Redistricting

September 24, 2025

virtual via Zoom

1:30 Welcome, Introductions

Suggested Meeting Guidelines

Co-Convenors Carol Crooks & Betsy Morris

Board Reports

• Solano Stroll
• Board Member Nominations & Elections (in October) 

“Election Rigging Response Act” of 2025

• California Temporary Redistricting Measure Proposition 50 
• Where do we stand? Member Discussion and Decision
• CARA Monday Phone Banking

Berkeley Rent Board 2026 Convention Planning 

• What are concerns for rent control and board elections in 2026? 
• Affirm long-time sponsorship 

Recommendations to Board

Upcoming Topics and Speakers 

ANNOUNCEMENTS & EVENTS

October 18, No Kings national day of protest

October 22, 2025 Annual EBGP Board Elections

Board/Member Meeting - 1st Wednesdays

Member Socials - 2nd Wednesdays

Public Meeting - Oct. 22, 2025 - 4th Wednesdays)

Adjourn 3:30

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Chat Transcript

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Unedited Automated Transcript - May contain errors

Respect each other, step… A step back. The same… the same… it's nothing unusual.

Thank you. Yeah, that's right.

Nothing at all. Mm-mm.

Uh, is there anything you'd like to suggest we add?

Or takeaway.

Nothing, no, no, uh-uh, no.

Okay. Well, thank you. So, we do want our… our members to…

accept this. Carol's made sure we've been announcing it.

You know, for at least 6 months worth of meetings, so…

Thank you, Ms. Cecilia.

Uh, Carol, did you want me to…

And I don't think we brought it to the general membership that long ago.

go over the agenda and…

Oh, yes, ma'am.

I wanted to say this, that I thought we had voted on…

Yes, as a board.

But we have a larger membership

Okay. Mm-hmm.

you know, of people who don't come to the board meetings,

Uh, or don't always come to our member meetings, but we have this annual… once a year, it's called the member meeting.

And it's, uh, it's election to the board, so, um, we're gonna need you.

Uh, at that meeting, since you are the only person not running again,

Uh, not running again for the board. I mean, you are… you are a board member for another year. The rest of us

Our terms have expired.

So, um, but let me… let me start, if you're good, Miss…

Ms. Cecilia, I'm just gonna go…

do the agenda, thank you. So, um, we have a pretty…

Yeah, sometimes, mhm.

Uh, we… we do not have guest speakers today, but we do have people who… I'm hoping, will give us more information about activities we've been involved in. So, our…

Board reports, uh…

I'd love a little check-in.

briefly about the Solano Stroll, uh, 3 people at least tended the table and handed out things.

Uh, then, uh, we'll talk about, um, board member nominations and elections.

And, um, I did want to, um…

uh, offer, uh,

an email exchange that Helen Walsh, our board member, and I had,

Um, and… and it's about our commitment to,

Um, senior and disability rights, so if that's okay, I thought I'd take a few minutes and read a little bit, uh, from that exchange, so…

Um, and then, uh, a number of

We're then… we were going to talk about Prop 50, which is called the Election Rigging Response Act.

of 2025. And this is something Hallie and Robert and I'm sure others of you, have

We're able to go to the…

Friday forum with Kara, California Alliance of Retired Americans, but I'm depend… I wasn't able to go, so I'm depending on you all.

to lead that discussion, um, pros and cons, so that we could, as members, make a clear determination that we support it. We usually support CARA's work, but

Um, or… or if there's a reason to be neutral.

We can do that. The League of Women Voters decided not to…

vote on it and chose to be neutral.

Um, and most… and if we do… so, if we can, um…

I will do that, then we're going to talk about the Berkeley Rent Board convention planning,

Uh, and any, um…

Carol Morasovic, I'm hoping, will come on and talk

Uh, about our follow-up.

at the city around homelessness solidarity. Yeah?

Oh, great! You made it, Carol!

Carol is on.

So, uh, that'll be later in the agenda.

Um, and then we, uh, have any further recommendations that members here today

Um, um…

want to…

refer to the board. The board will meet the first…

Wednesday of, um, October.

So, we can do that.

Uh, and then there's announcements, and we'll get to those.

At the end of the meeting, and then we'll adjourn no later than 3.30.

Is my hope. Or at least I need to get off back then.

So, um…

Thank you all. Uh…

So, board reports. Uh, we met on the first Wednesday of October.

Is there any report back from the folks who did the outreach at Solano Stroll?

We haven't had October yet, have we?

I'm sorry, I'm mistaken. We had our September board meeting the first week of September.

So, thank you, Julian.

Is there someone who could speak?

to, uh, outreach, and that was, uh…

Robert, you were there.

Margo went and, uh…

Uh, Christy, yeah.

and Helen, so we had 3…

Christy and Helen.

Three board members and a member emeritus.

Does anybody want to… how was that, Robert?

Well, we didn't get much, you know, people came by. But I did get one person who's filled out with the form, but didn't give it any contribution.

If you want me to, I can… I get it in my computer, and then… I could probably…

Maybe to you.

Do you have the name of this interested person? Maybe someone knows them.

Let me see if I can find any…

Okay, personally. It looks like it's G, G-V, G-A-I-L-A.

Kerrunner.

And if it's listed at 15-15 Market Street in Oakland. 94607…

Just…

Okay, does anyone know her?

Yeah. It's hard to make out the email, the email address, but there is a phone number, 510.

