Neighborhoods throughout West Side and downtown Long Beach were visited by a caravan of protesters advocating for tenants’ rights on Sat., Aug. 22.
Repeated chants of “Cancel rent, cancel mortgages and the debt,” over megaphones brought many residents out onto their lawns and driveways to watch the demonstration.
In both Spanish and English, organizers urged those listening to contact their city councilmembers and tell them “if we can’t work, we can’t pay.”
The demonstration was planned by the Long Beach Tenants Union and the Housing Organizing Committee.
Before beginning their ride, protesters gathered in the morning at Cesar Chavez Park, located at 401 Golden Ave. in downtown Long Beach to listen to tenants’ stories and advocates fighting evictions and harassment.
Michael Dixon, a resident of District 2, participated in the protest and recalled his experiences with a neglectful and aggressive landlord to the Signal Tribune.
“My landlord, in particular, whenever we would ask to get things done in and around our apartment, he would oftentimes belittle us and tell us that he’s too busy, and that he doesn’t need this job, and he doesn’t need the money and all this stuff and he would say that ‘well I’m not your landlord, I’m the landlord for everyone else as well.’
Shortly before we moved out, I heard him screaming at one of the tenants, after her shower backed up. She was asking for him to bring someone, preferably a plumber, in order to get it looked at, and he called her ‘selfish’ he called her ‘lazy,’ and he said that he has other things to do and not just be her landlord . And then afterward he threatened to evict her. So I think that landlords think that they just have power over people like that, because they know that people need housing.”
Long Beach tenants repeatedly expressed their fears around gentrification, with more luxury condos being built in their neighborhoods, raising rents in the area until decades-long residents are forced to move out.
Organizer’s had the following demands for the City of Long Beach:
-to cancel rent and suspend mortgages
-the adoption of a strong anti-tenant harassment policy
-adoption of the People’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2021
The People’s Budget is created each year by a coalition of numerous local community groups, as an alternative to the yearly fiscal budget created by the City. The People’s Budget calls for a massive cut to the $240 million allocated to the Long Beach Police Department in order to fund social, community and health programs, especially for Black and other underserved communities.
Three of the budget’s nine points relate to housing, and are as follows:
“2. Affordable and Supportive Housing: Establish a dedicated source of funding for supportive housing with wrap-around supportive services for residents experiencing or on the brink of homelessness.
3. Right to Counsel for All Renters: Establish a Right to Counsel to provide legal resources and representation to renters in need regardless of immigration status, effectively reducing evictions, preventing homelessness, preserving affordable housing, and stabilizing communities.
4. Citywide Rental Housing Division: Establish a Rental Housing Division within the Development Services Department to communicate with both tenants and landlords, issue legal bulletins and updates, enforce renter protection laws, centralize information and forms, and administer a citywide Right to Counsel program for renters.”
While the city council did approve extending the existing eviction moratorium until the end of September, tenants will eventually have to pay backlogged rent– a serious challenge for those still unemployed due to the ongoing health crisis. The area of Los Angeles County that contains Long Beach had an unemployment rate of 18.2% in July 2020.
“Especially now during a pandemic,” Dixon said, “It’s crucial for us to think of people who are down and out and who cannot afford the rents or their mortgages and stuff like that. And displacing so many people is not the right move.”
