OCCUPY AND DEFEND OUR HOMES!

Formed during 2011, Hands Off Our Homes continues to promote the ideas put forth throughout the Occupy movement that we can defend ourselves and our neighbors against illegal and inhumane foreclosure actions.
The trigger for the current economic depression was, officially, the 2008 Mortgage meltdown, whose epicenter is in Vallejo and northern Contra Costa County [link].

Justice for Sabrina Carter's family! (2014-04) [link]

Examples of Foreclosure and Tenent Defense during the Occupy! movement of 2011 and 2012:

GG Home Defended by Occupy Oakland Foreclosure Defense Group
[http://northbayuprising.blogspot.com/2013/03/gg-home-defended-by-occupy-oakland.html]

"Home Defenders’ Barbecue Report" [http://northbayuprising.blogspot.com/2013/03/gg-home-defended-by-occupy-oakland.html]:
The skies were cloudy, the temperature was perfect, and on Day 118 of the defense of Jodie Randolph’s home, many of the home defenders gathered to pat ourselves on the back, eat good food, and catch up with each other. The first batch of our stylin’ t-shirts was distributed to volunteers.
You can see some of the shirts (clenched fist under a roof) in this picture.
Jodie is deep in negotiation with Morgan Stanley and we’ve got her back! We’re looking forward to a victory party not too long from now.


It's Time to Keep Families in their Homes!
It's time that Big Banks work with families and pay to rebuild our communities:
* Agree to across-the-board reductions in payments on the principal loans
* Commit to rebuilding our communities by funding public education and vital public services
* Put families in foreclosures back in their homes
Take the Pledge to Defend our Communities, Homes and Families!
Call [877-633-9251] or email [oohousingnetwork@gmail.com]
Help Defend Gayla Newsome RECLAIM Her Home by calling:
* Martin Goodman, President of Residential Mortgage Income Fund: [858-752-6150]
SUGGESTED SCRIPT: "Hello, I am calling for Martin Goodman. I am calling on behalf of homeowner Gayla Newsome. She wants to stay in her home. Your company wrongfully foreclosed on Gayla and you need to recognize her right to stay in the house that's hers. Thank you."
* Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase Bank (who made $20.8 million  in 2010).
Call him NOW! [212-270-0121]
Chase's failure to work with Gayla helped lead her into Foreclosure.
SUGGESTED SCRIPT: "Hello, I am calling to leave a message for Jamie Dimon. I am calling on behalf of homeowner Gayla Newsome. She wants to stay in her home and I am calling you up to ask that you do the right thing and give her a loan modification with a principal writedown. Thank you."





2013-02-24 "‘Banking on Vacancy’ study reveals homelessness amidst abundant housing"
by Caleb T. Maupin [http://www.workers.org/foreclosures/homelessness_0301/index.html]:
Picture The Homeless recently performed a great service to the people of New York City, the United States and the world. PTH describes itself as an organization “founded and led by homeless people” that opposes the “quality of life laws” that “criminalize homeless people.” PTH aims to “change these laws and policies as well as to challenge the root causes of homelessness.”
PTH, along with Hunter College, recently conducted a study called “Banking on Vacancy” that sent 295 volunteers to walk the streets of 20 of New York City’s 59 community districts to investigate the housing situation. They discovered that there were approximately 3,500 vacant residential buildings and about 2,400 vacant lots in those districts.
Researchers estimate the vacant buildings could house 70,000 people, while the lots could house more than 120,000 people if buildings were constructed.
The study shows that the 40,000 people in New York City’s shelter system, a number that has doubled since 2002, no longer have any rational reason to be homeless or to endure poor conditions in overcrowded shelters. A rational system could easily provide a decent home.
While the report concentrates on the findings, it also makes a strong argument that the rule of private property is an obstacle to a rational solution to the housing problem.
The report points out that often apartments are kept vacant for years and years so that real estate developers can remove a building from rent controls. PTH calls this “banking on homelessness.” It makes a proposal to restrict the amount of time a landlord can keep a property vacant — up to three years, which is modest but still challenges private property and its owners. It also asks that the city do its own study of similar conditions throughout the entire city.
The report also argues that a construction program for empty lots would provide jobs for many workers, while resolving the housing crisis for many others, if it were combined with a program to provide affordable housing to low-income New Yorkers. PTH’s position is that the high cost of funding shelters would be much better spent subsidizing rent for currently homeless people and providing housing space.
This study illustrates the words of the labor anthem, “Solidarity Forever”: “We stand outcast and starving midst the wonders we have made.”
The current global capitalist meltdown was touched off in 2008 when the housing bubble burst. This “burst” did not occur due to any shortage of living space. Millions of construction workers, bricklayers, architects, engineers, electricians and other workers sweated hard and long to create countless private homes, apartment buildings, condominiums and other decent places of residence.
Yet, despite all this abundance, homelessness continues, and many housing units made by collective human labor remain vacant. They remain vacant because under capitalism housing is not provided because people need it. Housing is only useful if profits — in this example, very high profits — can be made.
This very important report will force many to rethink the “free market” that people in the U.S. have been taught to worship.
In the modern age of “We are the 99%,” this study conducted by PTH and Hunter College sheds light on the real problem. The fact that the basis of homelessness is that housing, production and all economic activity is conducted, not for human need, but to make profits.
To read a copy of the complete report, “Banking on Vacancy,” visit the PTH site at [picturethehomeless.org].

"Indicted for bank fraud, landlord Scott Safadi is evicting many renters in Burlingame"

(2015-09-22, by Lynda Carson) [tenantsrule@) yahoo.com] [http://is.gd/gAxKPI]:
Also see "Scott Safadi" biography (archived 2015-09-23, wikiland.net) [archive.is/yZMW1]