That's okay, Robert. We're not… we don't…

472-1950, I'll…

Okay, we don't need… we… I just wanted to see if anybody recognized her name.

Yeah, and we'll be in touch.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

later. But…

This is frozen. Maybe she can turn her, um…

Window… composer window. And just use audio when she comes back.

I don't have the agenda in front of me.

Maybe you better reminder again.

Okay… Yeah, I'm gonna steerity.

Okay, board reports, um… Robert, do you have a treasurer's report?

Well, not really, but I can… Pull one up.

Well, it doesn't seem worth it to just us few people.

Um, we need to do board nominations. We have elections in October.

And Dirk Niehart. Is up for the board.

He's in the meeting today. Derek, would you like to speak?

Oh, thank you.

Okay.

How many people… is there a specific number that's supposed to be on the… on the board?

No, we don't have a specific number. There may be a minimum number.

What is the minimum?

But we have the minimum. Um…

I think 9 is a full board. And we have to have at least 5…

Members present to have a quorum. For the board meetings, or to take votes, either 5…

Board members minimum, or 10… 10 members that have paid dues.

Betsy's calling me, I was gonna call her. Betsy?

Hi, Carol, stuff. Made to your co-host. Are people still on, or is the whole thing… Yes, people are still on.

Okay, well, I… I… you're co-host. And for some reason, all I see was pink.

Start… let's see… I can't hear you. What? I can't hear you.

I may not. Be able to just join.

Rejoin the meeting. Oh. Seeing that if that happens. Yeah, I'm having… you know, I'm on a…

I call them satellite. Kind of satellite.

In the next service, and it's wobbly. So I'm trying to get back on now.

Okay. But, um… Do you want to ask… maybe you guys can just start.

We'll get back to the board report. But, um, maybe we can just start talking about the…

Cop60. And, uh, and the phone, you know, if anyone has anything to.

Or, um. Wants to know more about the CARA funding baking. That's something…

Hell no about phone banking. Okay.

I think… bank, you know, phone banking.

And you can ask her, and I'm trying to get on. Like we lost Hallie. We got a couple other people.

No, there's I, okay. Okay. Okay, otherwise we should restart the meeting, because I'm trying…

Okay, I'm back. Sorry for the delay, um… Can you hear me?

Okay, Betsy's on, uh, satellite service. She's on the East Coast.

And she's going to try to come back. Um…

Yes? Do you want to put me on speakerphone, or…

Yeah, you're on speakerphone. Let me see if people can hear you.

Speak, Betsy. Hi, everyone. I feel embarrassed of my…

Internet connection went down. Can you hear, Betsy?

I can. She's not appearing on the screen at all.

No, she's not got her on the telephone. But you can hear her.

Okay.

Yeah, I can hear her, but… How is she… I mean, how are we… is she just called in? Is that what you're saying? But…

Oh, she called you. Oh, okay, I was wondering, because I didn't see your name on the screen anyway.

She called me, yes, she's on my telephone.

Yeah. But… I'm trying to get back to this room.

Um, but… Yeah, she's trying to get back in. What I suggest is… is good.

So how… could you talk about the phone banking? Otherwise, in the, uh…

Agenda of that program we sent, there's… a link to a description of Prop 50.

So if there's… we want to talk about that. Let's see if I can…

Okay, well, yeah, well… Well, CAR is… yeah, Cara is doing phone banking.

Go ahead.

Um, on Mondays from noon to 2. And it's, uh, you know, it's not in person, so you have to sign up for it.

And they have a training first. But Cara is also linking people to other groups that are doing phone banking at other times.

I haven't started doing it yet. I'm gonna be doing mine starting, you know, in October. I can do one day.

So, uh, I may do other dates. With other organizations, but it's basic… you all know about Prop 50 and what's going on, I imagine.

Um, so I don't really have to reiterate that. But it sounds like they're… Kara is calling just seniors.

And they're getting, from what I understand, really good responses for it.

So that's as much information as I have.

Okay, cars have us about 4 or 5… or the phone bank that they're with.

Has about 4 or 5 slots every day, and I think it's 4 days a week.

So there are a lot of thoughts, but the, um, car is calling seniors from 12 to 2.

On Monday. And that's the only one that car is… It's seniors calling seniors.

The other ones are all mixed up. And if anyone's not familiar with Prop 50, it's…

Uh, Trump asked Texas. For five Republican.

Um, seats in Congress. So, the legislature got together.

And voted… to redistrict mid-census instead of waiting until the census in 2030.

They have 5 more Republican seats in Texas now. And because of that.

Um, only California can balance that 5 seats, New York. It's set up… to prevent gerrymandering, and it's so difficult that it's just not likely to get anything from New York.

And then there are a few smaller states, Missouri, I think.

May have, uh, voted a seat to… added a seat. For the Republican, or they may be working on it.

And there's… there are up to 5 states where they're talking about.

Changing the seats. And that includes, um… both Republican and Democratic states.

And California has… set up a…

Uh, redistricting. For 2025, it's this…

Yes, on Prop 50 campaign. Um…

But there sunsets in 2030. In 2030, it goes back to the same rules that we have.

In play now, which prevent, um, gerrymandering in California. I don't know if that was clear.

Um… Is everyone clear on what… Prop 50 is about.

Yeah, I am.

Okay. Would anyone else like this? Shahana, would you like to share?

This didn't raise my hand. I don't know why… okay.

Can't hear you, Hannah. Now I can.

You've got a way again.

Now we can't hear you again.

