings
at the YUCA office from 4-6 and/or check out our calendar
for upcoming events. If you are a tenant, email us at
info@youthunited.net or call us at (650)322-9165 if you need assistance.