In Silicon Valley, Cooks and Housekeepers Face Eviction

[aGameOfThrones]

By John Gittelsohn and Heather Perlberg Apr 7, 2014 10:52 AM AT


Silicon Valley Woman Serves Food as Eviction Looms
Virginia Valencia earns $12 an hour in the cafeteria at Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA) headquarters in Palo Alto, California, where she serves breakfast to the staff and billionaire co-founder Elon Musk. He prefers juice to coffee, she said.

After work, the single mother of three goes home to the one-bedroom rent-controlled apartment she’s struggling to keep in East Palo Alto’s Woodland Park, an 1,811-unit complex bought in 2011 by Equity Residential, the largest publicly-traded U.S. landlord. The company, founded by real estate magnate Sam Zell, owns more than 70 percent of the regulated apartments in the only city between San Francisco and San Jose with a rent control law.

Valencia has been fighting eviction since she fell behind on her $1,064 rent payment in November. And she’s not the only one. Each month, as many as 300 Woodland Park residents receive notices from Equity Residential giving them three days to pay or vacate their homes, according to an employee’s sworn testimony in a lawsuit.

“I’m alone and I don’t have a family to fall back on,” said Valencia, 32, who works for a contractor that operates Tesla’s food services. “It seems like they just don’t want us here.”

East Palo Alto is the last haven of low-rent housing in a region where companies like Tesla, Facebook Inc. (FB) and Google Inc. (GOOG) have minted at least two dozen billionaires and thousands of millionaires. Woodland Park is where Silicon Valley’s cooks, janitors and housekeepers live, often working second jobs to hang on to their homes as rents soar and wages stagnate.

Declining Affordability

Affordable housing is becoming harder to find as communities like Woodland Park disappear from cities across the country. One in four renters now spend more than half of their income on housing, up from one in five a decade ago, according to a 2013 report from the Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.

“It’s not a problem that’s just unique to those high-cost markets,” said Christopher Herbert, research director at the center. “It’s felt in a lot of communities across the country. We do see it even in low-costs markets, reflecting the big disparity between what it costs to provide housing and what low-income people earn.”

Demand for leased housing has increased*after about 5 million owners lost their homes to foreclosure since 2008. Rents across the U.S. have risen 16 percent in the past five years, according to apartment-research company Axiometrics Inc., based in Dallas, Texas.

U.S. rents are expected to increase 4.2 percent this year compared with a 2.7 percent gain for home purchase prices, according to the Fannie Mae National Housing Survey released today.*


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-07/silicon-valley-cooks-to-housekeepers-facing-home-eviction.html

[Keith and stuff]

Rent control is an evil that must be stopped! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent_control_in_the_United_States#Arguments_agains t

[Anti Federalist]

Elite class and servant class.

Middle class is a thing of the past.

[Anti Federalist]

Elite class and servant class.

Middle class is a thing of the past.

[Anti Federalist]

Demand for leased housing has increased*after about 5 million owners lost their homes to foreclosure since 2008. Rents across the U.S. have risen 16 percent in the past five years, according to apartment-research company Axiometrics Inc., based in Dallas, Texas.

This confuses me.

My mortgage is hundreds of dollars less, perhaps close to a thousand dollars less, than what a comparable rental would cost.

If you can't pay the mortgage, how can you pay the rent?

[FindLiberty]

Answer: They can't pay the inflation-high rent either!

Can't live together in or share same home unless "related".
Can't stay in town or on fed-land without a cardboard box camping permit.
Screwed into hiding. (may also want to avoid any "free" gov flu shots, check-ups, etc.)

The servant class is being crushed too.

[mad cow]

Elite class and servant class.

Middle class is a thing of the past.

I bet there are several hundred thousand middle and upper middle class jobs within 30~40 miles of Palo Alto in the tech industry alone,not even counting local middle class jobs in everything from construction to auto repair to Yoga teachers that are only employed because those tech jobs are there.

Not to mention Millions more around the world that wouldn't exist without those "at least two dozen billionaires and thousands of millionaires" in Silicon Valley providing the brains and capital to make it all happen.

I bet a plurality of employed members of RPF's who consider themselves middle class or better work in tech industries.
Somebody should do a poll.

[tod evans]

This confuses me.

My mortgage is hundreds of dollars less, perhaps close to a thousand dollars less, than what a comparable rental would cost.

If you can't pay the mortgage, how can you pay the rent?


The banks won't authorize loans so there's lots of folks who have no choice but to rent...

Once they've had one foreclose on 'em they're high risk....

[Anti Federalist]

The banks won't authorize loans so there's lots of folks who have no choice but to rent...

Once they've had one foreclose on 'em they're high risk....

But these corporate prole block rental groups are just as restrictive.

Maybe that 5 million are people that were in way over their head to begin with, NINJA, interest only loans perhaps?

[AuH20]

Deflation is bad. LOL

[Pericles]

Elite class and servant class.

Middle class is a thing of the past.