All right. Can you hear me now?

Sort of.

I don't know why.

Let me just stop here. Okay. I'm sorry.

Okay.

What? Why don't you just call in?

I don't… I don't know why I can't… I'm… heard, but, um, can you hear me now if I stop driving?

Yes. Yes?

Is that better? Okay, so I'm very…

Oh, but I… I have to say that my own first reaction.

To this, um, bill, or this, uh, this, um. Initiative was that.

Uh, we can't fix a room with a right, or a wrong with a wrong.

Anyway, I'm just wondering if Kara is in their training, is offering, besides.

The logistics of how to use the call system? Um, if they're also helping, uh, folks, um, understand the arguments and the talking points.

Or if there's something…

They go over briefly during the training, but they had a special program on it already.

The long… went along, there's… nope.

I think.

Something… Betsy, I have to disconnect, it's beeping.

Maybe it's recorded.

I'm not sure what happened there, okay.

That, uh, some, like, 3-hour programs. And I left convinced that I would vote for it, even though it is a very bad bill, and had bad, uh, connotations.

Uh, but… Perfect has a whole political machinists behind it. I'm gonna vote for it.

But among the fact connotations is we have… We have already put in our Constitution that we have a commission.

For broadcast tracks. First, well, what…

Go over that, uh… submissions that we set up, and not only.

Uh, not what the Commission operate this election, but won't let that operate in the next.

I missed that last part that you said, in the next two elections.

Yeah, that connection will not operate. That is… that we will have the districts that are defunding this bill.

But there really would, and anyone interested, I invite you to see how we go these districts are.

Um, on the phone banking, they do have talking points, and they introduce the talking points.

But don't present. The other side of the argument. The thing I listened to present the pro and con.

And I thought that was wonderful. They have the cons.

They were quite persuasive. But I fell, um, sick and was said, oh, I will vote yes.

Not retribution, I still… That was the idea of two wrongs don't make a right.

But we do have to have… a vector, right?

That one thing I've… Access…

Um, Carol, I think you had your hand up first.

Okay, uh, thanks. So, it's really very simple. You know, we're at a critical turning point in our country.

We don't have control in Congress now. And our civil liberties are being chipped away at.

We're losing, uh, funding for significant programs. Whether you're an immigrant or just a low-income person, you're…

You're losing right now. In Congress, because the Republicans have control of Congress. The Republicans are, uh, decided in Texas.

That they want to redistrict. So that they could solidify.

Maintaining control of Congress, where we can anticipate that, or I don't know if anticipate is the right word, expect.

There were all… everything that we're on the road to losing, we are going to lose. I mean, and that includes, uh, attacks on, uh, housing subsidies.

I mean, across the… Medicaid, Medicare, ever… all these things. So the bottom line is, they want to solidify their position.

So, California is just taking the response. That this is how we.

Redistrict so that we… uh, can increase Democratic seats.

Yeah, I mean, you could get stuck in ideology of, oh, this is wrong, so two wrongs don't… make a right, and then you just lose.

With your… you lose everything else. You just have to… approach situations like this in a very pragmatic way, and the.

Pragmatically, this is how California needs to respond. To offset what has happened in Texas.

So that we hope we can… gain more positions in Congress.

Bye. Thank you, Carol.

Thank you.

Yeah, hi.

Well, it's…

Robert was… had his hand up next, and then Hallie. Okay. And I'd like to be in the pack.

Okay.

Got it. Robert?

Okay, you want me to go? Normally, I would oppose any mid… decade reinforcement.

But Texas is doing it. And I think we have to fight back.

In my opinion. In my opinion.

Mid… mid-decade redistricting should be… it gets to be illegal and should be applied to all 50 states.

The Texas can't pull crap like that, and what it's doing.

So I think that we have to support 50, we have to do the… do the three districts, and just to fight back at Texas.

Yeah, because I… because they're going… they don't have to… Now, Texas doesn't have to.

Have an election. I think we have to have this election.

Norma? Yeah. Can you get in?

Okay.

No, I couldn't find an address. You couldn't find the length?

Sorry? You couldn't find the link?

I couldn't find the address. It's… it's on Zoom.

It's on Zoom. Yes, it's a speaker meeting.

We're just gonna disconnect me from you. And then what?

You'll be in the meeting when you go on Zoom. Oh, okay.

Hi, Betsy. I gotta go back to the meeting.

Okay, what I want to ask is, uh. Norma and I booked.

And can book for our endorsement. Calls have passed for promotion.

Okay, we're still having a discussion. Howie's coming up next.

Yeah, um… As far as this two wrongs don't make a right.

Okay.

We have had wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong on the Republican side.

Um, we have never had such a clear threat to our democracy or our Constitution.

And we need to do something. To counteract what's being done illegally in other places.

That's the way I look at it.

Thank you. Now, um… Nancy, and then Carol.

I'm sorry, Nancy, and then, uh, Betsy, and then Carol.

I just put a link, um, a couple minutes ago, um, from a CalMatters commentary.

Uh, regarding Prop 50, uh, and basically why it's important to defend that.

My hand is up.

Okay, I'm sorry. Um…

Nancy went. Hello? Yeah, Betsy, go ahead.

Um, so… Um, I took some thought, you know, on this, and here's…

Here's three reasons why I'm comfortable. An overriding our… previous ballot proposition.

Which calls for a citizen to redistricting process. So this proposition.

Authorizes temporary changes. To our congressional district maps.

