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San Mateo landlords jeer recording of sobbing renter
http://www.mercurynews.com/san-mateo-county/ci_29756728/san-mateo-landlords-jeer-recording-sobbing-renterA day after a contentious hearing on the city's housing affordability crisis, San Mateo leaders scolded landlords who jeered Deputy Mayor David Lim as he played a voicemail that a distraught renter left on his phone.
The outburst came after the City Council, for the second time this month, failed to reach consensus Monday night on an emergency ordinance to protect tenants from eviction or drastic rent increases amid the Bay Area's searing housing market.
Though he had opposed the ordinance, Lim told the crowd he wanted to illustrate the gravity of the crisis, which is forcing longtime residents to flee the city in search of affordable housing. As he played the message from a sobbing registered nurse who fears she will have to leave the Bay Area, more than a dozen members of a large contingent of landlords heckled Lim and walked out of the room....
"It makes me wonder if the renters are right when they say some of these landlords have no heart," said Lim, adding that other landlords approached him after the meeting to apologize for the behavior of their fellow property owners.
The outburst came after the City Council, for the second time this month, failed to reach consensus Monday night on an emergency ordinance to protect tenants from eviction or drastic rent increases amid the Bay Area's searing housing market.
Though he had opposed the ordinance, Lim told the crowd he wanted to illustrate the gravity of the crisis, which is forcing longtime residents to flee the city in search of affordable housing. As he played the message from a sobbing registered nurse who fears she will have to leave the Bay Area, more than a dozen members of a large contingent of landlords heckled Lim and walked out of the room....
"It makes me wonder if the renters are right when they say some of these landlords have no heart," said Lim, adding that other landlords approached him after the meeting to apologize for the behavior of their fellow property owners.
How very Republican of them.