Landlord, Scott Ghais Safadi, who made the news this week for evicting renters from their housing at an 18 unit apartment building at 1111 Douglas Avenue, in Burlingame, is scheduled for a conference in court for bank fraud, on September 28 at 1:30pm, Courtroom 4, 5th Floor, 280 South First Street, San Jose. Case number 5:12-cr-00465-EJD-2 - USA v. Scott.  Click here [http://is.gd/nIgPAe].
Scott Ghais Safadi is scheduled to appear in court on September 28 with his uncle Muhammad Oussama Safadi, and Raquel Ramirez. All three were indicted on June 13, 2012, for bank fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, making false statements to a bank, and aiding and abetting, according to Melinda Haag, United States Attorney.
In addition to being indicted for bank fraud and other crimes, Cal Bay Property Management’s president Scott Safadi, is in the news this week for displacing many long-term, low-income residents, at 1111 Douglas Avenue, an 18 unit rental apartment in Burlingame.
According to Manta, Cal Bay Property Management is a privately held company in Paolo Alto, with Scott Safadi as the principal. However, there is not a corporation listing for Cal Bay Property Management presently listed with the Secretary of State in California. Scott Safadi resides in Saratoga, California, with his family. See Scott Safadi Property Management website (archived 2015-09-23) [http://is.gd/uOG4ih].
A search of records with the Secretary of State for Scott Safadi Property Management, does not turn up any records, in addition to the search that did not turn up any records for a corporation named Cal Bay Property Management, in California.
Additionally, according to Trulia, the 18 unit, 18,189 sq.ft apartment building that so many are facing eviction at by Scott Safadi, was built in 1969, and was sold for $6,600,000 on August 13, 2015.
The renters have faced displacement since the building was recently acquired. The displacement scheme involving massive rent increases and no-cause evictions/terminations, is taking place under the guise of building renovations, and some of the tenants have connected with Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto for legal advice, according to The Daily Journal.
“This case is a textbook example of how unfettered real estate speculation is tearing apart our communities,” said Daniel Saver, a housing attorney with the agency. “Within mere weeks of completing the sale, the new management issued mass eviction and rent increase notices. This reflects a business model that is predicated upon displacing working families. There are a lot of good landlords out there, but increasingly we see speculators like these who callously seek to maximize profits at the expense of people,” reported in The Daily Journal.
Now that many renters are facing displacement and homelessness at this location because of greed, and a lack of renter protections in Burlingame, it may be possible that some of the tenants are wishing that Scott Safadi was already in prison for being indicted for bank fraud, and other crimes. Crimes that include penalties including a maximum imprisonment of 30 years, if convicted.
It is possible that if Scott Safadi was in prison already, his company Cal Bay Property Management, may not have been in existence to take control of the occupied apartment building in Burlingame, where so many renters are now being displaced from their long-time housing.
According to reports, some of the renters are seniors, seven tenants have already officially received no-cause terminations from Scott Safadi, plus two others have moved out, and the remainder have had their rents increase significantly.
But the real tragic plight of so many people being displaced and threatened with homelessness, is that the renters in Burlingame do not have renter protections because Burlingame has an anti-rent control ordinance on it’s books as the law of the land. An unfair law that Cindy Cornell of Burlingame Advocates for Renter Protections wants to see overturned.

The Scheme To Defraud Financial Institutions And Low-Income Home Buyers -
As noted above, Scott Ghais Safadi is scheduled to appear in court on September 28 with his uncle Muhammad Oussama Safadi, and Raquel Ramirez, because they were allegedly involved in a housing construction property scheme resulting in a $5,560,050 loss to IndyMac Bank, Fremont Investment Loan, and National City Bank of Indiana. Loans were also financed through Green Point Mortage.
According to the indictment, the Safadis' obtained proceeds from the bank fraud scheme for the construction and sale involving 14 homes, which allowed them to defraud in an amount of $4,570,928. The name of the 14 home subdivision was Rancho Amistoso LLC, in Salinas, California.
Additionally, the scheme to defraud primarily involved low-income home buyers being solicited to purchase single family homes priced in excess of $650,000.
The conspirators knew that for twelve of the fourteen homes being sold that the borrowers they solicited had insufficient incomes and assets to qualify for the mortgages needed to buy the properties being offered.
As part of the scheme to defraud the banks, lending institutions, and home buyers, the Safadi’s referred prospective low-income clients to Raquel Ramirez, being assured that Ramirez, and her employees at Mission Home Realty, were willing to falsely inflate and misrepresent the borrower’s income, assets, and employment information so as to enable the borrower to qualify for the loans needed to buy a Rancho Amistoso property.
According to the indictment, Ramirez agreed to accept a sales commission of 2% and more per transaction, and agreed to do what was necessary to close the sales, in addition to falsify the buyer’s loan applications. Ramirez was assisted by her employees at Mission Homes Realty who served as loan processors, and obtained and submitted the false documents to the financial institutions in support of the loan applications at the direction of Ramirez, and the Safadis.
As an inducement for the unqualified buyers to agree to the loan, some of the buyers were offered a $26,000 rebate that would be paid to the buyers when the deal was closed.
In short, many of the homes later ended up in foreclosure and were sold at a loss costing millions to the financial institutions involved in the scheme.
According to public records with the Secretary of State, the status of Mission Homes Realty and Financial Services is suspended, involving Raquel Ramirez as agent for service of process.
Additionally, according to other public records, the broker license of Raquel Ramirez (License ID: 01368418), of Mission Homes Realty, is expired.
Despite being indicted for his alleged activities, and facing 30 years imprisonment, including a maximum fine of $1,000,000, Scott Safadi is still actively involved in another property scheme that is presently displacing many long-term renters, at an 18 unit apartment building, in Burlingame.
Scott Ghais Safadi is scheduled to appear in court for bank fraud on September 28 with his uncle Muhammad Oussama Safadi, and Raquel Ramirez.
Click here for indictment case involving Scott Ghais Safadi, his uncle Muhammad Oussama Safadi, and Raquel Ramirez (.pdf) [http://is.gd/MjkDeq].

Scott Safadi does not have a real estate license -
As an after thought, I should have mentioned that the records with the Department of Real Estate (DRE) in California reveal that Scott Safadi does not have a real estate or brokers license to operate in California as a property manager.
So, in addition to the public records revealing that Cal Bay Property Management is not listed as a corporation in California, and other records exist revealing that Scott Safadi does not have a real estate license/brokers license, one has to question if Scott Safadi is legally operating a property management company, while evicting so many people at 1111 Douglas Avenue, in Burlingame.

(Reader's comment) Cal Bay Property Management is a fictitious business name -
"Cal Bay Property Management" is registered as a fictitious business name in Santa Clara County, for "West Coast Property Development, Inc.", and West Coast Property Development, Inc., is a corporation for which Scott Saladi is agent for service of process.

"Greedy nonprofit housing developers have minimum income requirements"

by Lynda Carson ( tenantsrule [at] yahoo.com )
posted 2014-08-21 [https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2014/08/21/18760485.php]:
Oakland - Greedy nonprofit housing developers in Oakland and the Bay Area continue to have minimum income requirements at their so-called affordable housing projects that discriminate against the poor, and create homelessness as a result.
As an example, at the Avalon Senior Housing project located at 3850 San Pablo in Oakland, the East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation (EBALDC) demands that people seeking housing at this project must have a minimum income of at least twice the rent. Presently studio apartments are going for $600.00 a month at this project, one bedroom apartments are going for as high as $712.00 per month, and two bedroom apartments are going for $845.00.
The average monthly social security check for a single retired worker is currently $1,294.00, which means that the average retired person on social security cannot afford to reside in a one bedroom or two bedroom apartment at the Avalon Senior Housing project, and can barely afford to reside in a studio apartment at this location. Many retired workers earn much less than $1,294.00 per month as social security income, and the poor people face discrimination at many so-called affordable housing projects in Oakland, and throughout the Bay Area.
Presently, the average Social Security monthly benefit in California during 2014 is $1,294 per month. The average SSI (disability) benefit payment is $877.40 per month. The average TANF (CalWorks) family in California is an adult with two children that receives $510 a month in benefits. General Assistance in California during 2014 pays $336 per month to a single person. Food Stamps (CalFresh/SNAP) for one person is $189 per month, and persons receiving SSI/SSP are not allowed in the program.