In response to Texas. Uh, redistricting.

And it is, um… what I like about it is that we, the voters, are being asked for permission.

By the legislature. Uh, they will put… have a special election on November 4th.

In which we will vote on this. That's, like, two, two… you know, this proposition is not… like, being imposed.

On us. It is being proposed. To us. So I appreciate that. And it's over in 2030.

In the 2030 election. We will revisit this whole thing.

So that's… that's why I support it. Um, but I do understand, it's like, wait, you worked really hard to get, you know, bipartisan…

Neutrals, this one redistricting. Um, but I appreciate the fact that it's an urgent response.

And have a sunset. It's over in 4 years, but it… So, um, and I do want to, like, actually call it, though, and see where we're at. I will vote for this, but that doesn't mean everyone here.

Has to vote for it, but it's part of its Great Panthers endorsing it.

Um, I would just… if someone would make a motion. Discussed it thoroughly.

So moved. So moved.

Then I would like to see that, Carol, if you… if you're up for calling the motion.

Controlling for emotion. Okay, Dave So moved.

So moved. Okay, and Mrs. Celia seconded the motion.

Second emotion, I second that motion.

Who, who moved? Dave made the motion, and Ms. Cecilia seconded the motion.

Thank you. Okay. And remember, this is all voted members can vote on this, so…

Yeah, um… Are there any further questions, or…

Well, I just want to say that I was very disappointed to see.

Something that needs to be said that has.

Excuse me, excuse me, Bessie, you got to file… you got to follow through with the motion. You have not carried the motion.

No, we're still discussing the most.

Discussion. We're still discussing this, Cecilia.

Okay, I didn't hear that part. I didn't hear when the question came up, the discussion. I didn't hear that part. That's why I asked.

Uh, okay.

Okay. A day's way, I've got two people ahead of you.

I wanted to say that I was very disappointed. Okay.

Sorry. Okay, Julia?

She stepped away.

Carol.

Yes.

Carol, did you want to say something?

Oh, I thought we were, uh, voting right now. Um, I just wanna… I was only gonna add that we… as this moves ahead.

Oh, you guys have your hand?

Uh, we can expect a lot of commercials. From people in power, and they have the money.

To make every argument possible to defeat this. And… there couldn't be something that's…

More critical right now as to us to try to get back our position in Congress.

And stop everything that's going on. Um, there'll be enough arguments against it.

And we can't even count on that this is definitely going to pass.

Because it's always been that the people with the most money.

When the elections. Thank you.

Okay, Julia?

Julia, did you want to speak?

I think everybody's probably said what I was going to say. I would normally never vote for a bill like this.

Uh, simply because I've spent most of my life fighting gerrymandering.

But these are just desperate times. I mean, I am really scared every time I watch the news.

Or here, one of the, uh… incredibly frightening things that Trump comes out with.

Yeah.

And uh… I've never experienced anything like that in my long lifetime.

And, uh, so I'm willing to fuzz a little bit, because if we play fair.

We're not gonna get anywhere. And the country is going… it's not going to be our country anymore, but there really is now.

That's how I wanted to say.

Right, you can't play fair when other… the other side is not playing fair.

Correct.

I know, I mean… is… I mean, I don't… on one level, I don't believe in that, and on the other level, I see it's absolutely necessary.

And I think that's the way most of us feel.

So, I will do it. And I'm merely angry that I'm forced into it having to do it.

Wait a minute, you've ignored me 3 times now, and I'm the maker of the motion. Can I at least say something?

Okay, I'm going to call the question. How many…

Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, David. Go ahead.

Um, I just wanted to say that everybody who thought that Arnold Schwarzenegger was Republican-like.

He jumped right to the fore to be the spokesperson for the NON 50 campaign.

And, uh, he's a scumbag like all of them.

I don't know how what you said. Are you agreeing with Schwarzenegger or not?

He voted yes.

He is the… he is the spokesperson for No On 50.

It's not Schwarzenegger.

The spokesperson. He is the front man for No On 50.

Wait a minute, what? Wait a minute, what?

No!

Okay, but he's changed his position. Have you heard that? I'm almost sure that's what I heard, so…

So…

Just check on it, check on it. Put it out there.

All right, redemption. I take it all the time.

Okay, never mind what I said then. Okay, if that's true.

But right now…

I know.

God bless them. He's all over their literature.

Somebody Google it quick!

Find out.

Yeah, I thought I heard him, uh, oppose it, or, I mean, support 50 and oppose… taxes.

No, I see no evidence of that. Are you sure, Norma?

No, I said, uh, I'm not sure. I have a slight memory of him coming on TV and saying.

He thinks, yes. So, you find out, and I'm gonna go find out, too.

But I'm not sure to do it fast enough for this product.

Whereas everything, including. Everything, including a… everything including AI, says that Schwarzenegger is totally against 50.

Very clearly against.

All of it.

Well, I have the same memory that Norma has.

Okay, I turned them off so I can hear you.

I do, too. I do, too. Have the same memory.

Fred and LA Times.

For a roll call. I'm about to, but I've got too many people talking at one time, and as.

Trying to hear you, too. Okay, I'm sorry. You can mute them.

I see absolutely no evidence. That Schwarzenegger has changed his position at all.

No. I just looked it up.

Uh, this is help, and I can post an article of his opposition that was just from yesterday.

To help folks, and allow me to do that. I'm using a screen reader, so I'll get that in there shortly.

Yeah.

It doesn't make any difference what those people think. You'll find out.

