WELCOME

A LETTER FROM EBRHA CEO DEREK BARNES

Normally, our fall magazine issue focuses on our community in ways that showcase examples of the leadership and philanthropic work that happens around the East Bay. We’ll turn a little inward this edition to focus on the service and support rental property owners provide in the communities we serve. I hear so many stories from EBRHA members who consistently go above and beyond to create homes and good renter experiences – even when the deck is stacked against owners.

There are people in our orbit, known and not so known, who give back tirelessly and pull out the best in us. They are the epitome of the inspirational leader. Sometimes their light and energy are only with us a short time in this world, but their gifts are eternal and can have profound impact.

Our hearts our still heavy as we mourn the recent loss of Georgia Richardson, EBRHA’s Community Liaison and Carlon Tanner, former EBRHA Board Member. We dedicate this issue to you and to all those who fight every day to advance our shared humanity as a community – especially those who provided homes for so many people during these challenging two years despite many obstacles and unresolved problems.

To solve today’s housing problems, we must think differently and be in action in new ways. In Dr. Jenny Schuetz’s recent book Fixer-Upper: How to Repair America’s Broken Housing Systems, she challenges the prevailing rational and outdated paradigms that have contributed to our current housing crisis. It is a catastrophe installed by incompetent or uninformed leadership, bad policy development, deficient inventory and production, and stagnant wage growth. She suggests ways to mitigate the crisis like providing more options and permanent subsidies for renters. Qualifying

households through some form of needs assessment or testing is also critical, especially when it comes to providing subsidies and even occupying rent-controlled units. Dr. Schuetz seems to understand that if rental property owners cannot charge monthly rents that cover their operating costs, then they close down, either selling the property or letting units sit vacant. Many of us are living this experience or witnessing this every day and are shocked that our policymakers don’t understand these business fundamentals. She also asserts that we must convince legislators that rent control is a failed 1970’s idea that has morphed into radical-leaning parables that do nothing to address the core issues driving the crisis. These diverDerek Barnes sions have become part of a progressive manifesto that is paradoxically anti-housing because it ultimately hurts the market, production and renters in the long run. We close out an extremely tough summer with an end to California’s statewide eviction moratorium, Alameda County and Oakland’s continued local health emergency ordinance that bans evictions, decreases in the allowable rent caps in several East Bay cities (Antioch, Oakland and Richmond), the formation of rent registries, and key measures on the November ballot like the recent Just Cause Ordinance modification (Measure V). There are also pending state legislation that threatens our property rights and businesses. A positive ruling by the Supreme Court regarding our longstanding garbage lawsuit in Oakland is a reminder of what is possible when we are committed to standing together and providing the needed resources. We must expose the problems within our body of government that is supposed to work to improve democracy and public service for everyone – not divide us. This is the time for all EBRHA members and our pro-housing partners to stand up and win against all forms of anti-housing policy and their supporters. With the recent elections ahead of us, there is no better time to send a strong message as housing providers.