Dear AOA:
With the recent California EPA decision to abolish gas guzzling cars by 2035 it is time for us the home providers to become proactive rather than reactive to all these upcoming changes. We need to begin thinking how California State Legislatures will pass various laws that will affect our bottom line as business operators. Retrofitting multi-unit complexes due to earthquake potentials and only receiving 50% of the cost from our tenants is a good example of Sacramento thinking. Legislators are only interested in votes by catering to tenants, not the housing providers. This new law to go 100% electric will require all residential homes and units to provide charging capabilities for these electric vehicles. We again will be tasked to install these units at our own costs. However, if we act now and inform our legislatures that these costs should be incurred by the state due to a law they passed, we then have an opportunity to be proactive rather than reactive, Another law that Governor Newsom established was the sales elimination of gas powered equipment used by gardeners and contractors. The net effect of this law is increased gardener prices due to the purchase of new battery powered equipment. This new equipment will also require portable charging systems while the gardeners are at various job sites. These costs will be passed onto housing providers. We can reduce these costs by demanding compensation from Sacramento when we purchase solar panels and charging stations for our residents. This is a win-win proposition. Tenants receive reduced electric bill, are now able to charge their electric vehicles, our electric bills in public areas are reduced, and gardeners will also have charging stations for their equipment. However, if we do nothing today rest assured Sacramento will require us to foot the bill thereby requiring us to increase rents. We are not a majority compared to renters, but our voices need to be heard today, not tomorrow! As more Sacramento laws are passed, we must take the initiative to examine the consequences associated with these laws. Take action today.
George Mancewicz, a Concerned California Housing Provider
Dear AOA:
Conundrum (A situation that is confusing or self-contradicting)
Free people are not equal. Equal people are not free. (Think this one over and over…makes sense!)
“A gun is like a parachute. If you need one, and don’t have one, you’ll probably never need one again.”
Here are six Conundrums of Socialism in the United States of America:
1. America is capitalist and greedy – yet half of the population is subsidized.
2. Half of the population is subsidized – yet they think they are victims.
3. They think they are victims – yet their representatives run the government.
4. Their representatives run the government – yet the poor keep getting poorer.
5. The poor keep getting poorer – yet they have things that people in other countries only dream about.
6. They have things that people in other countries only dream about – yet they want America to be more like those other countries.
Think about it! That pretty much sums up the USA in the 21st Century. Makes you wonder who is doing the math.
These short sentences tell you a lot about the direction of our current government and cultural environment:
- We constantly hear how Social Security is going to run out of money. But we never hear about welfare or food stamps running out of money! Yet the first group worked for their money, but the second didn’t.
- Why are we cutting benefits for our veterans, no pay raises for our military, and cutting our army to a level lower than before WWII, but we are not stopping payments or benefits to undocumented persons.
From Plato: “If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools.” – Anonymously submitted
A BIG THANK YOU FROM AOA TO ALL WHO SENT LETTERS ON “TAKE ACTION TUESDAY! Below are a few:
Honorable Governor Newsom:
Please Veto S.B 679 and S.B. 1477 or amend them to protect the small landlord. My rationale is:
I am a very small landlord and what I have to say would likely also be echoed by all the other small landlords out there. We need your protection as much as the tenants you are trying to protect. Unscrupulous large corporations, property flippers, and unregulated government bureaucracies are the ones that need to be more accountable, not the small landlords trying to make a legitimate go of it. I am certain more or the wrong regulation will only make matters worse.
I believe a large percentage of California landlords are like me. They bought their rental as an investment having no intention of flipping it. They keep the property in good condition, with the hope to rent to tenants who will pay their rent on time. These landlords have kept their rents reasonable and usually tenants lived in their units for long periods of time. Flippers, Covid, Government regulations, and a lot more people barely making ends meet have upset this equation to where more and more renters think living in a property is a right, not something you have to pay to do. So if these bills pass we will have even more renters being encouraged not to pay their rent. This will ultimately drive the good landlords out of business and housing units off the market.
As a landlord who invested in a property years ago with the intention of getting it to the point where it had positive cash flow, then holding it and having it become a source of income in retirement, I can’t rationalize any laws encouraging tenants not to pay their rent, then allowing tenants to get away with it, knowing full well that the landlord can do very little about it. I envision the following will be the likely outcome if the proposed bills pass.
Many more landlords will not be paid, tenants will be impossible to evict, landlords will be stuck subsidizing their housing, upkeep will diminish or stop, units will become less habitable, and with a high percentage of tenants probably not paying rent many landlords will just take their units off the market.
Ultimately, many landlords will sell because of all the headaches, leaving fewer units to rent.
Thank you for taking your valuable time to listen. I am confident your reasoned decision will be the right one. AOA Member James H., San Diego
Dear Governor Newsom:
I am a housing provider and cannot afford any more bills/taxes! If I cannot collect rent, then I have no money to pay my bills and the rental’s bills!!!
You might think my collecting rent is the same as you getting a paycheck. If you don’t get a paycheck, how can you pay your bills? Not only bills, but food! Or, gas to get to work to get a paycheck!
But, really, my not collecting rent is worse than you not getting a paycheck. You can get another job. Me? If I cannot collect the rent and I cannot evict the renter, that cuts off
my source of income.
I cannot get another renter in the space the current renter is in. Plus, he is using water which I provide. Thus, increasing my bills! Plus, in case the plumbing gets clogged, I have to repair it as a tenant is in the unit. I have to repair it even though he is not paying the rent!!!
When the tenant moves, it will probably have normal wear and tear damage to the unit. That means it will need to be updated by cleaning, painting, and carpet cleaning. Plus, the damage could be more than normal wear and tear. If so, I will have more costly repairs to pay for before I can rent the unit again!!!
I have seen stuff put down the garbage disposal such as razor blades. Imagine trying to clean that out! I could tell you more, but I won’t.
Plus, I still have my own bills to pay, which if I have no income, I cannot pay them!
So, please veto S.B. 679 AND S.B. 147. Thank You! Ellen W.
To Rhonda and Cindy:
Please tell Governor Newsom NOT TO SIGN SBs 679 and 1477!
My parents and I have worked all our lives as teachers and now housing providers.
These bills are virtue-signaling shortcuts to solve the problem of the unhoused that don’t honestly address the situation. They are a simple-minded route to buy votes at the expense of hard-working home providers.
A reminder: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” was a slogan popularized by Karl Marx in his 1875 Critique of the Gotha Program.
Take note that the major socialist countries have rewritten that slogan to read, “to each according to his work.“
Sage advice from the major practitioners of socialism! Regards, Nick