Just tell me what it says.

Okay? So I just… I just…

What did you say, Betsy? You can mute them! I did! I mute… they're muted now, so I can hear you, but I can't moderate when they're muted.

He said.

Well, this is Care Oak. This is…

Okay, so this is Carol. Okay, this is Carol Morasovic.

Nope. So… to mute them, not yourself.

And can you… right, can you hear me? Okay, so I just googled it while we were on this call.

Go ahead, do what you… do what you need to do. Okay.

Yes.

That we, uh, you know, we wanted to vote on this.

And I looked, and I went through about 10 articles. They all say that he opposes Prop 50.

And then… Okay.

I know, you want me to have them stop talking and vote, but I… they're going on and on while we're… while you're telling me what I'm already gonna do.

Okay, okay.

Yes.

So, okay, so can you hear me? Okay, so I just googled it and ran through about 10 articles. They all say.

Very openly.

That he opposes Prop 50. And there was an article specifically on Geronardo Schwarzenegger. It's probably gonna be the one that decides the election.

That's… it's gonna probably turn on him, because people vote. Celebrities, and they vote image.

And they may very well go with Schwarzenegger, but he is opposing.

No. Opposition 50 is gonna pass. Proposition 50 will pass. We have to look for it, but it will pass.

I hope!

It doesn't make me… what those people think. The answer is yes, you support it.

You want them to have some access. To mess with these people that are messing with us.

Right.

Okay, let's pause the question. All those in favor?

Yes, folk, yes.

Bye.

Uh, second, I guess.

I need virtual hands from the people that are… okay. This is Robert and Patrick.

Uh, I came… my computer's not working the right. Aye.

How many… do we have any no votes?

It doesn't make any difference what Schwarzenegger thinks.

Okay, it's done.

Here, uh, you wouldn't know? Okay.

No, I'm voting yes. I took my hand down. I had my hand up because…

Okay, do we have any abstentions? How are you abstaining? Um…

Um, I'm trying to lower my hand. I voted yes.

Okay, good. Okay, motion carries.

We did it. Unanimously.

Unanimously.

Everybody else hasn't had a chance to find a way to log on.

Jesse and, uh, what's her name? Betsy and Raines? They've gone through stark grape… They have gone, hello?

I'm holding right for you.

Betsy and Raines have gone stark raving mad over the computer.

And have input everything that ever passed by in their lives.

And you can't get anything done through the stuff that they've posted.

For us to join the meeting. I was on for an hour trying to connect.

Now, norm… norm… Norma, they're trying to connect by satellite, and the satellite.

I don't know why you have trouble if you…

Rain felt at 1 o'clock that afternoon. Be able to…

Service isn't that good. They're in New England.

Well. They're wrong.

Go on to something else that's interesting. Yeah, go under something else that's interesting.

Okay, Norma, can you stop, please? Please stop, Norma.

Yes. Yeah. Always.

I like that thumbs out.

Okay. The motion carried. We're going to support Prop 50.

Why don't you repeat that a bunch of times?

She's being sarcastic, ignore her.

Well…

Okay… And I can't see the agenda.

Uh, we're now… Um.

There it is. I wanted to know if… I want to raise my hand, Phil.

The next… the next study? On the agenda.

Is the Parkland Rec Board. Are we continuing our sponsorship? Uh, we went forward convention planning. Okay.

Uh, but honestly, we could also… have announcements, and then regroup at the board meeting in two weeks.

Another option. I'm sorry, what was the other option?

Uh, we could convince… Why don't we go ahead with that, and then Carol has an announcement.

But we can reconvene. If at the board meeting with all of the members joining.

Board meetings on November. The… discussing… We're going to continue…

Convention planning for the Berkeley Rent Board will do at the board meeting.

Well, he could… I would like to do it now. Okay, then let me do it.

Okay, thank you. I just want to know, because we're… We're a little bit on the hook to put in some money.

As a sponsor. If we're going to be a sponsor, then we should.

Could be a couple hundred bucks.

Okay, the Berkeley Rent Board, the… Ray… Berkeley Ray Panthers.

Has supported the Berkeley Rent Board, um, nomination convention in prior years.

And we need to decide if we're going to do that again this year. If so.

We need to, um… We need to pay… pay several hundred dollars to support.

The election.

Okay, I'm happy. Suppose the election.

Can I add one thing? Wait a minute. We put in a couple hundred dollars.

Betty, Betsy's suggesting that we put in a couple hundred dollars.

It's not mandatory. It's not mandatory.

We're going to have to pay to what? Use the Senior Center. It's not free.

Oh, okay, it's… If there'll be…

It would help pay for the Senior Center where the election will be held, or the, uh… But we haven't decided yet, but I wanna…

We're meeting on Sunday. Okay. Okay, Betsy wants to be able to go back and tell them on Sunday whether or not we're going to join in the.

Rent board this year. Excuse me, Betsy.

Dirk, go ahead.

Dirk? Derek, you're on mute.

Okay, Dirk, we'll come back to you. Helen?

Yeah, I'm just kind of trying to get clarification. I'm understanding that Betsy is trying to put forward on our agenda that we take a vote.

On funds, uh, for an upcoming meeting so that. The… whatever we donate, I think Betsy said a few hundred dollars.

Uh, would pay for the rent. Of the venue, where this is taking place. I could not grasp what the org… the name of the organization won.

And two, do we know how much are in our funds, and if we can afford that? So that's my question.

