Rent Strikers Say They Won’t Pay Receiver, Will Fight Eviction Efforts

To protest “uninhabitable” living conditions, striking Santa Ana tenants will not pay rent to a court-appointed receiver and will fight any eviction actions that may result, strike leaders said Wednesday.

The decision challenges an order by Superior Court Judge Philip E. Schwab, who named a receiver April 11 to collect all rents and turn them over to landlords to reimburse them for repairs as they are made.

“The rent strike continues stronger than ever, irrespective of Judge Schwab’s decision,” said Raul Hernandez, one of the tenant leaders.

Strike leaders said 100 new families from three different Santa Ana barrios joined the strike Wednesday, bringing the number of tenant families on strike to more than 400.

Sister Carmen Serati, a Roman Catholic nun, said tenants realize the serious implications of this new stance but recently voted to stand together even if it meant facing arrest.

“If one goes, they’ll all go,” Serati said. “They are willing to stand together and they do not want to move from their apartments.

“We’re arguing that it is unlawful for each tenant to be charged rent for an uninhabitable apartment. These have been found by the city to be unhealthy, unsafe, rat-infested and everything.”

Monthly rents are $350 for a one-bedroom apartment and $450 for two bedrooms in most of the buildings affected by the strike.

Tenant leaders cited a California Supreme Court decision that they said makes it unlawful to charge rent for apartments that have cockroaches, rats or poor plumbing or are generally uninhabitable.

Richard L. Spix, a Legal Aid attorney who on behalf of the tenants filed the suit that resulted in Schwab’s order, said the Supreme Court, following a trend across the country, had adopted a “warranty of habitability” which states that tenants are not obligated to pay any more than the reasonable rental value of the premises, taking into account any substandard conditions.

Hundreds of pages of evidence of substandard housing submitted by Santa Ana housing inspectors and public health officials were included in the case file, Spix said.

Wednesday’s action by about 350 Latino tenants represents the most militant stance taken since the strike began in February. Schwab ordered a receiver, instead of landlords, to collect and distribute rent money as a way of maintaining a “status quo” pending further proceedings in the suit.

The judge also granted protection from eviction to those tenants who paid the receiver. Unprotected tenants will have to defend themselves in court against landlords, said Spix.

Receiver Robert Stopher, a Santa Ana attorney, said Wednesday that a letter was sent to all striking renters informing them that rents were to be paid to him beginning May 1.

“If the rent is not paid, I am simply to tell the landlords. If they are going to take further action, they may do so. They just have to verify with me which tenants didn’t pay rent,” Stopher said.

However, no immediate eviction actions are foreseen, said Terence L. Calder, an attorney for Carmine Esposito, a landlord who owns six buildings in Santa Ana.

Calder said that Esposito intends to give the receiver “perhaps a week at most,” to list those tenants who have failed to pay rent before any action is taken.

Schwab’s order granted landlords, and not the receiver, the right to evict tenants who failed to pay rent, Calder said.

According to Esposito’s son, Randy, who manages some of the apartments, Esposito has been approached by tenants who told him they wanted to pay rent to the receiver but were confused whether to pay the owners or the receiver.

“I talked to one woman who said her entire building was ready to do that, so the strike doesn’t represent all the people,” the son said. “I told her we couldn’t accept the money because of the court order. The (receiver’s) letter will show them where to pay.”

Meanwhile, tenants on Wednesday afternoon picketed rental properties owned by James Isbill in the 600 block of East Washington Street in Santa Ana. The demonstration was held to announce new tenant families who joined the rebellion and to show solidarity with Isbill’s tenants, who reportedly have been harassed for refusing to pay rent, tenant leaders said.