Alameda Renters Cite Rent Control as an Immediate
Need, According to Survey
Monday, May 20, 2019
ALAMEDA, CA — Filipino Advocates for Justice (FAJ) will report back findings from a three-month survey of Alameda renters at the May 21 Alameda City Council meeting. The data suggests Alameda tenants largely support changes to the city’s current rent law, including both protections from arbitrary evictions and a hard cap on annual rent increases.
FAJ surveyed over 110 apartment building tenants throughout Alameda from February to April 2019. The survey was conducted primarily through in-person outreach, though an online version of the survey was also available. Due to capacity constraints, the survey was mainly conducted in English. This project was carried out by volunteers under the supervision of FAJ’s Tenant Organizer Denise Sicat Wong and her intern Chelsea Lee, with technical advising from faculty and research personnel at UC Berkeley.
The survey found that 88.5% of respondents believed a landlord should not be able to evict a tenant for any reason they wanted. In regards to rent increases, 92.9% of respondents believed Alameda should adopt full rent control, defined as a hard cap on yearly rent increases. 55.5% of respondents said they do not feel comfortable filing a dispute against an unreasonable rent increase, which is their main recourse under the current ordinance. 71.6% of respondents believed that filing a dispute is ineffective. Over half of all respondents were not confident they would be able to afford their apartment over the next five years.
“It’s good that we have statistics now because the data backs up what we have to say about the high cost of rent in the area,” says Lester Dixon, a tenant leader with FAJ.
Established in 1973, Filipino Advocates for Justice has been an advocate for tenant, immigrant, worker, and civil rights for the Filipino American community throughout the East Bay.
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