Living under the thumb of CTCAC in California

Living under the thumb of CTCAC in California

CTCAC challenges tenant’s rights just cause eviction ordinance in Oakland, and California

By Lynda Carson - May 31, 2021

Oakland - If you reside as a low-income renter in a building that has been developed by using Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) in California, your life is being governed by a small kafkaesque committee known as the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee (CTCAC).

As an example, the CTCAC may want to invade your privacy in the near future to search and inspect your living quarters in a low-income housing development using LIHTC.

This is during a covid-19 pandemic that has killed over 550,000 loved ones across the nation.

When you are living in the poor farm in a building using LIHTC and governed by CTCAC, the CTCAC wants to know everything about you, including what race you are.

If you are under the thumb of CTCAC, you should be beware that CTCAC does not believe that you have any rights to object to anything they are doing in regards to your existence, your privacy, or your rights under a local just cause eviction protection ordinance.

As an example, CTCAC wants tenants to believe that under Oakland’s just cause eviction protection ordinance that there is not a list of reasons a landlord may evict.

In part, a recent notice of CTCAC served to tenants in Oakland by nonprofit housing developers during a recertification process to renew their contracts, it reads, “What is “good Cause” for your landlord to evict or to terminate your tenancy? There is no specific list of “good causes” to evict residents. Rather, this matter has been left to the courts to decide and define.”

In contrast, the fact remains that the City of Oakland has posted a list of 11 reasons on a website that are good cause reasons to evict renters, and the notice created by CTCAC and served to the renters by the nonprofit housing developers during the recertification process is a balled face kafkaesque lie.

That’s right. At this very moment, the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee (CTCAC) is compelling nonprofit housing developers throughout California to serve low-income renters with notices, and lease rider addendum’s from CTCAC that are designed to supersede the existence of a tenant’s contract and just cause eviction protection ordinances in Oakland, and throughout the state of California. This is occurring during the recertification process that tenants have to go through to renew their contracts with the nonprofit housing developers, and it is getting down and dirty.

Making matters worse, if the tenants sign the CTCAC GOOD CAUSE EVICTION LEASE RIDER, it means that the tenant agrees that there is not a list of just cause reasons to evict, and that the landlord may evict them if they violate any federal, state, or local law, as is stated in the lease rider. Under the 11 reasons that a landlord may evict in Oakland, under the just cause eviction protection ordinance, it does not state that a landlord may evict a tenant if the tenant allegedly violates any federal, state, or local laws.

This preposterous kafkaesque CTCAC/landlord statement stating that the tenants can be evicted for violating any federal, state, or local laws, implies that the tenant can be evicted for jaywalking, spitting on a sidewalk, face mask violations, getting a parking ticket, or speeding ticket, etc… including loitering, or littering.

Naturally, it fails to mention in the lease rider or notice that the tenant has the right to refuse to sign the CTCAC GOOD CAUSE EVICTION LEASE RIDER under the just cause eviction ordinance in Oakland, because it is a material change to the tenant’s existing contract, and the landlords are trying to hoodwink the tenants into signing this fascist crap to take their rights and protections away from them.

It is obscene that the nonprofit housing developers in Oakland are not telling the tenants that it is optional to sign the CTCAC notices and lease rider addendum during the recertification process, because they are material changes to the tenants existing contract, and that under the just cause eviction protection ordinance the tenant does not have to sign anything that materially changes the terms of their existing contract.

CTCAC and the nonprofit landlords want to have new contracts for the tenants that supersede Oakland’s just cause eviction protections in the name of protecting the tenants.

As an example, in the CTCAC GOOD CAUSE EVICTION LEASE RIDER, being served to tenants already being protected by Oakland's just cause eviction protection ordinance, it states, "The owner(s) of this property rents residential units under the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program (the “program”) administered by the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee (TCAC). Under the program, the owner has agreed to rent some or all of the units in the property to low-income households and restrict the rents for those units. Another protection provided by federal law is that Low Income Tenants may not be evicted without good cause.

The following Lease Rider is an important part of ensuring your rights to good cause for eviction."

This is the same lease rider that falsely claims that tenants can be evicted for violation of applicable Federal, State, or local laws, while stating that it is an important part of ensuring your rights to good cause for eviction.

Know Your Rights:

According to the website for Causa Justa/Just Cause in Oakland, in a section called “Know Your Rights”, in part it reads, “Rules - Sometimes landlords try to change the terms of the tenancy at the end of a month or a lease period. For example, they may want you to pay your own utilities, get rid of a pet, take responsibility for more maintenance work in the unit, or sign a year-long lease when you've always rented month-to-month before.

As long as you're covered under the Just Cause Ordinance, the landlord is not allowed to do this. So if a landlord gives you a new lease or rental agreement that is different from the old one, you can refuse to sign it without risking eviction. If you don't sign a new lease, the tenancy becomes month-to-month, and the rules stay the same as under the last lease.

Even if you don't have a written lease or agreement, the landlord still can't change the terms of tenancy. So if your landlord has always paid the water bill, he can't suddenly ask you to pay it, even if he hasn't agreed in writing to pay it.

If you are not covered under the Just Cause Ordinance and rent control, your landlord can make these kinds of changes without your agreement - but only at the end of a lease period or a month (if you don't have a long-term lease).”

Additionally, during the recertification process if the tenant does not want to state what race they are, they have the right to refuse to state what race they are.

However, during the recertification process, CTCAC is sneaking around the back of the tenants and is telling the landlords (nonprofit housing developers) to fill out a supplemental information form for a TENANT DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE, and to use codes listed on the supplemental form for Race, Ethnicity and Disability Status. This smacks of some kind of kafkaesque invasion of privacy that goes against the wishes of the tenants who refuse to state what their race is during the recertification process. Naturally, the sneaky landlords are not telling the tenants what is going on with the supplemental information forms they are providing to CTCAC.

The CTCAC then provides the personal private information of the tenants, and the “what is your race” information that the tenants refused to verify, to a third party known as Spectrum Enterprises, Inc., a private corporation that specializes in collecting HUD Tenant Data. Steve Rosenblatt is the founder and president of Spectrum Enterprises, Inc.

Spectrum Enterprises, Inc., is located in South Portland, Maine, and is incorporated with a license (Entity # C3407760) to do business in California, with a registration date as of 8/24/2011.

Voting members of the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee (CTCAC), and the people behind the organized attacks on the just cause eviction protection rights of tenants include Fiona Ma, Betty T. Ye, Keely Martin Bosler, Donald Cavier, and Gustavo F. Velasquez.

Lynda Carson may be reached at newzland2 [at] gmail.com

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