Renters feeling the squeeze

Mass evictions on Prentice, rent increases in older homes rattle local renters
Twenty-one families are losing their housing at the Prentice Apartments, a rundown apartment complex at the corner of Prentice Drive and March Avenue.
The 21-unit apartment complex, a mixture of one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments, suffers from a lack of maintenance.
Miguel Aniceto, a tenant of the complex, recently pointed to a sagging bathroom ceiling in his apartment, patched but never painted. Ceilings are cracked, window blinds are broken, carpets are patched with duct tape and windows leak.
Yet, the tenants are friends and family to each other. Jose Gallardo, another tenant, said the complex is home. “There’s no drugs here, no loud music, no one making problems,” he said, holding his eight-month-old son, Kevin.
Drake Property Group, which purchased the complex in February, has issued eviction notices to the entire complex.
Peter Supino, a principal at Drake, confirmed that he intends to completely renovate the complex. “The past owners apparently didn’t care about maintenance,” said Supino.
Gallardo is a painter. He and his wife and son have been living with his wife’s parents while they look for housing they can afford. He said he has contacted a lawyer and will fight the eviction. “It’s hard to find a place to live when you work until 6 every day and work on the weekends,” Gallrado said.
Supino said he is sympathetic. “The tenants are very nice people, I’m sorry to lose them and I’m giving them good references. We’ve offered the tenants $500  to help with moving assistance.”
Supino expects the complex to be empty within a month and said he will start renovation right away.
The Drake website seems to envision a different future for the complex, perhaps not the working class families who are being evicted.
“Drake seeks a tenant demographic more appropriate to the refined nature of the Healdsburg community, tenants who value good design and beautiful surroundings,” reads a statement on the website.
Supino confirmed the statement on the website. “We typically try to make our projects very nice,” he said.
Supino said that most tenants are accepting the $500 for moving costs.
Gallardo said it won’t help much. “These people have nowhere to go,” he said. “They’ll go live with families or move to Santa Rosa and then have to drive back to Healdsburg to work.”
Trentadue tenants upset
Meanwhile, a smaller controvesry has erupted in local rentals.
The Trentadue family, which owns rental housing in Healdsburg, recently sent notices to its tenants that rents will be increased.
Victor Trentadue admitted that most of his family’s tenants have gone years with minor rent increases, if any.
“We never really raised anything, that’s just what we do,” said Trentadue. “But we have to raise rents to cover repairs.”
The rent increases, handled by Healdsburg Property Management, caught the tenants by surprise and created a backlash.
Flyers calling for a boycott of the Trentadue Family Winery have appeared on power poles downtown.
Christine Webster, a Trentadue tenant, said she heard about the flyers but doesn’t know who is putting them up.
Webster said that she received a notice that her monthly rent will increase from $850 a month to $1,400 a month.
Webster is disabled, and even with federal housing assistance, says she cannot afford an increase of that scale. She is asking supporters to join her at the July 6 Healdsburg City Council meeting to ask the council to place a discussion on the rental crisis on the July 20 meeting agenda.
Pam Taeuffer of Healdsburg Property Management emailed a statement to the newspaper detailing her concerns about the situation. “To lump them and other property owners as ‘greedy’ is so unfair,” Taeuffer wrote.
Taeuffer wrote that many of the Trentadue rentals are undervalued and that many tenants have gone years without rent increases.
Taeuffer blames land use policies for worsening the rental situation.
“The city of Healdsburg, as well as Sonoma County has been negligent about keeping up with building and housing needs. Homes are escalating once again in sales pricing, pushing the middle class/working class out,” she wrote.
Taeuffer continued: “There seems to be no concern about that discussion, and the heat is on rental property. Why? City government is just as much to blame for this housing shortage. They’ve had opportunities to have property developed and the only projects that are approved are luxury condos and housing and of course the luxury housing north of town. Blaming rental prices on greedy landlords is partially a result of the city’s lack of foresight on housing needs.”
Victor Trentadue said that he has told Healdsburg Property Management to split the rent increases into two phases. Trentadue tenants will see their rents increased half of the target amount in two months and the other half at the end of the year. “We’ll work things out, we always do,” he said.
Webster hopes that this is the beginning of a larger discussion about the community. “I want moderate and low income people to have a say in the future of our community,” she said.