At the Erna P. Harris Court in Berkeley owned by Resources for Community Development (RCD) they are demanding that tenants earn a minimum of $5,700 per year to be able to reside in an SRO unit, and must earn at least $9,495 per year to reside in a one bedroom apartment at this so-called taxpayer affordable housing project.

Residents at the Fargo Senior Center in San Leandro, owned by Christian Church Homes of Northern California (CCH), are required to earn as much as twice the rent at this so-called affordable housing project. Studio apartments go for as much as $491-$818 per month, and one bedroom apartments cost $526-$876 per month, leaving many poor social security recipients out in the cold because they do not meet the minimum income requirements at this taxpayer subsidized housing project.

At the Fremont Oak Gardens owned by SAHA Homes, another so-called affordable housing developer, poor people face discrimination at this location if they fail to meet the minimum income requirement of $10,994 per year at this so-called affordable housing development for seniors 55, and older.

The Harrison Hotel, downtown Oakland that has 81 SRO units in the building, requires that poor people earn as much as twice the rent, and the rent at this location is $375 per month.

Helios Corner owned by SAHA Homes in Berkeley, has 80 senior and special needs units, but demands that poor people must earn $17,304 per year to reside in a studio apartment, $18,456 to live in a one bedroom unit, and a whopping $22,080 to reside in a two bedroom unit in this so-called affordable taxpayer subsidized housing project.

The project called Homes Now In The Community owned by SAHA Homes in Oakland, has ten special needs apartments for rent, but demands that the low-income tenants in the area must earn as much as 30% of the local AMI to reside there.

Merritt Crossing Senior Apartments in Oakland, which is also owned by SAHA Homes, is a 70 unit project for seniors. Poor people face discrimination at this so-called affordable housing taxpayer subsidized project if they do not earn as much as $11,328 per year to live in a studio apartment, or as much as $18,408 per year to live in a one bedroom apartment.

Northgate Terrace for seniors in Oakland, owned by Christian Church Homes of Northern California (CCH) requires that the poor elderly people seeking housing at this taxpayer subsidized housing project must earn as much as $1,450 per month, which is way more than the average person receiving social security earns each month.

The Peter Babcock House in Berkeley owned by SAHA Homes, is a special needs project with five SRO units, and demands that poor people must earn as much as $7,320 per year to reside in this taxpayer subsidized so-called affordable housing project.

At the Ellis St. Apartments in San Francisco owned by Asian Inc., another so-called affordable housing developer, is a project with thirty units of studio and one bedroom apartments, and the minimum income requirement is $1,400 per month, which discriminates against the average person receiving social security payments of $1,294 per month.

The Bayanihan House in San Francisco owned by TODCO, has 152 SRO units with shared bathrooms, and charges $545 per month in rent, but they have a minimum income requirement of $866.40 per month which leaves many out in the cold as a result.

Coleridge Park Homes for seniors in San Francisco owned by Bridge Housing, has a minimum income requirement of $17,616 per year for some, and as much as $26,808 per year for others at this taxpayer subsidized housing project.

The Knox SRO building in San Francisco owned by TODCO, has 18 SRO units, and they have a minimum income requirement of $866.40 at this taxpayer subsidized so-called affordable housing project.

The William Penn Hotel in San Francisco owned by China Town CDC, has 96 SRO units, and the minimum income requirement is 1.5 times the rent. The rent is $460-$541 per month at this taxpayer subsidized so-called affordable housing project, leaving many poor people left out in the cold.

Salaries & Wage Compensation of Executives in the Local Affordable Housing Industry

Meanwhile, many executives in the so-called nonprofit housing industry are raking in some hefty salaries and wage compensation at the same time they discriminate against the poor with their minimum income requirements.

The latest annual salaries and compensation figures from Bridge Housing for their top executives from 01/01/2012 and ending 12/31/2012: Cynthia Parker - $491,797. Rebecca Hlebasko - $303,122. Susan Johnson - $287,592. D Valentine - $286,960. Kimberly A. McKay - $282,727. Tom Early - $263,437. Brad Wilbin - $241,524. Phillip Williams - $199,571. Corinne Morrison - $193,734. Tom Casey - $188,991. James Valva - $185,685. Jeff Williams - $173,369. Mari Hikida - $172,732. Rebecca Clarke - $152,219.

EAH Inc.; In 2012, more than 11 executives at EAH Inc., earned well over $100,000 per year, including 2 people raking in well over $200,000 a year. Leading the pack, Mary Murtagh, President, was paid $298,850 in 2012. Laura Hall, Chief Operating Officer, was paid $208,286. Cathy Macy, CFO, was paid $186,709. Stephen Lucas, VP Acquisitions, was paid $182,991. Dianna Ingle, VP Re MGMT, was paid $163,324.

Affordable Housing Associates; In 2010, Susan Friedland, Executive Director of Affordable Housing Associates, was paid $133,731, but was payed $152,966 in 2012, a huge wage compensation increase of $19,235 during a period of massive budget cuts to the nation's housing programs during that same period.

Christian Church Homes: In 2011, Don Stump, President/CEO, was compensated $181,874. Cynthia Lappin, VP Operations & COO, was paid $157,295. Winthrop Marshall, VP Finance & CFO, was paid $151,687. Leilani Siegfried, VP Human Services, was paid $138,810. Geoffrey Morgan, VP Development, was paid $130,948. Sheryl Stella, Controller, was paid $123,832.

Eden Housing; In 2011, Linda Mandolini, Executive Director, was paid $188,834. Jan Peters, Chief Operating Officer, was paid $187,538. Terese Mcnamee, CFO, was paid $175,804.

Satellite Housing; In 2011, Ryan Chao, Executive Director, Satellite Housing was paid $175,321. Dori Kojima, was paid $105,179. Miriam Benavides was paid $100,093.

East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation; During 2011, Jeremy Liu, Executive Director, was paid $125,217. Peter Sopka, CFO, was paid $125,101. Mary Hennessy, COO, was paid $110,126. Carlos Castallenos, Director of Real Estate Development, was paid $103,329. Records also show that in 2009, former Executive Director of EBALDC, Lynette Jung Lee, earned as much $140,536 that year, including an additional $5,942 in other compensation. Joshua Simon is the current Executive Director, of EBALDC.

Resources for Community Development; In 2011, Dan Sawislak, Executive Director, of received a total compensation of $127,330.

