(Sept. 26, 2016, 9:00 a.m.) -- Timed coincide with a National Renters' Day of Action, Long Beach Residents Empowered (LiBRE) led a bus tour for about 40 people, on Thursday, Sept. 22 through local neighborhoods to illustrate what it views as a "housing crisis" of affordability, caused by gentrification.
At the office of the Uptown Business District in North Long Beach, before the tour began, Vice Mayor Rex Richardson, who represents the 9th City Council District, greeted the participants. [Scroll down for further.] |
Richardson in part said, "We know that you folks will hold us accountable and we're going to work hard that we think about planning, we think about affordable housing, we think about renters' rights...We want to protect affordable housing stock and we want to make sure renters have access, you know, to protections so that you don't have to live in a slum, you don't have to live in substandard housing."
2nd District Councilwoman Jeannine Pierce also attended and thanked the participants for pushing forward the discussion on affordable housing. LiBRE describes itself on its Facebook page as "a grassroots organizing group advancing justice in disadvantaged communities through creation and preservation of affordable housing, renter protections, and community economic development."
Before the passengers boarded the bus, John Kindred and Agnes Boochie told their personal stories, where they each say they suffered from retaliatory evictions from rental property owners from their perspectives.
Between the stories of Kindred and Boochie, Neil Richman stated a few statistics, which originally came from the city, to illustrate the crisis from the perspective of the poor. He said four out of five of the city's very low-income households experienced one or more housing problems, such as cost burden, overcrowding, or substandard housing conditions, and two out of five seniors spend more than 50 percent of their income for rent, while one in four small and large families spend more than 50 percent of their income for rent.
One passenger who boarded the bus was another LiBRE activist, Tom Crowe, who retired three years ago from teaching social work at Cal State Long Beach and owns a home near Cherry Ave. and Broadway. Crowe said over the years he has become increasingly concerned about rental affordability from observing his students trying to obtain housing, "but especially in the last couple of years with the enormous rent increases." Later on the bus, he gave the passengers a brief history of racism in Long Beach. In Lincoln Park, Darren Taylor, a teacher and another LiBRE activist, after telling his personal story, read the four demands of the National Renters' Day of Action, which were a national rent freeze, a national livable wage and a livable wage for all people; a freeze on all unjust evictions; community control over land and housing in our communities; the right of all tenants to organize and bargain collectively with landlords without fear of discrimination, retaliation or eviction.
Jorge Rivera, who is LiBRE's community organizer, said he is unpaid, like all of the LiBRE's volunteers. Now LiBRE is not receiving any grant money, but LiBRE may apply for future grants. He said the bus that transported the bus riders was paid for through donations, by leveraging his personal and professional relationships.
Regarding LiBRE's local demands, Rivera said they have not been completely worked out yet but expected clarity in a couple of months. Then near the end of the day's program at the Village, Rivera said, "Let's work with what we got now, which are renters that are scared. They need protection and a city code enforcement department that isn't doing the job it's supposed to be doing."
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