Tenants' Rights Activists Launch New Website to Defeat Landlords' "Hidden Agendas" Scheme and Exposing Motives of Measure's Wealthy Landlord Backers

Landlords' Deceptive Measure Would Eliminate Rent Control
and Other Tenant Protection Laws in California

Los Angeles, CA - Leading California tenants' rights organizations announced that they have launched a new interactive website and blog, www.NoLandlordScheme.com, that focuses exclusively on defeating the proposed ballot initiative sponsored by apartment and mobile home park owners. The measure, dubbed "the Hidden Agendas Scheme," claims to be about eminent domain reform but it's really an attempt to roll back rent control and abolish other important tenants' rights laws in California.

"Landlords' are trying to pull the wool over the eyes of California voters with their deceptive measure," said Ted Gullicksen with the San Francisco Tenants Union. "But their true motive is to eliminate rent control and other renter protections. We have already started mobilizing hundreds of thousands of renters and mobile home owners in California who will be hurt by this scheme. They are mad and will do whatever it takes to defeat this measure. This website will serve as an important mobilizing tool to get voters engaged and activated."

Apartment and mobile home park owners and the organizations that represent landlords have already spent close to $2 million to qualify their measure for the June 2008 ballot. The website will:

• Identify and expose the measure's rich landlord financiers;


• Host a blog and online chat forum;


• Contain downloadable campaign materials and literature;


• Identify upcoming press conferences, rallies, meetings and other campaign activities.

Larry Gross, executive director of the Coalition for Economic Survival said, "We know, and the landlords' know, that abolishing rent control isn't popular with California voters. That's why landlords are promoting this bait-and-switch scheme in an attempt to trick voters into thinking their measure is about eminent domain. But renters know the landlords have put a bulls eye on their backs and we won't let voters be fooled."

Denny Zane with Santa Monicans for Renters' Rights added, "This website is just one tool in a series of campaign tactics we plan to launch between now and June to make it crystal clear: this measure is a greedy attempt by wealthy landlords to enrich themselves, at the expense of seniors, veterans, single mothers and other working families."

BACKGROUND: Wealthy apartment and mobilehome park owners are collecting signatures to put a measure on the June '08 ballot for their own financial gain. These landlords want the public to believe that the so-called California Property Owners and Farmland Protection Act (CPOFPA) is about eminent domain, but the measure is really a dishonest attempt to abolish rent control and other laws that protect renters. The CPOFPA would eliminate rent control and gut renter protection laws, and strip protections for mobile home owners from forced condo conversions.