"Affordable housing industry targets public housing for termination with RAD program"

2014-06-14 by Lynda Carson ( tenantsrule [at] yahoo.com ) [https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2014/06/14/18757407.php?show_comments=1#comments]:
A plethora of poverty pimps from the so-called nonprofit affordable housing industry are targeting our nation's 1.5 million public housing units for takeover and exploitation through the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program, and they are moving quickly to grab as many public housing units as is possible.
Known as the "affordable housing mafia" by poor people who find that they cannot afford to reside in so-called affordable housing projects, most so-called nonprofit housing developers have minimum income requirements that discriminate against the poor.
After starving our nation's public housing program for many years with a lack of adequate funding, Congress has allowed 60,000 public housing units to be privatized and sold under the new RAD program recently. However, applications seeking commitments to privatize 180,000 public housing units have been offered by members of the so-called affordable housing industry from all across the nation.
The poverty pimps have done their best to lobby and oil the wheels of Congress with their campaign contributions to allow them to grab more public housing units than is currently allowed, and recently Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) offered an amendment to lift the RAD cap to 250,000 units, and extend the program for an additional year. The amendment was shot down when the FY15 HUD funding bill was passed by the House Appropriations Committee on May 21, 2014.
Major so-called affordable housing developers including Bridge Housing, Related Companies, The Community Builders Inc., Mercy Housing California, the John Stewart Company and others are all jumping on the band wagon to take advantage of the funding shortfalls that have plagued our public housing communities through the years, and they are grabbing as many public housing units that they can get their greedy hands on.
In San Francisco, the scheme to privatize 3,491 public housing units through the RAD program is currently underway involving a number of so-called nonprofit housing developers including the Tabernacle Community Development Corporation, Mission Economic Development Agency, Bridge Housing, Mercy Housing California, John Stewart Company, Japanese American Religious Federation, Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation, Community Housing Partnership, Bethel A.M.E., San Francisco Housing Development Corporation, Ridgepoint Non-Profit Corporation, Community Housing Partnership, Glide Community Housing, Bernal Heights Housing Corporation, Bridge Housing Corporation, Chinatown Community Development Center, and the for profit housing developer Related California, owned by out-of-state billionaire's Jorge M. Perez and Stephen M. Ross.
In a recent article by Multi Housing News, Cynthia Parker, CEO, of Bridge Housing is all pumped up and excited because Bridge Housing was recently awarded 700 public housing units in San Francisco to rehabilitate, manage, and exploit through the RAD program. Parker said, "The Rental Assistance Program is a HUD program, where a housing authority applies to convert their public housing into a more privatized model. In that model, there is more of a Section 8 rental assistance contract that goes with it, which helps support debts, along with other subsidy sources. In this case we'll be receiving those from the City of San Francisco. There are also tax credits. You move the public housing into a RAD program with newly recapitalized buildings."
Like many other poverty pimps all across the nation among the affordable housing industry, Bridge Housing believes that it can make a hefty profit by grabbing as many of San Francisco's public housing units from the poor as is possible, for maximum exploitation. The public housing takeover will help to increase the salaries and compensation of the already overpaid top executives in the organization. Having developed more than 14,000 rental units/homes since 1983 that are worth an estimated value of more than $3 billion, Bridge Housing aims to double it's portfolio by 2017, according to Parker.
The latest annual salaries and compensation figures from Bridge Housing for their top executives from 01/01/2012 and ending 12/31/2012: Cynthia Parker - $491,797. Rebecca Hlebasko - $303,122. Susan Johnson - $287,592. D Valentine - $286,960. Kimberly A. McKay - $282,727. Tom Early - $263,437. Brad Wilbin - $241,524. Phillip Williams - $199,571. Corinne Morrison - $193,734. Tom Casey - $188,991. James Valva - $185,685. Jeff Williams - $173,369. Mari Hikida - $172,732. Rebecca Clarke - $152,219.
The RAD model that Parker praises that privatizes our public housing, places our public housing units at risk of foreclosure, increases the loss of public housing units for the poor, displaces the poor from their housing, and creates significant rent increases per unit to pay off the costs of rehabilitation, loans, and debt. Additionally, the RAD program in San Francisco threatens 200 public housing employees with the loss of their jobs.

