MHRC Joins Housing Groups to Lobby for SB567 at Senator Umberg's District Office
May 17th, Jeanne Farrens, representing MHRC, joined with several diverse organizations from county and state at Senator Tom Umberg’s District Office to lobby in solidarity for the passage of SB567, the Homelessness Prevention Act. Originally intended to be a sit-in at his Metrolink District Office in Santa Ana, upon hearing of the passage of 567 out of the Senate Judiciary Committee (which Senator Umberg chairs) earlier that day, the coalition turned their efforts to gaining a meeting with the Senator’s staff member overseeing the bill. We wanted to share our stories and impress the senator with the need to pass the bill with its original protections for state renters (although protection for mobile homeowners had previously been eliminated), including a rent cap of 5%. Unfortunately, as we discovered, the rent cap had been eliminated by amendment, due to opposition from the senator, and in spite of the fact that the original bill had the support of over 200 organizations within the state. This only inspired the group to make certain the senator was aware of our plight and of the very real risks involved in failing to strengthen renter protections and affordable rents.
Hairo Cortes, the Executive Director of CHISPA (Community Housing Improvement Systems and Planning Association), led our coalition to the senator’s office, where we were told by the attending staff member, Fidel Vasquez, that the member of Umberg’s staff who knew about the bill was not at the location. However, Hairo and Boomer Vicenti, from CHISPA OC, explained how important it was for us to tell our stories. Fidel graciously offered to hear us and took notes as each one spoke, asking questions in both English and Spanish to make certain of the accuracy of the details. This led one of the speakers, as we were debriefing later, to comment how this made her feel validated, much different than she had felt with Dave Min’s staffer on her visit to Sacramento earlier this month.
The speakers who shared their stories included Brad Christianson, a pastor from CLUE (Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice), who told of one of his congregation who was forced to live in her car when she was evicted for failing to pay her rent and whose whereabouts are now unknown. Ana Tutila an OC apartment renter and member of Promotores de Salud de OC, (Orange County Health Promoters) a non profit dedicated to serving the health needs of OC’s Latino community, spoke in Spanish, passionately telling of her fears of being unable to continue to afford living in her home. Jeanne Farrens spoke on behalf of the mobile home owners who were eliminated from SB1482, which originally offered protections to renters and a rent cap of 10%. She emphasized that while owners of manufactured homes pay rent on the land, they, unlike other renters, also are burdened with additional housing costs that often include a mortgage, utilities and insurance, and, unlike renters, cannot simply move to another location. While SB567 offers no relief to mobile homeowners, she stressed that the MHRC stands in solidarity with all renters around the state in supporting any relief promised by SB567. Vanessa, a member of Chicanxs Unidaxs of OC, a 17-year-old activist organization promoting cultural and political empowerment, shared a most compelling personal story, telling of her own experience with homelessness as a young mother with two children, living out of her car, and of how on one occasion, she and her children “showered” in the sprinklers at a cemetery, having nowhere else to go. Of particular importance was her emphasis on dispelling the myth of the homeless as drug addicts and reprobates, looking for a free handout. In so many cases, the single mother, out of work or underpaid, or the senior on a fixed income, is often just one month’s rent away from homelessness. The meeting concluded with Hairo emphasizing the existential threat of uncontrolled rent increases and his promise that we will not stop fighting for economic justice.
While the effect of our meeting on the final outcome of SB567 remains unknown, it was an opportunity to meet allies with whom we will continue to share our mission and connect in solidarity.
Hairo Cortes, the Executive Director of CHISPA (Community Housing Improvement Systems and Planning Association), led our coalition to the senator’s office, where we were told by the attending staff member, Fidel Vasquez, that the member of Umberg’s staff who knew about the bill was not at the location. However, Hairo and Boomer Vicenti, from CHISPA OC, explained how important it was for us to tell our stories. Fidel graciously offered to hear us and took notes as each one spoke, asking questions in both English and Spanish to make certain of the accuracy of the details. This led one of the speakers, as we were debriefing later, to comment how this made her feel validated, much different than she had felt with Dave Min’s staffer on her visit to Sacramento earlier this month.
The speakers who shared their stories included Brad Christianson, a pastor from CLUE (Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice), who told of one of his congregation who was forced to live in her car when she was evicted for failing to pay her rent and whose whereabouts are now unknown. Ana Tutila an OC apartment renter and member of Promotores de Salud de OC, (Orange County Health Promoters) a non profit dedicated to serving the health needs of OC’s Latino community, spoke in Spanish, passionately telling of her fears of being unable to continue to afford living in her home. Jeanne Farrens spoke on behalf of the mobile home owners who were eliminated from SB1482, which originally offered protections to renters and a rent cap of 10%. She emphasized that while owners of manufactured homes pay rent on the land, they, unlike other renters, also are burdened with additional housing costs that often include a mortgage, utilities and insurance, and, unlike renters, cannot simply move to another location. While SB567 offers no relief to mobile homeowners, she stressed that the MHRC stands in solidarity with all renters around the state in supporting any relief promised by SB567. Vanessa, a member of Chicanxs Unidaxs of OC, a 17-year-old activist organization promoting cultural and political empowerment, shared a most compelling personal story, telling of her own experience with homelessness as a young mother with two children, living out of her car, and of how on one occasion, she and her children “showered” in the sprinklers at a cemetery, having nowhere else to go. Of particular importance was her emphasis on dispelling the myth of the homeless as drug addicts and reprobates, looking for a free handout. In so many cases, the single mother, out of work or underpaid, or the senior on a fixed income, is often just one month’s rent away from homelessness. The meeting concluded with Hairo emphasizing the existential threat of uncontrolled rent increases and his promise that we will not stop fighting for economic justice.
While the effect of our meeting on the final outcome of SB567 remains unknown, it was an opportunity to meet allies with whom we will continue to share our mission and connect in solidarity.
