by johnk
Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2016 at 12:33 PM
I wrote this as part of the #PricedOut campaign that's being run as part of a larger push to get JJJ passed. I am leaning toward supporting JJJ, but have these criticisms about the law.
I haven't been priced out yet, thanks to rent control, but I am at risk of being knocked out because I'm in a R2 zoned, small complex. It was bought a couple years ago by a real estate investment speculator.
So, if a nonprofit housing corporation like ELACC came to buy the property, they would probably sell.
I don't know the legal status of residents here, but I can guess that some are not documented immigrants. Excepting me, all the others here would be considered very low or extremely low income. Half the units are overcrowded - they are 1br units housing families with children.
Also, this is a gang neighborhood, and I don't know the section 8 laws, but the public housing rules were written to help kick out families with a gang member. I suspect there will be an effort to kick out gang affiliated families in rental units, and they won't be allowed into affordable housing. This will end up creating increased gang conflict, as displaced persons relocate into hostile territory.
These are low income people who could not be helped by JJJ because they lack legal status, or, are too poor to qualify to get affordable housing, or are people the system "throws away."
For people in these situations, the only way to stay is to prevent both the for-profit investors and the nonprofit housing corporations from taking these properties, or to negotiate some kind of favorable relocation into rent-controlled property, or some kind of "right to return at a similar rent" even if they cannot qualify to get into subsidized affordable housing due to legal status.
This situation isn't unique. Down the street, there is a building that I think was recently sold, and it's two units, both small, with families. Probably undocumented immigrants.
This isn't the worst case scenario, either. This collection of streets has some middle class residents, and is close to a politician. So it has more clout than other streets, which have more situations similar to what I've described.
Overall, I think JJJ is good, but it has a huge flaw in not addressing the realities of very low income communities that are facing gentrification.