Start time 15:15
Attending:
Betsy
Maria Sol
Angeles
Robert
Carol
Helen and Raines can't attend
1. Checkins
2. Officer reports/ business
-
Minutes of last meetings approval - secretary
- David moved and Daveed seconded motion to approve meeting minutes from Jan. 12th
- Unanimous approval
- Treasurer
- Finances available via the website's dashboard - need to be logged in
-
Co-convenors
- Speaker Meetings april and may
3. Current Campaign Updates and Announcements
-
POOR Campaign - 3 speakers tomorrow at the policy meeting 12-1pm - contact Carol for link to join
Gray Panthers general meeting - April 27th fourth Wednesday of every month
Angeles speaker suggestion - talk about composting toilets and demystify sewage - Private equity firms buying up housing developments (Betsy)
- Skylark, in Larkspur - housing full of seniors and people on fixed income
-
405 units in Skylark building in Marin
Purchased by Prime Portfolio - John Atwood CEO, headquarters in SF
bought for 300M, 660K per unit
Immediately started raising rents
Skylark leaders are getting a lot out of Gray Panthers support -
Oakland and Berkeley have had grassroots groups raising this issue - some local and state legislation is aimed at controlling through taxation
Gray Panthers nationally are looking into equity funds
Social Housing Coalition - East Bay DSA - state initiative to take properties off the market
Statewide TOPA bill -
Coyote Bush Collective Garden (Angeles) - sold at county tax auction for 274K, new buyer Sanjay Khanna wants to make money and asked what we could offer for him to profit. We offered a potential tax break. He's talking to his CPA and will let us know
Rental Assistance (Daveed) -
The state did not keep their word on the rental assistance - it was a rip-off, criminal
- Daveed got only 5 months of rental assistance, and they lied to us
-
We need to work with Tenants Together
- City of Berkeley is more interested in building construction than accessibility
- Maria Sol
- Distributing food almost every day
- Still looking to be of value to the community - challenge of urban camping
- Searching for gas money to get to the doctors and distribute food
- 2nd St. in Berkeley - RVs have relocated there on a dirt road
- Senior centers - have they been helpful? Maria Sol has not tried yet, her mobility is limited and her health is an issue as well - please reach out if you can help
-
Hannah - LTSS for All
- 3 programs
- LTSS insurance program
- Build Back Better
- Time for 20 (HIH campaign) - rally yesterday, Carol, Robert, and Betsy were there
- Call-in campaign continues - call early and often
- https://secure.everyaction.com/pkRO-VqrX0iXNJ3t57HRXA2
- 3 programs
- TOPA requests for endorsements (Betsy) - hearing in Sacramento is on April 19th (Betsy)
-
Board Communications - what's working what's not in our communications with each other?
- David - searching for Gray Panthers emails
6. Set next Board meeting - ??
5pm Adjourn (Angeles left, stopped taking notes at 4:30pm)
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