Angry Renters Facing Evictions Demand Action By Daly City Officials
DALY CITY (CBS SF) -- Renters on the verge of eviction crowded into a boisterous Daly City Hall meeting late Monday night as officials debated ways to offer them some kind of legal relief.
In the crowd were manual laborers, kitchen workers and ride-share drivers. Some carried eviction notices in their hands. Lawyers for the families say they have identified more than a dozen no-fault eviction notices, all from the same landlord.
Although the item was not on the agenda, they packed City Hall with the help of organizers with Faith in Action Bay Area, a faith-based group that is assisting families on the verge of eviction to urge their city council members to pass emergency legislation.
"We want the City Council to stop the landlords from evicting people without reason," said Pablo Rubio, who received an eviction notice.
Liseth Sibrian, 13, attended the council meeting with her mother and father.
"My parents are under a lot of stress and they worry about their children, mostly, their two daughters," she said.
Her father, Jorge Sibrian, an Uber driver, is the sole earner for his family of four. His eviction notice said he has to leave by next month and he says he was not told why.
According to the current laws, his landlord doesn't have to tell him.
But last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 1482, which, beginning in January, requires landlords across the state to show just cause, such as failure to pay rent, before they can evict tenants.
"In this past 30-day period since the new law passed [the legislature], we've seen a 200 percent spike in the rate of this type of eviction notice," said Shirley Gibson, an attorney with the Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County, who says there appears to be a rush of evictions before the law goes into effect.
In the case of the Campos Apartments, they did not return calls to KPIX 5 so we don't know why so many evictions are underway right now. But we should point out, they are within the letter of the law.
"There's no local or state law that says that what they're saying is illegal," said Gibson. "Is it fair? Does it violate any unfair business practice? Is it done with the intent to circumvent a new law? There may be some arguments that in and of itself is illegal."
The Daly City City Council will debate the emergency legislation which could stop new evictions at the next City Council meeting in two weeks.