That is the real story here. Stable western societies have a growing and prosperous middle class and social mobility. The pressure will increase until the boiler blows.

[tod evans]

But these corporate prole block rental groups are just as restrictive.

Maybe that 5 million are people that were in way over their head to begin with, NINJA, interest only loans perhaps?


I don't see a solution under the laws currently in effect...

We really need a viable currency that holds value and far less government...

Until both of those things magically happen I see things getting worse...........Much worse.

[AuH20]

I don't see a solution under the laws currently in effect...

We really need a viable currency that holds value and far less government...

Until both of those things magically happen I see things getting worse...........Much worse.

We're faced with 2 major challenges going forward.

(A) getting rid of the elites
(B) once these bluebloods are removed or relocated, make sure a Venezuelan type marxist movement doesn't take hold in the aftermath

[Anti Federalist]

I don't see a solution under the laws currently in effect...

We really need a viable currency that holds value and far less government...

Until both of those things magically happen I see things getting worse...........Much worse.

You and me both...

[Anti Federalist]

I don't see a solution under the laws currently in effect...

We really need a viable currency that holds value and far less government...

Until both of those things magically happen I see things getting worse...........Much worse.

You and me both...

[mad cow]

We're faced with 2 major challenges going forward.

(A) getting rid of the elites
(B) once these bluebloods are removed or relocated, make sure a Venezuelan type marxist movement doesn't take hold in the aftermath

How do 'we' propose doing this?Punishing taxes?More backbreaking laws and regulations?Firing squads?Lampposts?

Yes comrade,after we eliminate the rich elites and bluebloods who are sucking the blood out of the proletariat,the r3VOLution will have succeeded.

[VIDEODROME]

Seems like a losing situation for everyone.

[acptulsa]

I don't see a solution under the laws currently in effect...

Considering this was exacerbated by big banks foreclosing on, neglecting, and ultimately bulldozing houses, I see the laws currently in effect making the problem worse.

I think too many landlords own too many Congressmen...


Seems like a losing situation for everyone.

They don't seem to care any more about losing in the long term so long as they win in the short term.

A rising tide used to float all boats. Now that the poor can no longer afford to fix their boats, it seems the rising tide floats the yachts and drowns everyone else.

[angelatc]

“I’m alone and I don’t have a family to fall back on,” said Valencia, 32, who works for a contractor that operates Tesla’s food services. “It seems like they just don’t want us here.”

If you are not paying the rent, that's very likely true. There is a waiting list a mile long for your job as well as your rent-controlled apartment, sweetie.

[thoughtomator]

Rent control is a subsidy to their employers, who would otherwise have to pay a wage that someone living nearby could live on.

[Keith and stuff]

Seems like a losing situation for everyone.

Yup. Rent control reduces affordable using. The only winners are the government workers that enforce the program.

[Anti Federalist]

How do 'we' propose doing this?Punishing taxes?More backbreaking laws and regulations?Firing squads?Lampposts?

Yes comrade,after we eliminate the rich elites and bluebloods who are sucking the blood out of the proletariat,the r3VOLution will have succeeded.

You are missing seeing the forest for the trees here.

That's what will happen if this situation is not addressed with some kind of free market alternatives.

[Anti Federalist]

Considering this was exacerbated by big banks foreclosing on, neglecting, and ultimately bulldozing houses, I see the laws currently in effect making the problem worse.

They don't seem to care any more about losing in the long term so long as they win in the short term.

A rising tide used to float all boats. Now that the poor can no longer afford to fix their boats, it seems the rising tide floats the yachts and drowns everyone else.

Well phrased...

[tod evans]

You are missing seeing the forest for the trees here.

That's what will happen if this situation is not addressed with some kind of free market alternatives.

Russia And China may just force the government to adopt some type of "free market alternative" when they start trading oil in some currency besides dollars...

[oyarde]

This confuses me.

My mortgage is hundreds of dollars less, perhaps close to a thousand dollars less, than what a comparable rental would cost.

If you can't pay the mortgage, how can you pay the rent? True , and now , someone could get a 30 yr loan around 4 % and lock a price in , rent could go up 5 % a yr .

[oyarde]

I don't see a solution under the laws currently in effect...

We really need a viable currency that holds value and far less government...

Until both of those things magically happen I see things getting worse...........Much worse. I agree.

[AuH20]

How do 'we' propose doing this?Punishing taxes?More backbreaking laws and regulations?Firing squads?Lampposts?

Yes comrade,after we eliminate the rich elites and bluebloods who are sucking the blood out of the proletariat,the r3VOLution will have succeeded.

I'm talking about the .01%. The puppetmasters. The source of our many problems who encourage and force division. The very same people who are actively gameplanning to snuff us out (not conspiracy, FACT. Look at the data harvesting facility being built in Bluffdale Utah). Secondly, it's odd that you use the word proletariat because they embody the 2nd challenge. Who fills the vacuum after the elites are driven out? The proleteriat is the logical threat. #1 They aren't educated #2 they have been afforded a comfortable life by the gubmint. A rapid descent into a Chavez like dictatorship is not out of the question.