Corruption in the launching of the RAD program -
Patrick Costigan who was on loan to HUD from a so-called nonprofit housing organization called "The Community Builders Inc." (TCB), was on leave since January 2011 through part of 2014 from TCB. While he was with HUD as a senior advisor to Secretary Shaun Donovan, Costigan led the launch of the Rental Assistance Demonstration Program (RAD) for HUD, that threatens to displace tens of thousands of public housing residents all across the nation from their housing. Costigan is presently back with TCB after three years with HUD. TCB is a major developer of so-called mixed income housing projects and Costigan has recently been named the Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives for the company, after his three year stint with HUD. TCB owns or manages 10,000 apartments in 14 states, including Washington, D.C., according to reports. TCB has also been involved in numerous Hope VI Projects that have displaced many poor families from their long-time public housing communities.
According to TCB: "TCB's property management portfolio consists of 103 properties ranging in size from 6 units to communities of over 600 units. It includes properties with subsidy sources and funding via HOPE VI, Section 8, Section 236, LIHTC, Section 202/811, Section 221(d)(3) programs and provides almost 8,000 households with attractive, safe, and affordable rental housing."
Costigan was on loan to HUD as a senior advisor to HUD Secretary Donovan through an Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA) agreement that allowed HUD to enter an agreement with Costigan's employer TCB, and cost-sharing arrangements for the IPA were negotiated between the participating organizations.
In his role as a senior advisor to HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, Costigan was the man who led the launch of the RAD program for HUD that may result in the further enrichment of TCB, it's top executive salaries, and their housing portfolio in 14 states, including Washington D.C.
Additionally, documentation in a May 30, 2014 Memorandum from the Office of Inspector General (OIG) claims that HUD "incorrectly" used funding to pay the salary and benefits to the former senior advisor to HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan.
According to the May 30, 2014 "OIG" Memorandum, HUD reimbursed TCB for the senior advisor's services to the HUD Secretary from the Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH) including the Office of Housing, to pay $622,369 in salary and benefits. However, due to a federal 2011 spending law, for the sake of transparency Congress directed HUD to pay all senior and special advisors to the HUD Secretary from the Office of the Secretary's budget. Additionally, $2,365 in funds was overpaid by HUD, according to the memo.
The OIG memo claims that HUD "may" have violated the Antideficiency Act (ADA) by paying TCB from the wrong coffers. In the memo it states, "according to a July 26, 2010 House of Representatives report, ''...all senior advisors to the Secretary should be funded directly through the Office of the Secretary. In addition, a HUD appropriations attorney wrote in a January 13, 2011, email that a special advisor to the Office of the Secretary would need to be paid by that office and not another office within HUD."
HUD failed to follow the direction given to it in the House report including the guidance provided by it's own appropriations attorney, and instead had reimbursed TCB for the senior advisor's services from the wrong coffers, namely PIH and the Office of Housing funds. As a direct result, HUD "may" have violated the Antideficiency Act (ADA).
Records also show that HUD payed TCB around $205,000 a year whle Costigan was on loan to HUD as a senior advisor to HUD Secretary Donovan for 3 years. However, the latest tax 990 filing records filed by TCB reveal that Costigan was actually paid $177,500 by TCB, including other compensation of $23,182.
The latest annual salaries and compensation figures from The Community Builders (TCB) top executives beginning 10/01/2011 and ending 09/30/2012: Patrick E. Clancy - $334,616 plus $$26,563. Bartholomew J Mitchell III - $310,000 plus $7,031. Mick Vergura $241,200 plus $29,637. Beverly J Bates - $241,900 plus $9,100. Willie M Jones - $241,900 plus $15,959. Karen Kelleher - $212,700 plus $21,524. Daniel Lorraine - $207,700 plus $18,046. Homayoun Sarabi - $196,266 plus $11,433. Robert Fossi - $189,127 plus $14,451. Jan Brodie - $187,626 plus $21,552. Terri Hamilton Brown - $179,220. James F Rushford - $121,968 plus $2,158.
Records also reveal that The Community Builders Inc., made $60,0000 in political contributions in 1998, $80,000 in contributions during 1999, $40,000 in contributions in 2001, and $140,000 in 2002.
Additional records reveal that in 2008 Patrick M. Costigan made a political contribution of $1,950, including $850 during the presidential election, plus $3,500 during 2012, including $500 to Dnc Services Corporation.
It was reported on June 11, 2014 that 60 public housing residents and union workers in the City of Baltimore held a protest against the plan to privatize and sell thousands of Baltimore's public housing units to some private housing developers. According to reports, the protesters are afraid that the plan would lead to displaced residents, lost jobs, and less available public housing for the poor. The city plans to privatize more than 4,000 public housing units out of 11,000 public housing units.
According to reports protesters yelled, "Housing is a human right," and held signs reading "Rethink RAD." Sharon Jones, president of the tenant's council at Bel-Park Tower, said the plan is "their way of bullying us out of housing." The protesters are very concerned that developers would one day raise the rents, pricing them out of their housing.
In an article recently published with the San Franciso Bay View, it reported on a number of public housing residents that are concerned about the RAD program who appeared at a May 28 meeting at the Bayview Library. Additionally, members of Poor Magazine have been holding their own truth and informational meetings across San Francisco to inform public housing residents that RAD is the latest removal program of poor people from their neighborhoods.
Meanwhile the promoters of the RAD program including Patrick M. Cositgan of TCB who was a senior advisor to HUD Secretary Donovan, Ben Metcalf a senior advisor to the Acting Assistant Secretary for Housing/FHA Commissioner for Multi Family Housing for HUD, and Kathleen Foster who is a RAD contractor for the Federal Practice Group, have held webinars to promote the privatization and selling of our nation's 1.5 million public housing units owned by 3,100 Public Housing Authorities across the nation.
In his push to destroy our nation's public housing program, Patrick M. Costigan has been trying to convince Congress and HUD officials that privatized mixed income housing developments are an antidote to urban poverty, and Costigan believes that poor people should not live together in public housing projects.
In a 10 page comment (rant) by Costigan in regards to whether or not mixed income housing is an antidote to poverty, Costigan writes; "Researchers know and much of the public knows that a large concentration of public and assisted housing in any urban neighborhood does not lead to good outcomes for families, the surrounding neighborhood, or even large parts of cities. It is no surprise then that community after community in cities and suburbs alike - and a large number of advocates for the poor continue to oppose the development of projects that offer only low-income housing."
Despite the ridiculous comments made by Patrick Costigan, I have not yet heard any poor people complain about the federal government building low-income housing for the poor. In fact, I often hear from poor people who complain that the federal government does not build enough low-income housing for the poor, elderly and disabled.
The mantra currently being used by Patrick Costigan and countless other poverty pimps all across the nation is that poor people should not be living together. This is their excuse to push for the privatization of our 1.5 million public housing units, so that the poverty pimps can grab our nation's public housing units from the poor, while raking in tens of billions of dollars in profits, in the process.
Corruption in the RAD program? Carol Galante former CEO of Bridge Housing joins HUD, then helps to initiate the RAD program since joining HUD. Ben Metcalf, also from Bridge Housing joins HUD and promotes the RAD program. And magically, coincidentally, or just thanks to plain old dumb luck, recently Bridge Housing was awarded 700 public housing units in San Francisco as part of the RAD program thanks to the efforts of Carol Galante and Ben Metcalf, formerly of Bridge Housing.
Is this just plain old dumb luck, or corruption in the RAD program?
That is up for you to decide.

Carol Galante & Ben Metcalf, formerly of Bridge Housing -
Carol Galante former CEO of Bridge Housing joined HUD in 2009, and played an important key role in Administration initiatives, including Choice Neighborhoods, the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) and other interagency alignment efforts. Click here [http://tinyurl.com/6nwctu6]
In January 2010, through a special program under which he remained a BRIDGE employee, Ben was assigned to serve as Senior Advisor to then Deputy Assistant Secretary for Multifamily Housing Programs Carol Galante (former BRIDGE President & CEO and current Federal Housing Administration Commissioner and Assistant Secretary for Housing at HUD).
Bridge News: SAN FRANCISCO, CA, August 5, 2013—Ben Metcalf, a former Project Manager for BRIDGE Housing, has been appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary for Multifamily Housing Programs at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), effective August 5. Click here [http://tinyurl.com/nrzbgh2]
The promoters of the RAD program including Patrick M. Cositgan of TCB who was a senior advisor to HUD Secretary Donovan, Ben Metcalf (formerly of Bridge Housing) a senior advisor to the Acting Assistant Secretary for Housing/FHA Commissioner for Multi Family Housing for HUD, and Kathleen Foster who is a RAD contractor for the Federal Practice Group, have held webinars to promote the privatization and selling of our nation's 1.5 million public housing units owned by 3,100 Public Housing Authorities across the nation.
Click here [http://tinyurl.com/ntdqclm]
In a recent article by Multi Housing News, Cynthia Parker, CEO, of Bridge Housing is all pumped up and excited because Bridge Housing was recently awarded 700 public housing units in San Francisco to rehabilitate, manage, and exploit through the RAD program. Parker said, "The Rental Assistance Program is a HUD program, where a housing authority applies to convert their public housing into a more privatized model. In that model, there is more of a Section 8 rental assistance contract that goes with it, which helps support debts, along with other subsidy sources. In this case we'll be receiving those from the City of San Francisco. There are also tax credits. You move the public housing into a RAD program with newly recapitalized buildings."  Click here [http://tinyurl.com/kdf5ohk]

Landlords of San Francisco eagerly evicting elderly and disabled tenants

"Section 8 evictions in S.F. hit home"
2014-05-13 by Heather Knight from "San Francisco Chronicle" [http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Section-8-evictions-in-S-F-hit-home-5472656.php]:
Roman Shatsov, 84, sat at the grand piano in his apartment in San Francisco's Outer Richmond neighborhood. The onetime professional singer's deep, booming voice filled the living room as he sang a song in Russian about how he'd met his love many years ago and knows she's still the one.
His wife, Faina Burovaya, 82, sat on the couch, her cheeks blushing and her eyes twinkling. Struggling with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, she is frequently confused - but the familiarity of being in her longtime apartment provides comfort.
That connection could soon be lost as the elderly couple are fighting eviction. Their pro-bono lawyer says their landlord is trying to get low-income Section 8 voucher holders out and new tenants able to pay today's mind-boggling market rates in.
Shatsov and Burovaya, along with three other Section 8 households in the same building on Geary Boulevard, received an eviction notice last month giving them 90 days to move out.
The complex was built after 1979, so rent control doesn't apply, and landlords who house Section 8 tenants can evict them for "business or economic reasons." Now, the elderly couple, like an increasing number of other Section 8 voucher holders, are scrambling to maintain a foothold in this expensive city.
The San Francisco Housing Authority manages the local Section 8 program, which awards federally funded housing vouchers to low-income, disabled or elderly people to use toward rent in private apartments and houses. There are 9,500 households receiving Section 8 vouchers in San Francisco.

