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Californians for Property Rights Protection (CPRP) is a coalition of homeowners, family farmers, small business owners, and other property owners (small and large) led by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, California Farm Bureau Federation, and The California Alliance to Protect Private... Continue Reading

Editor: Albert Sukoff Because I am so inclined, I was perusing the census data for Berkeley on a website posted by the MTC-ABAG library. (That's the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the Association of Bay Are Governments.) Therein presented was data showed comparisons between the 2000... Continue Reading

Howard Jarvis and apartment associations around the state are asking you to support a statewide ballot initiative concerning eminent domain and rent control. If this initiative passes, rent control in Berkeley would be wiped out in few years as units become permanently decontrolled. I cannot... Continue Reading

Berkeley official oversaw agency that allegedly mismanaged $25 million By Doug Oakley, MEDIANEWS STAFF Inside Bay Area Article Last Updated:06/06/2007 07:49:59 AM PDT Berkeley Housing Department director Steve Barton resigned Tuesday, the latest person to leave in the wake of a scandal that has... Continue Reading

Editors, Daily Planet:Let me get this straight: Back in 2002, HUD said the Berkeley Housing Authority was “troubled” and needed fixing. For five years, the Mayor and Council got reports from Housing Director Steve Barton, describing how he had tried, and failed, to fix the problems.... Continue Reading

By David M. Wilson (05-25-07) In separate reports, City Manager Phil Kamlarz and City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque have found gross incompetence, if not fraud, in the Berkeley Housing Authority. BHA manages a budget of $25,000,000 per year. This is supposed to provide subsidized housing for nearly... Continue Reading

WHAT DOES THE MEASURE DO? Empowers tenants to buy their own homes at a substantial discount. Protects tenants from uncontrolled TIC conversions and Ellis Act evictions Provides new revenues to the City for maintaining and expanding its affordable housing programs. Restores balance to our City: ... Continue Reading

Pieri v. City and County of San Francisco: Round Two for the SF Tenants' Union At various times in these pages we have speculated whether Berkeley's laws regarding owner move-ins and Ellis Act evictions would be upheld by the courts. The issue, you may remember, is that state law guarantees an... Continue Reading

By David M. Wilson This article is provided for your education and is not intended as legal advice. Consult an attorney for legal advice about your specific needs. This is the first of a series of articles designed to provide a quick and dirty summary of the laws of California and Berkeley that... Continue Reading

[President's Message, September 2005] Rent control in Berkeley is a rapidly turning into a relic. With each passing day and each new vacancy, a smaller and smaller number of apartments are subject to the strictest form of control. New construction is everywhere, and not a single unit is... Continue Reading

We regularly receive panicked phone calls at the BPOA office, from landlords who are at the receiving end of a tenant’s threat to “repair and deduct.” Many tenants, it seems, believe they possess a unilateral right to “fix” problems that may or may not really exist,... Continue Reading

By James Kilpatrick of Kilpatrick & Company A common question among owners of buildings heavily burdened by rent control is how much the law affects their ability to sell at a reasonable price. There is no question that a building burdened by many substantially below market rents generally... Continue Reading