By Chris Schildt
Friends of Adeline

Renée, a Berkeley resident, was dismayed last summer when she saw the final sale price of the four-plex where she and members of her family have lived for 20 years. It wasn’t because the amount was high – it is Berkeley, after all.

She was shocked because she’d bid on the property and offered $44,000 more than the new owner paid for it. It just didn’t make sense. Then she found out why her landlord wouldn’t sell it to her.

“I didn’t want to sell to you because of [your nephew], I don’t trust him,” the landlord said.

An African American small business owner for many years, Renée was hardly unfamiliar with racist dog whistles and the stereotyping of her family members — but this one hit hard.

When the new owner took over, she started making troubling changes that threatened Renée’s ability to operate her licensed in-home daycare. With the help of the Eviction Defense Center and the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board, she and her fellow tenants have been able to halt efforts to increase the rent and other unlawful acts. But if her previous landlord had sold her the building, she never would have had to deal with this harassment.

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“I have felt discriminated against and harassed by these intimidating practices on the basis of my age, gender, race, and economic status,” said Renée. “I feel this type of intimidation is an effort to frustrate me into leaving the place my family and I have lived in for decades.”

Displacement in Berkeley’s African American community is rampant, caused by the steep decline of renters who make up two-thirds of Black households in the city. Like Renée, many have lived in their homes for decades. But even with the city’s robust rent control laws and anti-eviction protections, many find it hard to stay because outside investors buy homes and push tenants out.

This is especially true in historically African American South Berkeley, where Renée lives and where one-bedroom apartment rents have skyrocketed to $2,000 a month or more.

The Berkeley City Council is considering legislation that would help prevent the kind of displacement pressures Renée and other tenants face.

The Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) helps tenants to become first-time homeowners by giving them an opportunity to buy their homes when their landlord decides to sell. If the landlord decides not to take the tenant’s offer, TOPA gives tenants a chance to match any other offer the landlord receives. For Renée, this would have given her the chance to own her home – and for $44,000 less than she had originally offered.

Another South Berkeley resident, Jonathan (not his real name), an immigrant from Africa, has lived in his apartment for over 30 years. When the property went up for sale last year, he wasn’t concerned – he’s lived there through three different owners and has gotten along with all of them in the past. This time, however, the new owners made it clear that they wanted him gone.

He looked for other housing options in South Berkeley near his job but found nothing at the price he currently pays for his rent-controlled apartment. The Eviction Defense Center was able to help him negotiate to stay in his own apartment, but he no longer feels welcome at home and worries that his landlords might try to force him out again.

TOPA allows tenants to work with land trusts and nonprofits to help fund the purchases and designates the home as affordable housing if public subsidies are used to buy it. In San Francisco, a similar law has helped preserve over 200 units as affordable housing since it passed in 2019.

TOPA was first introduced as an ordinance in 2020 in Berkeley and was reintroduced this past fall when investor purchases and a surge in evictions renewed interest in this policy.

TOPA is supported by the Berkeley NAACP branch, Healthy Black Families, the Berkeley Black Ecumenical Ministers Alliance, the Friends of Adeline, and others. Advocates for fairness and affordable housing are urging community members to contact Berkeley City Council members and ask them to support TOPA.

For more information on TOPA and guidance on how to take action, please visit www.yes2topa.org. To get involved, please contact the Friends of Adeline at friendsofadeline@gmail.com.

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