2010 market rates -
The vouchers' value - $1,473 for a one-bedroom apartment and $1,858 for two bedrooms - is set by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development using a complicated formula. Last changed in 2011, it is based on fair market rates from 2008 to 2010. Rents in San Francisco have skyrocketed since then, but the voucher values haven't budged.
Gene Gibson, spokeswoman for the regional HUD office, said another calculation will be made in the next year, but until then it's unknown whether there will be an increase in the voucher value or for how much.
Tenants can make up the difference between the voucher value and their rent, but even that is increasingly not enough - and attorneys say some of their clients are paying 70 percent of their small incomes toward rent in an effort to keep their apartments.
The widely accepted rule of thumb is that people should not pay more than 30 percent of their income toward housing or the housing is unaffordable.

Spike in evictions -
Attorneys say that they've seen a spike in evictions of Section 8 tenants in the past year and that once a voucher holder is booted, they have no choice but to leave San Francisco because there are simply no apartments in the city that are vacant and available for those rates.
Just last week, housing-rights advocates staged a protest at a Tenderloin apartment building where several Section 8 households were given 90-day eviction notices in February.
Rose Dennis, spokeswoman for the San Francisco Housing Authority, said the agency works closely with landlords to keep Section 8 tenants housed and is hosting a workshop this summer to educate landlords about the program.

'Not paying enough' -
Irina Naduhovskaya, an attorney with Bay Area Legal Aid, is representing Shatsov and Burovaya pro bono, as well as other Section 8 tenants around the city who find themselves facing evictions.
"You can't blame the landlords for wanting more money for their units," she said. "But the Housing Authority is not paying enough - the vouchers are becoming worthless. And the city could be doing more to protect tenants."
She has asked for an extension for Shatsov and Burovaya because of Burovaya's disabilities, but holds out very little hope of staving off the eviction altogether.
Frank Kim is an attorney with Eviction Assistance, a real estate law firm in the Inner Richmond that helps landlords evict tenants. He represents William McDonagh, who owns the building on Geary and has served eviction notices to his Section 8 tenants.
Kim said that because of potential litigation, he couldn't say much. But he pointed out that McDonagh is "a disabled, private individual who relies on his rental income for his retirement and for the future support of his family."
He added that McDonagh has not raised rent on his units to market value or evicted tenants for at least 20 years, even though he could have because the building isn't subject to rent control.
Shatsov and Burovaya share their two-bedroom unit with their daughter, Alla Shatsova, 57, who works as their in-home care provider. The family has lived there for 11 years. They pay $2,200 in rent every month: the $1,858 voucher value and $342 in their own money.

Russian community -
Their daughter said her parents have become a part of the neighborhood's Russian community and can walk or take short bus rides everywhere they need to go, including doctor's appointments. She said losing that sense of familiarity and safety would be crushing for her mother.
"You look at Craigslist, you look at the prices," Shatsova said, shaking her head. "We have nowhere to go. It's so stressful, and we don't know what to do."
Her family immigrated to the United States in 1999, fleeing anti-Semitism in their native Belarus. Her father recounted Germans bombing his town in World War II and his 2-year-old sister being killed.
Through tears, he said he has been having recurrent nightmares about that time, brought on, he thinks, by the stress of not having anywhere to go.
"When I came here, I felt I was protected," he said, hastily apologizing for his emotions.
Shatsova said that her mother seems to understand the looming eviction despite her illnesses and told her daughter, "I know it's hard - keep moving."
But Shatsova said her parents shouldn't have to worry about this.
"At that age," she said, "you want a lawn, grandkids - and no eviction."

Justice for Sabrina Carter's family!

"A family destroyed by eviction", 2014-04-16 by Tiny aka Lisa Gray-Garcia, Poor News Network [sfbayview.com/2014/a-family-destroyed-by-eviction]:
Tiny – or Lisa Gray-Garcia – is co-founder with her Mama Dee and co-editor with Tony Robles of POOR Magazine and its many projects and author of “Criminal of Poverty: Growing Up Homeless in America,” published by City Lights. She can be reached at deeandtiny@poormagazine.org. Visit [www.tinygraygarcia.com] and [www.racepovertymediajustice.org].
---
Bang, bang, bang … “Sheriffs here. Open the door! You have to vacate the premises.” On Wednesday, April 8, at 9 a.m., after weeks of last minute legal maneuvers, unanswered calls to the mayor and multiple pleas for a pro bono lawyer to save the single mama Sabrina Carter and her three sons from one of the most unjust evictions I have ever witnessed, we were exhausted. The San Francisco sheriffs, standing shoulder to shoulder with the sold-out housing managers, were outside her door in the Plaza East apartments to change the locks and throw her and her sons into the street.
They were outside the door of Sabrina’s no longer public – now privatized – housing in the Fill-no-Mo, like they were outside me and my mama’s door and so many other people’s doors who were developed, rent-raised, gentrified, Negro-removed and destroyed by this capitalist system that encourages, supports and demands moves inspired by greed.
In these deadly, sci-fi-like moments, when entire families’ lives are destroyed by colonizers’ papers and politricksters’ lies, with names like unlawful detainers, notices to evict and right to possession, time itself moves so strangely slow and so terrifyingly fast all at the same time. Suddenly, before any of us could catch our breath, Sabrina and her youngest son were standing there in the early morning sun, holding back the tears as they watched large plywood boards nail shut what used to be their home.
Sabrina’s family’s tragedy of injustice has everything to do with the dismantling, destroying and privatizing of the public housing system in the U.S., which is rooted in the misleading HUD acronym known as RAD (Rental Assistance Demonstration) and the ways that racism and policing and the criminalization of young Black and Brown men are used to implement that privatization.
Sabrina’s crisis began when her oldest, then 17-year-old son, like so many youngsters, began to be stalked and profiled by a local police officer who obsessively over-polices the one block of majority African descendent residents at Plaza East [http://sfbayview.com/2014/public-housing-privatization-and-ellis-act-evictions-are-stealing-our-homes-our-lives/]. When I was sitting with the family on their front stoop, he circled Sabrina’s one tiny block over 45 times within one hour.
Multiple profiling of her son eventually led to false charges against the young man, which then led to the building management forcing the mother to file stay away orders against her own young adult son and eventually stipulated agreements she could never keep and ultimately eviction to make way for richer, whiter, gentrified tenants which make this building more desirable in the privatization pool.
“Plaza East is not part of RAD,” one of the managers who presided smugly over Sabrina’s eviction said at a tenants meeting that the POOR Magazine family was invited to a week prior. After his assertion that their apartments were not part of the filthy RAD pool where everyone from non-profit organizations to for-profit corporations like Goldman Sachs were making bank, he went on to contradict himself in one paragraph.
“Well, actually the San Francisco Housing Authority subsidies are now going to come from RAD and we are going to start moving people out who are not fully inhabiting their apartments,” he concluded, thoroughly confusing everyone in the meeting. He went on to cite the three projects that are slated for demolition, as if the demolition of thousands of people’s homes were nothing more than having a cup of coffee and a donut.
Standing on the street holding this mama and her son, dreams, memories, altars, mementos, toys and herstories of this family’s life were permanently lost in a series of hefty bags and clutched blankets. These moments can’t be described and yet I have tried for years. The tears they cause could fill an ocean and no matter how conscious, how revolutionary, and how much I know them far too intimately, I am still destroyed by them.
We stood there, POOR Magazine co-madres and reporters Queennandi, Jewnbug and me, along with Sabrina’s neighbors and extended family, holding onto her 13-year-old young warrior son and onto her, a lost and overwhelmed mama.
My mind raced with the moves of the last few weeks. The desperate legal saves comrade Leo Stegman and I did for the family at POOR Magazine’s Revolutionary Legal Advocacy Project. The media justice campaign and the countless stories written with POOR and PNN, the San Francisco Bay View and Manilatown Heritage Foundation.
The thousands of caring people who made phone calls to the sold-out mayor, Ed Lee, to try to get him to intervene in this illegal and unjust eviction but who never did because of course it was Lee who invited the private developers McCormack Baron, who bought this public housing, and their lying lawyers, Bornstein and Bornstein, into this town. Not coincidentally, these are the same lawyers who have been evicting Ellis Acted elders and families from their long-time homes by the thousands, while teaching landlords how to be better capitalists and “not care.”
We are still looking for a lawyer to challenge this case. The unjustness of this story has no words.
If you are a lawyer who can help file a state challenge to Sabrina’s case, please contact us. POOR Magazine will also be holding an organizing and info meeting in the Bayview branch of the SF Public Library in May entitled RAD = ERADICATION. Please stay tuned.