We have funds, um… we… this is something we've done before, it's the support of Berkeley, uh.

Okay, it's for the red port, now I get it, because I was not sure.

Rent Board. Yeah, and the help pay for the rental at South Berkeley.

Um.

Senior Center.

Okay. Well, um, I… I feel good about that. Um, I'm hoping others might, you know, join in the conversation.

Yes, I'm trying to get my video on, I can't do it somehow, I don't know why.

Okay, Dave, next.

Well, Carol?

There it is.

Starting off. Um, yes, Betsy, um… you were not quite fully clear about whether or not it will be an in-person convention. There hasn't been one for 8 years.

They took advantage of the pandemic to cancel in-person conventions.

Yeah, the… the planning team… So far, has been meetings.

Erratically since February. And we're now at a place where, one, we want to affirm who are the sponsor.

Actually challenge you. The East Bay Democratic Socialists of America.

Uh, some student groups. Um, who do a lot of work.

Outreach to tenants. Um, and gray panthers is…

You know, even though we don't endorse. Selected candidates, we are still part of.

It's planning collaborative, whatever you want to call it. Uh, so their desire is to have a.

Hybrid meeting at a place. That can accommodate up to 200 people, because that's.

What it used to be, uh, or more, when. Get that in person, so… We have not yet chosen.

The in-person venue? But, uh, uh, the place that is.

Has enough chairs, enough space. And we'll, we'll, uh, let us reserve.

Space this year, in 2025, for something that's happening. In February or March of 26.

This is kind of, uh, affirming that we would like to be a member of this.

Convention planning team. Um, and I don't need to be the only person. I would love to have another.

Member here who would like to step up. But what is… the issue is.

I'll be willing, uh, puncture. Uh, once again, and do we all…

And this year, can we put up. You know, uh, up to…

Betty, Betsy, you haven't answered my question quite yet. I'm still trying to hear from you.

$200.

Are they definitely going to have a hybrid meeting, a real meeting, or is that just a hope?

What are you saying? I don't want to give them any money, you know where I see him, Betsy. I don't want to give them any money unless they're really going to have a convention.

And they are willing… $100 deposit.

So, I'm sorry, bud.

Yep. I… as you know, as you can well imagine, I don't want to give them any money unless they're really going to have a convention, so please be clear, have they decided definitely to rent a space and have a convention?

Or is it maybe?

Okay, I'm bringing back the information to the group. Other people have brought back.

The cost and availability of other locations. And I can tell you this was…

Uh, none of the other places allow reservations. This far in advance, so… Yes, the group would like to do it in person.

We have to look at the budget and see what sponsors are able to contribute, because no, the.

A planning collaborative, right? Does not have a budget.

Uh, and any money it does raise goes to help. The candidates that we… endorse the slate of candidates for the right work week.

Might put that money into. Actually promoting them.

Um, but, uh…

Wait a minute, as you know, if our money is going to go towards the camp… Betsy.

You want to sell me… I think… so I am… I am acting proactively.

To say that right here, I hope to be able to say.

Brain cancers, watch the sponsor, and can put up money. If we're not ready to do that, then I'll just.

Deliver the information.

Betsy, you've raised another issue. Can I please get clarification? You've raised the issue that the money that we raise will go to support the slate. Is that what you said?

Did I misunderstand?

No, because we are raising the money for the convention. But other money gets raised.

Okay, good. Because that would endanger our status.

Later here. So right now, it's just…

Uh, we take, you know, it's… the bill is gonna be about $400.

To have the convention indoors in a place with decent internet.

And tables and chairs. It'll be a little more if we wanna… have to. But basically, the budget…

You know, it's not huge. A few hundred dollars, and we don't have to put in $200, but I…

Robert can confirm this, but I believe we have over $5,000 in the bank.

As you speak. So, you know.

I have to decide now about… I would like to test the waters.

I would be in favor of voting. I would be in favor of voting to give them $200.

Yeah.

If and when they book a place. Until then, I do not want to give the PTU $200 of our money.

Okay, so get a proposal.

So, let's make a distinction. That we can be… we can… it's like a… it's like a Kickstarter, I would…

It's like a Kickstarter.

Until we have a $5,000 deposit. We have to give the Senior Center a $5,000 deposit.

Now, we know Greg Panthers doesn't have to pay off. I'm sorry, $500 deposit.

We don't have to pay all that. But there has to be some… people, you know, ponying up.

That closet. Uh, and that's where I'm at.

What's that got to do with whether or not we give $200 towards renting the place?

I don't see what the deposit has to do with that.

Well, that money is hard cash, so we can't promise. If he promised $100 to contribute.

Then, uh, it's still not possible to book the. And you said, you don't want to put any money in.

So we booked the place, and that's not possible to book the place.

Someplace.

So what are you saying? That they're never going to be able to book the place?

Without the deposit. But I feel…

Revisit this. We can revisit this. It's not ready.

Okay, let's get some more information and be revisited, if you don't mind. I'd like to get some clarity.

Okay. So, I've still… I've got 3 people that wanted to share, should we…

I guess we'll go ahead and call on them, and then move on to something else.

Dirk? Please.

Clearly, we are not endorsing a political candidate. For the rent for golf us. We are merely discussing.

Giving them some money to book a place. Is that correct?

Didn't understand. Are we giving them the money to book the place?

Yes.

That's what we're discussing. Well, I think we're tabling it for now, unless I'm mistaken.

