Tenants, who are already struggling to pay rent, often give up and don’t assert the tenant rights that exist in California State law. Landlords know that renters don’t want to risk an eviction on their record and so they don’t expect tenants to assert their rights. They know that most renters can’t afford the legal representation needed to assert their rights. This has created a culture of lawlessness among landlords and the property management companies they hire. The goals of the IE Tenant Union is to provide tenants with assistance to assert their rights, to fight evictions and mitigate other landlord-tenant disputes. We are developing the skills to fight habitability issues, code enforcement issues and a team that can educate tenants about renters rights and assist in crafting responses to court documents. Tenants, who are already struggling to pay rent, often give up and don’t assert the rights that are in the law. Inland Empire Tenants' Unions are spaces where we support tenants in fighting back against those landlords who are operating as slumlords or are using “renovations” to evict tenants just to skirt state laws. We are building our capacity to effectively fight unlawful detainers through educational workshops, clinics, and direct services. Tenants, who often face financial insecurity, are often discouraged from asserting their rights that are in existing housing law and processes.
The crisis in housing supply has created an environment where landlords have little incentive to maintain properties because they can rent it out regardless of the condition. Tenants fighting back with existing laws will spur a culture change where there is no longer an expectation of profit from squalor and disregard for the law. The catalyst to this project began when Karen Suarez from Uplift Sanbernardino asked IECLT to reach out to Deborah Harmon at the Date Park Apartments in San Bernardino. The situation there and in other complexes in the city has demonstrated a great need to enforce existing local ordinances and state laws. We have our San Bernardino Tenants union meetings at Ecclesia Christian Church.
We have Tenants Unions in eight Inland Empire cities and we want to be able to teach ourselves how to more effectively assert our rights. Strong tenant unions can build civic power by advocating for rent stabilization, stronger renter protections and Just Cause eviction protections in IE cities. We help locate lawyers to sue landlords who fail to maintain habitable living conditions. We currently get together and study NOLO's California Tenant's Rights but there are some documents that are much more effective with an attorney’s license number on them.
