Low-income tenants in the San Francisco Bay Area suburb of Antioch got legislation passed that will cap rent increases at 3% a year.
Kim Carlson, from left, and her two grandsons Thomas Heidt, 12, and Treveyon Carlson, 9, pose for a photograph outside her apartment at the Delta Pines complex, Friday, Nov. 4, 2022, in Antioch, Calif. Despite a landmark renter protection law approved by California legislators in 2019, tenants across the countrys most populous state are taking to ballot boxes and city councils to demand even more safeguards.
“Just normality, just freedom, just being able to walk outside and breathe and not have to walk outside and wonder what is going to happen next,” said Carlson, 54, who lives with her daughter and two grandsons at the Delta Pines apartment complex. “You know, for the kids to feel safe. My babies don’t feel safe.”
The situation in working-class Antioch — where more than half the population is Black or Latino — illustrates how tenuous even a win for tenants can be. Outraged tenants jammed into council chambers describing refrigerators pieced from spare parts and washing machines that reeked of rotten eggs. They spoke of skipping meals, working multiple jobs and living in constant terror of becoming homeless, sleeping in their car and washing their children with bottled water.
California’s tenant protection law limits rent increases to a maximum 10% a year. But many types of housing are exempt, including low-income complexes funded by government tax credits and increasingly owned by corporations, limited liability companies or limited partnerships. But, Carlson said, the city needs to pass even more tenant protections. The apartment complex is infested with roaches and her neighbors are too scared to speak up, she said.
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