Sabrina, left, and her sons sing spirit at City Hall on March 11. Mayor Ed Lee, formerly a civil rights lawyer specializing in eviction defense, turned a deaf ear. – Photo: PNN


Poem for privatized, displaced mamas -
“Been fighting for 30 years and I keep losing. Why keep fighting when I’m never gonna win?” said one young privatized, gentrified mama in so much pain to me on the phone as I screamed out to touch her and love her no matter what …
“Noooooooooooooooooo,” I shouted to her and to all the mamaz, the elders, the gentrified and the stepped on.
To the mamaz who hold their heads up – even when there ain’t no more strength in their necks, whose eyes look forward filled with tears, whose hands hold so much, whose souls were never built to be killed over and over again.
These stolen lands weren’t created by the gentrifiers and all the haters, who make these laws and live on all this paper.
Dear Mama Sabrina, Mama Dee, Mama Mimi and all the mamaz who never did nothing but care for their children in racist Amerikkka, I’m raising Superbabymama from the ashes of 1999 dot com evictions. I’m calling upon Harriet Tubman, Fannie Lou Hamer and Quetzalcoatl – I’m calling upon Mama Earth and Mama Creator.
The brutality of eviction and gentrification is so deep and wrong and filled with so much white-supremacist monetary lies and deep hatred. THIS is our Freedom Ride, family, and all of us mamaz and ancestor mamaz are needed.
Hold out your hearts in the wind. Call to your ancestor mamaz to hold these children and these women.
Beware this lie of civilization and corporate crafted institutional statehood. Hold out your hearts, mamas – cuz you know what I’m saying. Hold out your hearts, young mamaz, older mamaz, grandmothers and babies,
‘Cause the river of pain is too great to be sedated, and the women and children are about to go completely CRAZY.
The sounds will be loud and the vibe will be amazing –
‘Cause we all KNOW Superbabymama don’t play.

You know you’ve been evicted when your door is covered with plywood and nailed shut by a sheriff’s deputy. San Francisco might as well hang a “No Trespassing” sign over the whole city, as gentrification sweeps out poor folks at an unprecedented rate, with “progressive” leaders like Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi presiding over countless thousands of evictions. – Photos: PNN

Please help Sabrina and her sons find a good home and a champion to help her fight for justice. – Photo: PNN

"Strengthening the walls between public housing and affordable housing"

2014-04-14 by Lynda Carson (tenantsrule (@) yahoo.com):
San Francisco - In San Francisco and elsewhere, the new mantra being pushed by the Mayor's office and shills for the affordable housing industry is to claim that we need to breakdown the barriers between public housing and affordable housing. This is a sham meant to bamboozle the public out of it's public housing units locally, and elsewhere. This same type of privatization scheme is occurring all across the nation to privatize our public housing, and needs to be countered by any means necessary, whenever possible.
The current information available in regards to the situation at Berkeley's 75 former public housing units, reveals that public housing privatization schemes using tax credits to buy and rehabilitate the public housing units, results in the displacement of poor people from their homes and communities!
We need to strengthen the walls between public housing and affordable housing before all of our nation's public housing units are privatized and sold off to the so-called affordable housing industry.
What government officials and the shills of the affordable housing industry are not telling you, is that privatizing our nation's public housing units is bad for the tax payers. Privatization places the buildings at risk of foreclosure, displaces the poor from their long-time homes, further enriches the executives of the so-called affordable housing industry, cheats the public out of it's public housing units, and destroys good middle class union jobs in the process.
Simply put, the federal government needs to fully fund public housing projects all across the nation, and the government should purge the shills of the affordable housing industry out of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that are pushing for the privatization of our nation's public housing units.
Recently, San Francisco has embarked on a scheme to sell and privatize around 3,491 public housing units under the federal Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program. A number of nonprofit developers are involved in the privatization scheme including the Tabernacle Community Development Corporation, Mission Economic Development Agency, Bridge Housing, Mercy Housing California, John Stewart Company, Japanese American Religious Federation, Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation, Community Housing Partnership, Bethel A.M.E., San Francisco Housing Development Corporation, Ridgepoint Non-Profit Corporation, Community Housing Partnership, Glide Community Housing, Bernal Heights Housing Corporation, Bridge Housing Corporation, Chinatown Community Development Center, and the for profit housing developer Related California, owned by out-of-state billionaire's Jorge M. Perez and Stephen M. Ross.
It is still not a done deal, and HUD may not approve all, or part of the scheme to privatize the 3,491 public housing units under RAD. However, unless the public gets involved to protest, and stop the process of privatizing our public housing units, the affordable housing industry is in a position to grab and exploit tens of thousands of public housing units all across the nation. The affordable housing industry schemes to reap billions of dollars in profits for years ahead, once it gets it's hands on our public housing.
The scheme to use for profit developers, so-called nonprofit affordable housing developers, bank loans and tax credits to privatize and rehabilitate our public housing units results in poor people being replaced by higher income tenants, to make the new projects viable. Making matters worse, most so-called nonprofit housing developers use "minimum income requirements" at their projects, that discriminate against the poor.
As an example of how tax credits change the makeup of the low-income tenants at public housing developments that have been privatized, what is happening in Berkeley sheds light on what is really happening to public housing projects when they become privatized.