Yep. Well, I always think it in two parts. Why don't we take… why don't we take this.

Part. If there's a motion. To… I would like to… I would like to know.

There's support for us continuing. To participate in the Resport Convention Planning team.

As its monitor. We've done it for years. Are we continuing?

We haven't given them money for 8 years. We haven't given them money, unless I'm mistaken, for 8 years.

I don't… I don't… I can't understand. I can't understand internal. You need to translate.

Isn't that true?

Dave said, we haven't given them money for 8 years, is that true?

I have no idea. I don't think we've given them any money since I've been president.

Coping enough, you know? Yeah. But other people were part, you know, other…

Other, uh, board members for partisan planning team, Eleanor Walton. Was the last one.

No, I don't think we'd be giving them money, but… I'm working around computers.

You know, I'm only gonna have… Okay.

Dirk? Dirk, did you want to share… you need to take your hand down if you don't want to share.

I just want to second the idea. Tet table first. Idea until we have more clarity.

Second, second.

Yeah, I'm… raised my hand for this, yeah.

Yeah, I agree with that, too.

Okay, stables.

Carol, did you have something else to share?

Well, I was just gonna say. Berkeley Tenants Union has.

An expansive mailing list. Um, and so… and they charge dues.

It's not clear why they can't pay themselves for the rental of a room.

This is essentially… hand-picked Berkeley Tenants Union candidates.

Which they basically end up reaffirming. After election, let me finish, and.

Well. Yes, ma'am.

I don't believe in loyalty oaths, I don't believe in autocracy, I don't believe in dictatorships.

This is all what we're facing nationally. So, I don't think it's a reason to support things, but I do believe in tenants' rights.

That's what I want to say, but it's been tabled anyway. Thank you.

Okay. No. I'm sorry.

Table. Yes. We're tabling the issue.

Okay, both, both. Being part of it, and… oh!

All right.

If I'm understanding, if I… and I hope it's okay, Carol, I think what I'm understanding with what I can hear.

There was another thing that Betsy wanted to know if. The other thing was us being involved in the planning. Is that what… is that what I heard? So there is also…

There's two parts. Uh, funding, which is being tabled. The other part is, do we want to be involved in the planning? Is that…

What you're asking, Betsy? Part of the planning committee.

Yeah, I… yeah. Gotcha. I have a going…

I think that… and that… Hold… okay.

And that doesn't come with having to be funding anything. I think we're just trying to form.

Who wants to be a part of that, but we need to know that, so if we're interested in being a part of the committee, I think that's what you're moving forward, or as a question to us, yes?

Yeah, that is, uh… It is a committee with representatives.

Okay.

Of sponsoring organizations. With straps being solidified.

Kudos are. Great Catherine just did one for…

A decade, I don't know. Maybe longer.

So, I mean, just to get things going, I move that.

We form a committee to help with the planning of this upcoming, which I think you're saying is in November?

I don't think we need to plan a committee, we just need consent.

Uh, one, you know, representative, which I've been doing. But I'd like at least one other person who can.

Contracting to be a backup. So, I think we're close.

To the motion. It is, uh… But yes, do we want to be part of this planning collaboration.

We do not have to form our own committee fees.

Okay, so that already exists. Basically. Asking to have a…

Somebody to come along with you with this planning so you're not doing it alone.

Yeah, I… I've been thinking of Michael Hegnerky. He's… he's not here today, but he is the member who's active.

On other of the… Berkeley housing issues and…

Uh, you know, one of the… one of the graduates members attended the Union.

And might be able to… feedback. Someone else.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I'm understanding you're kind of inviting… inviting somebody if they're also interested, but you have somebody also in mind. I think that's great.

So, it's really just really just formally does the membership. You know, we could wish to recommend to the board if there's more decisions.

To be made. But yeah, I would love to get an affirmation that.

We do… we do… that great parents should still be involved in the conversation.

About serves on the Red Board. Part of my take on it.

Wanted to have a genius, please check that email.

Because we're among the… yeah. Dominated by…

Aye. I was a cow student at one time.

I feel like we need to keep bringing up the voices of older and disabled.

Whatever her name is. Yeah, what's her first name?

Thanks.

I'm sure this is something you can handle, Betsy, if we don't need a vote, is that correct?

Mora, yeah. So, uh, CC, Rick.

You know, there are hands up, and… I want to say that part of the obligate… there's an obligation.

Alright, hard work. What's the name of that group?

When you, uh, get involved in the planning. So there's…

Dirk, can you put yourself on mute?

Yeah.

So, there's an obligation when you become part of this. That you will… you have to take a loyalty…

World War II. That's from first concert.

That you cannot support or endorse anybody else. Regardless of who they turn out to be.

Without knowing who the candidates are. You're essentially giving… relinquishing your democratic rights.

I want the ticket for me, and… 4 tickets per kiss.

By agreeing to be part of this planning process.

I can't hear what anybody's saying with all the talk over. Carol, can you recollect this somehow so we can actually just move forward?

Of words.

Yeah. Dirk… Dirk?

Cross-size sales fees.

Dirk! You need to put yourself on mute, we can't hear.

Where is that fuse?

Okay, um, I'm gonna call on Julia.

Okay, alright, I've got my mute off now. Okay, I'm a member of the Berkeley Tenants Union.

And, uh, actually, I think I'm still a member of the steering committee.

But…

Excuse me, I'll turn this off. What I wanted to say is we need some people to go to that, uh.

