Publication Date: Wednesday Sep 14, 1994
by Dyanne Ladine
Pick up the paper on any day and find the many ways that being right, insisting on a right and creating a right appear at the core of our personal and institutional interactions. A secretary receives a jury award for her right to be free from sexual harassment on the job; Haitians struggle to exercise their right to freedom; Congress struggles to address society's growing demand for a right to health care. As my friend Stewart Burns, co-author of "The People's Charter: The Pursuit of Rights in America," says, rights are defined and redefined by society and the process is a dynamic one.
At the writing of the U.S. Constitution, the majority of people in the country did not have a right to vote. The United Nations Bill of Rights, passed in 1948, defined the positive rights that every human being is entitled to, including the right to a job and decent housing. The Civil Rights movement redefined, in law if not in reality, the right to equality for everyone. The national level is not the only place where individuals and institutions are redefining what constitutes a right. States, counties and cities are looking at such diverse issues as the right to look for work in Mountain View regardless of your skin color, the right to be in a smoke-free environment in Palo Alto and the right for young African-American men to be free from regularly being stopped by the police for no other reason than their race in San Jose.
East Palo Alto, when it first incorporated in 1983, took an enlightened step in recognizing that people have a right to a decent place to live in order to be valuable members of society and maintain their dignity as human beings. Specifically, the City Council and the voters of the city, while acknowledging that the right to own property as a landlord is an established and important right that needs to be protected, recognized that there is an additional right for tenants to be charged fair rent, to have safe housing and to be free from arbitrary eviction. With these issues in mind, the East Palo Alto City Council and the voters of East Palo Alto created and supported what is now called the Rent Stabilization and Eviction for Good Cause ordinance. In its several forms, the ordinance has been supported by the voters by significant majorities.
The passage of this ordinance is an example of society redefining rights. Any time new rights are proposed, their supporters take risks and face tremendous opposition from investors in the status quo. What is interesting in East Palo Alto is that its supporters have not come just from those who benefit directly from such an ordinance.
The purpose of the Rent Stabilization and Eviction for Good Cause Ordinance is "to protect residential tenants in the city from unreasonable rent increases; to protect tenants from arbitrary, discriminatory or retaliatory evictions; and at the same time assure landlords both a fair return and rental income sufficient to cover the cost of maintenance and operating expenses as well as the cost of capital improvements to their rental property."
A key element of the ordinance is the requirement of good cause for eviction which can only be: 1. Failure to pay rent. 2. Violation of the lease or rental agreement. 3. Destruction of the leased or rented property. 4. Conducting illegal activities in the premises. 5. Interfering with the comfort, safety or enjoyment of the premises by other tenants. 6. A landlord's wish to move into the unit or use that unit for his or her immediate relatives.
The ordinance includes procedures and formulas to safeguard the interests of both the tenants and landlords, not the least of which is the Rent Stabilization Board consisting of tenants, landlords and home owners. A study was conducted in May 1994, titled "Rent Control in East Palo Alto, 1983 to 1994: An Evaluation." In that report the authors conclude, among other things, that the implementation of the ordinance seems to be "in fact functioning as a rent stabilization mechanism, which protects residents from rapid rent increases during inflationary times." The report makes interesting reading, and discounts the doom and gloom predictions of the ordinance's opponents. In its conclusion, the report says, "It is clear that rent control has not solved all the housing problems of quality and affordability suffered by the tenants . . . At the same time, it is also clear that rent control has not caused these problems, and that the residents of East Palo Alto could be substantially worse off without its protections."
East Palo Alto has taken a stand on what it sees as the rights of its residents on housing. Rent stabilization and good cause eviction is one part of that stand, and certainly not the only answer. However, it is a statement of the belief that the people who live in East Palo Alto deserve dignity in their lives and will not be replaced just because someone can pay more rent. The people who benefit from this compassionate redefining of rights are not only the "secretaries, janitors, food service workers, nursing attendants, security guards and electronic assembly workers," but the surrounding communities that make use of the workers' skills but whose housing costs are too high for their salaries. I'm proud to be a part of a community that knows a right when it sees one.
Dyanne Ladine, an East Palo Alto resident, is a member of Lettuce Work, a women's organic produce cooperative; an attorney; and an assistant professor of business administration at College of Notre Dame. She is a member of the Weekly's Board of Contributors.