Board Meeting - April 13, 2022

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
    1. 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
  • 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)