Yolanda Ruiz is so stressed she has started forgetting things. She was laid off last June, she’s got three of her grown kids living with her, and each month she’s left with only $120 in unemployment money after she pays rent.
And now, she’s got a battle on her hands.
Ruiz lives in the Juan Pifarre Plaza Apartments on 21st Street in the Mission, which she has called home since it opened its doors 11 years ago. Run by nonprofit Mission Housing Development Corporation, it provides affordable housing for low-income tenants like Ruiz.
But late last year, tenants there were notified that their annual rent increases, usually around $50 to $75, were ballooning this year – by the tenfold. Ruiz has been asked to pay $130 more a month, which amounts to a nearly 11 percent increase on her $1204 rent.
Mission Housing told the tenants of the Juan Pifarre Plaza Apartments that the rent increase would be effective February 2009. For some, that increase meant an additional $100 a month; for others, it was as high as $400.
Not possible, says Ruiz, who is leading the tenants as they attempt to negotiate collectively with Mission Housing. In the meantime, since the hikes went into place in February, they have refused to pay the increased rent.
“Sometimes I want to quit,” Ruiz said, but after months of struggling to lower her rent Ruiz said on Wednesday that a meeting was scheduled for Thursday in which all the parties will negotiate a settlement.
If not, she will continue to lobby because her increased rent will exceed what she receives in unemployment – $330 a week.
So the options are fight it, or move. So far the fight with Mission Housing has landed her a three-day notice to evacuate (which was later rescinded by Mission Housing) and not much else until recently when all sides began to agree to negotiations.
Mission Housing has declined to comment on this, as has the management company, Caritas Management Corporation. But other nonprofit affordable housing developers in the city have said Mission Housing’s rent hikes are considerably higher than what most developers ask.
Technically, the rent increase is legal. The Juan Pifarre Plaza Apartments are part of the state-run federal Tax Credit Program, which provides tax credits to private investors who invest in affordable housing development. Rent increases for those developments are dictated by the state and rents can rise legally to more than 30 percent of a tenant’s income.
But just because it’s legal, doesn’t mean it’s common practice, say other area nonprofit affordable housing developers.
“Most community-based nonprofit housing providers don’t try to maximize their rents, even if that means running the building at a deficit,” said Eric Quezada, director of Dolores Street Community Services. “You’re in the business to keep people in housing … That’s what the mission of organization is.”
A letter given to the residents in February by Mission Housing said essentially the same thing. “The concerns of our residents and the community are of paramount importance to Mission Housing,” the letter reads. “We have been working and will continue to work hand-in-hand with our residents to mitigate their hardships, as we are committed to preventing the loss of housing of any of our residents.”
But for resident Jose Saldana and his partner Josefina Velis, the rent hikes may mean they have to find a new place to live. Saldana, a 40-year-old immigrant from El Salvador, said that come the end of the month, he is expecting to find an eviction order unless he finds a way to pay the increased rent for May, plus the $408 he owes for the three months of increases he hasn’t paid.
“Eventually, I will have to move out,” Saldana said, because the rent is just too expensive. He makes $2,600 a month as a commercial bus driver, taking home $1,800 after taxes. His partner Josefina makes a bit more, but with two kids to feed and bills mounting, their $136 increase per month is just too much.
For tenants like Saldana, who say the rent increase means the difference between staying or trying to seek out other affordable housing in the city’s strapped market, nonprofits typically weigh the amount of burden the increase will put on the tenants, and make their decision accordingly, said Aleta Dwyer-Carpenter, the director of property management for the Chinatown Community Development Center.
On the other hand, Dwyer-Carpenter said, “But if you need it for the building, and it’s not a burden, then you take” the maximum allowed increase.
In February, the tenants, with the help of grassroots community organizer PODER, met with representatives from Mission Housing and handed them a list of seven demands. Included on the list: rescind 3-day notices to residents who refuse to pay the rent increase; freeze all rent until the tenants and management come to an agreement about whether the increases are justified; provide copies of financial forms that would help explain the need for the increases.
Also on the list is a demand for a copy of “any request from the Mayor’s Office of Housing to increase rents at Juan Pifarre Plaza.” Ruiz said that when Mission Housing told them about the increases, they said it was based on a request from the city.
“So we are asking them to show us what happened,” Ruiz said. “So far we haven’t received anything.”
Doug Shoemaker, from the Mayor’s Office of Housing, said he could not comment on the situation there.
In response to the tenants demands, Mission Housing told the tenants they would negotiate with each of the tenants individually, according to Charlie Sciammas, the community organizer from PODER who is working with the Juan Pifarre tenants. But so far many of the tenants have refused, insisting that Mission Housing negotiate with them as a group.
“The residents were really suspicious,” Sciammas said. “Because they only power they have is the fact that they’re united. They said ‘No, we’re not going to do that.’”
I don’t know all the circumstances regarding Ruiz family and housing so maybe there’s some extenuating issues but it would seem to me that 3 or 4 working people could cover $1200 in rent.
June 12,2009
I am the daughter of Yolanda Ruiz.
I am willing to speak up and say some words to Mission Housing’s. I used to work for missions housing when I was thirteen. I been protest fighting for non smoking. I walk to each apartment on my neighborhood to change our lives by not having non smoke inside the apartments or near outside play grounds. I had made differenced. If I can change something I willing to do so. My mother is a hard working person and she deserve the good thing in life GOD gave her good talents to be here. But how if mission housing taking it away from her by raise her rent, and lost her job and can not offered to pay all of her rent. Everyone in this country our having bad difficulties because the economy. That we are dealing with every single day. Please I beg you not to let us be out side the streets give us hope. My name is Sarai Ruiz and this is want I had to say about my mother struggling and if she struggle than I am too…Lets us have peace
We are living in hard times. Jobs are being lost, the economy is at its worst, the swine flew is at level 6, homes are being taken from those you just “can’t” make it with increase mortgage rates, and now rent is going up. It’s just not right, we don’t get out of a struggle by making the struggle more complicated. We must stand up and unite to speak our minds and solve it in a productive matter and not solve it by raising rent. Way to go Tia! Remeber… “Si se puede” ” Si se puede.”
As the daughter of Yolanda Ruiz, it’s an uncomfortable feeling to know that my family along with others are on the verge of becoming homeless. I wish those responsible for the rent hikes would switch lives with my mother and other residents for one day just to FEEL how we do. If the switch were permanent, man you all will go crazy!
ARRIBA YOLANDA! DALE DURO!