Profile of Berkeley's Public Housing Tenants In 2009 -
Berkeley's public housing tenants that resided in 75 town homes received a shocking notice dated October 27, 2009, announcing that the Berkeley Housing Authority (BHA) planned to privatize and dispose of their long-time public housing units.
On February 11, 2014, the public housing tenants in Berkeley were sent a notice telling them that their public housing units have been sold and that transfer of ownership was to occur on February 14, 2014, to the new owners who happen to be some out-of-state billionaires named Jorge M. Perez and Stephen M. Ross, of the Related Companies.
The data available is not complete for all 75 public housing units in Berkeley during 2009, but from what data that is available for 57 units of public housing, the data reveals that 15 out of the 57 public housing units had households earning more than $35,000 annually.
Additionally, according to data about Berkeley's public housing units in 2009, there were 39 persons that received Social Security benefits, 36 persons that received SSI benefits, 23 persons that received TANF benefits, and 22 persons that received General Assistance benefits. From the data available, it appears that at least two-thirds to three quarters of the public housing households relied on one or multiple forms of public subsidy for daily living expenses, and that almost three-quarters of the households earned less than $30,000 annually. Additionally, 60% of the units had three or four members per household, with 85% of the residents that identified themselves as being "Black/African American." There were 11.2% of the tenants that identified themselves as being "White," and 2.2% identified themselves as "Asian." The 2009 HUD AMI for Oakland-Fremont, CA., was $89,300 for one person.
Presently, the average Social Security monthly benefit in California during 2014 is $1,294 per month. The average SSI (disability) benefit payment is $877.40 per month. The average TANF (CalWorks) family in California is an adult with two children that receives $510 a month in benefits. General Assistance in California during 2014 pays $336 per month to a single person. Food Stamps (CalFresh/SNAP) for one person is $189 per month, and persons receiving SSI/SSP are not allowed in the program.

Profile Of Berkeley's 75 Public Housing Units After Privatization in 2014 -
In regards to the 75 public housing units that were privatized as of February 14, 2014, the affordability breakdown for the new tenants in the privatized units will appear very different from what the tenant's income was as public housing tenants during 2009, according to the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee (CTCAC).
According to data released on September 25, 2013 from the CTCAC for the newly privatized 75 former public housing units in Berkeley using tax credits to rehabilitate the buildings, Related plans for an affordability breakdown of 8 units at or below 35% of AMI, 49 units at or below 50% of AMI, and 17 units at or below 60% of AMI, and one unit for a manager. Currently the 2014 HUD AMI for Alameda County is $88,500 for one person.
The current information available in regards to the situation at Berkeley's 75 former public housing units, reveals that public housing privatization schemes using tax credits to buy and rehabilitate the public housing units, results in the displacement of poor people from their homes and communities.
Strengthening the walls between public housing and affordable housing would help to stop the displacement of poor people from our nation's public housing projects.

Click on the link below for another story about the privatization of San Francisco's public housing units...
"SF public housing privatization threatens tenants and union workers", 2014-04-10 by Lynda Carson [http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2014/04/10/18753915.php]


Comment: "Rental Assistance Demonstration Program", 2014-04-14 by Mr. Shillingsworth -
You should read up on the Rental Assistance Demonstration Program. The majority of your facts are incorrect. Current tenants are guaranteed two things: a newly renovated/constructed unit and the right to stay.
The so-called shills of the housing industry will be taking on unbelievably large financing risks (construction, operations, lease-up, etc.) in order for this program to work. The government is incapable of making a program like this work without the private sector's help.
At its current funding levels, it would take HUD 250 years to disperse the funds to match those available through the RAD program. It is true properties will become at risk of foreclosure if they are not managed properly. That said, these properties will be converted with project-based Section 8 contracts, which guarantees rents. The only reason a property would be foreclosed on is if they are wildly mismanaged, a risk which is mitigated by the new financial intermediaries - the lenders and investors.
The shills of the industry are responsible for producing the overwhelming majority of affordable housing in the United States. Far more than the government is capable of producing themselves.
I would think as a tenant advocate, you would be doing whatever you could to get involved and help this process work the best it can. It is, after all, about residents having quality housing. If that can't be achieved through the status quo, things need to change.
---
Response to comment by Lynda Carson:
I stand by story. Public housing needs to be fully funded, and we need to strengthen the walls between public housing and so-called affordable housing.
Privatizing public housing is bad for the public who lose their public housing units to private entities, the scheme displaces the poor from their long-time homes, and destroys good union jobs in the process.
Making matters worse, so-called nonprofit housing developers discriminate against the poor with "minimum income requirements," at their projects.
Click below for list of nonprofit housing developers in San Francisco that use minimum income requirements to discriminate against the poor... [http://www.selfhelpelderly.org/services/social_services/housing_list.pdf]
Presently, the average Social Security monthly benefit in California during 2014 is $1,294 per month. The average SSI (disability) benefit payment is $877.40 per month. The average TANF (CalWorks) family in California is an adult with two children that receives $510 a month in benefits. General Assistance in California during 2014 pays $336 per month to a single person. Food Stamps (CalFresh/SNAP) for one person is $189 per month, and persons receiving SSI/SSP are not allowed in the program.
Compare the list above with the "minimum income requirements" being imposed by so-called nonprofit developers to see who faces discrimination...
Once again, click below for list of nonprofit housing developers in San Francisco that use minimum income requirements to discriminate against the poor... [http://www.selfhelpelderly.org/services/social_services/housing_list.pdf]
>>>>>>>
Billionaires trying to get their hands on San Francisco public housing units -
Related California, owned by billionaires Jorge M. Perez and Stephen M. Ross, is one of the for profit housing developers trying to get their hands on San Francisco's public housing units.
Currently the billionaires of Related are trying to get their hands on some of San Francisco's public housing units including the Robert B. Pitts, 203 public housing units, Westside Courts, 136 public housing units, Hunter's Point East, 80 public housing units, and Hunter's Point West, 133 public housing units.

"Manhattan U.S. Attorney Files Civil Rights Lawsuit Against the Related Companies"
[http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/pressreleases/March14/RelatedFHALawsuit.php]
(PRESS RELEASE from MARCH 17, 2014 -- Related Companies sued by Manhattan US Attorney for being engaged in a pattern and practice of developing rental apartments that are inaccessible to persons with disabilities.)