[mad cow]

I'm talking about the .01%. The puppetmasters. The source of our many problems who encourage and force division. The very same people who are actively gameplanning to snuff us out (not conspiracy, FACT. Look at the data harvesting facility being built in Bluffdale Utah). Secondly, it's odd that you use the word proletariat because they embody the 2nd challenge. Who fills the vacuum after the elites are driven out? The proleteriat is the logical threat. #1 They aren't educated #2 they have been afforded a comfortable life by the gubmint. A rapid descent into a Chavez like dictatorship is not out of the question.

I bet a huge chunk of that,at least post 1990 when it really took off,was internet/computer related.

Many of those new young billionaires got that way because of unbridled capitalism,not because they and their grandfathers were members of skull and bones and partied with the Rothchild's,Morgan's,Rockefeller's and the rest of the 'Illuminati',many of them were twenty-something drop-outs working out of their garages and basements.

The government had and has such a stranglehold with rules and regulations on older enterprises like mining,transportation and manufacturing that this type of explosive growth was impossible.
The suffocating laws and restrictions on IT did not exist,it was too new,thank God.

I look at that chart and think how many more billionaires and how many more millions of well-paying jobs,like the millions that have been created in the technology sector since 1990,would have been created if the government just got the hell out of the way and let the free-market soar.




^^A direct copy/paste of my reply about the 0.01% in this thread. http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?448659-Data-Shows-that-the-Top-0-01-Dwarfs-the-Top-1-In-Terms-of-Economic-Gain&p=5477151#post5477151

It is doubly true when discussing Silicon Valley,many of those 'puppet masters' are less than half my age and college drop-outs to boot.
Who let them in to the NWO,snuff us all out puppet master club?

[AuH20]

I bet a huge chunk of that,at least post 1990 when it really took off,was internet/computer related.

Many of those new young billionaires got that way because of unbridled capitalism,not because they and their grandfathers were members of skull and bones and partied with the Rothchild's,Morgan's,Rockefeller's and the rest of the 'Illuminati',many of them were twenty-something drop-outs working out of their garages and basements.

The government had and has such a stranglehold with rules and regulations on older enterprises like mining,transportation and manufacturing that this type of explosive growth was impossible.
The suffocating laws and restrictions on IT did not exist,it was too new,thank God.

I look at that chart and think how many more billionaires and how many more millions of well-paying jobs,like the millions that have been created in the technology sector since 1990,would have been created if the government just got the hell out of the way and let the free-market soar.




^^A direct copy/paste of my reply about the 0.01% in this thread. http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?448659-Data-Shows-that-the-Top-0-01-Dwarfs-the-Top-1-In-Terms-of-Economic-Gain&p=5477151#post5477151

It is doubly true when discussing Silicon Valley,many of those 'puppet masters' are less than half my age and college drop-outs to boot.
Who let them in to the NWO,snuff us all out puppet master club?

We're talking about the pseudo intellectuals who make up the Ivy league indoctrination centers. The well paid members of the Deep State. The Investment Bank cabal. The soulless bastards that both Barry Goldwater and Carroll Quigley fingered that reside in upper levels of the CFR and Trilateral Commission. Many different factions, but all hold contempt for the middle class.

Representative government is an illusion. We the people are property and the sooner that you realize this, the better off you will be. What kind of benevolent government creates a facility with the capacity to store 100 years of data on 300+ million citizens? It's called a contingency plan (preemptively acting on potential threats in REALTIME!) if the slaves get the wrong idea.

[mad cow]

We're talking about the pseudo intellectuals who make up the Ivy league indoctrination centers. The well paid members of the Deep State. The Investment Bank cabal. The soulless bastards that both Barry Goldwater and Carroll Quigley fingered that reside in upper levels of the CFR and Trilateral Commission. Many different factions, but all hold contempt for the middle class.

Representative government is an illusion. We the people are property and the sooner that you realize this, the better off you will be. What kind of benevolent government creates a facility with the capacity store 100 years of data on 300+ million citizens? It's called a contingency plan (preemptively acting on potential threats in REALTIME!) if the slaves get the wrong idea.

And what does that have to do with the two dozen billionaires and thousands of millionaires who created and were created by Silicon Valley and the millions of middle and upper middle class jobs they created?

If only hundreds of such valleys could spring up across the United States.

[angelatc]

Rent control is a subsidy to their employers, who would otherwise have to pay a wage that someone living nearby could live on.

I seem to recall that many large homes used to have servants quarters on the property.

[oyarde]

I seem to recall that many large homes used to have servants quarters on the property.

and a summer kitchen , smokehouse etc

[GunnyFreedom]

This confuses me.

My mortgage is hundreds of dollars less, perhaps close to a thousand dollars less, than what a comparable rental would cost.

If you can't pay the mortgage, how can you pay the rent?

http://img2u.info/img/gd977dc13.jpg