To go to that planning convention, because the people that run it have been running it, uh, one of them is just really intent on making up rules and oaths and crap like that, which I… certainly oppose. And the last time I voted in it, I even had to swear an oath in order to be able to vote, which had never been the case before.

And I… so I would really like us to get people in there.

Who would try to put a halt to this kind of thing. There's only one person that… and I'm not going to name names, who's really into that kind of thing.

But that person seems to have a lot of, uh… weight in making decisions, so I think it's important that we put somebody in that.

Because the… you know, it's a tenant, the rent board is very important to me.

And, uh, I'm really interested in getting good, you know, getting good people on the board.

Uh, I suffered one year, then had to pay several hundred dollars a month for a number of years, because one year the rent, uh, the landlords took over the rent board.

So, I'm very aware that we tenants need. To have the right people on the rent board in order to make it service in our best interest.

Uh, that's all I have to say right now. But I do encourage people to, um.

To… to help Bepsi. With, uh… I feel a little awkward, you know, volunteering myself, since I'm also a member of the tenants' Union.

Feels a little like I'm riding divorces at the same time, or something.

Uh, but I encourage the rest of you to join in.

That's all I have to say right now. Thank you.

Okay. Dirk?

I just want to make sure an over-publicity, we have ourselves as a.

A falter of a run fork.

I'm sorry, I didn't understand what you said.

Or perhaps someone else could interpret. We want to be a sponsor of the Rent Board.

He wants it made public, I think, so to give us credit.

Is that correct, Dirk?

Yeah, on Sir, literature, yes.

Yeah, on the literature, he's saying that we should, uh, it should be clear that we are a sponsor.

Of this.

Yeah.

They didn't vote…

That might cost us $200.

Well, the money we put on hold… But we were going to vote on whether we want to support the Rent Board.

Uh, can see all in favor?

Um, and… how… well, uh, any…

Okay, I don't see… I see three hands up, but I don't see any… I'm assuming… wait a minute…

I'm not sure exactly what we're voting on.

That's… So am I. Betsy, what are you trying to say?

I'm unclear what you're asking for.

We can continue this. Because, uh, we can continue this conversation at the board meeting.

Okay, we'll talk about this on the board. We'll talk about this further at the board meeting on October… in the first week in October.

It'll be the first Wednesday in October at 1.30 p.m. And all members are welcome to attend.

So that said, however. I do want to say, Carol, hostage-based raised.

A really important issue, which is that. Decision Friday.

Self, you know, self-organized collaborative. That plan to convention decides things like the questions that will be asked.

And the criteria. That candidate, people who want to be endorsed.

Have to abide by. And there's, uh, there's also…

Agreement stuff to members of the collaborative, like our organization. Would abide by, which is that.

Uh, we would not endorse any candidates, but we would not endorse.

People who… which we don't do, but we wouldn't endorse. Even Carol, who ran for the rent board, and she was…

You know, a great Panther member. We did not endorse her, not just.

Because we don't… there's candidates, but because… We, uh, because we have an agreement that, as a sponsor of this.

Convention, we will support the slate, and the slate only. And we don't campaign for the slate.

But we don't campaign for anyone else, either. That's… That's the organization. That doesn't mean individuals.

And I think… Okay, we've tabled the discussion until the board meeting. Let's see what that… Okay, and I will just say, we could get the current, the new.

Chair of the steering committee at the Berkeley Tenants Union could come in, and it's not… It's a new space who's doing good work, and we could ask.

Ask them to. Tell us a little more about what their thoughts are on the process.

They're not sharing the convention planning team. Okay. Okay, I'll stop there.

I see Patrick's hand and David's hand, so let's say… hear from Patrick first, and then David.

Patrick? Can you unmute?

He's not responding. David?

Betsy, I'm a little more confused than ever, so I want a little clarity before we move on.

Um, my understanding was our nonprofit status would be endangered. If we endorsed candidates, we can endorse issues.

Relate in some, however small way, to… to our mission. Supporting elderly. But, um, but we can never support candidates, so I'm not sure what you were saying with, we didn't endorse.

Carol, but we might have, but we didn't. It's very confusing to me, and I don't know what it means, then, when we sign an oath, since we can't endorse candidates.

To support the slate and not support anyone else. When we can't make endorsements.

Have I… have I misunderstood? I would like to understand that much before we move on.

As an organization, we wouldn't put out public statements endorsing. A particular candidate, but we always… candidate.

We can't. Legally, we can't. Isn't that true?

We can do. I'm sorry, what?

We legally can't endorse candidates without endangering our nonprofit status. Isn't that true?

Um, it's… I think that's the least…

Issue. Not to David. If we were… partisanly for particular candidates.

Yeah, it's true, it's true.

Yes, among the million nonprofits. That are operating in California. It's possible.

That someone might report us, and it's possible there might be.

A question about it, and it's very pos… it's possible. That, uh, there could be repercussions.

It's so unlikely. I think it's more important that we.

We are committed, one way or another, that we don't. You know, we're not actively.

As an organization, we're not stuffing for candy. We can certainly individually, as members, have preferences.

And we can also educate the public on why we. Support certain processes.

But that's different than naming names and giving money to their campaigns.

I… I just think… I just think it's dangerous, from everything I know.

Yes, from a caution…

It's dangerous for us to say specifically. The gray panthers support the Rent Board Slate.

That's what I think.

Yeah. Um, I'm involved in several different 501c3 organizations. And we're… and I do the newsletter for the Berkeley Retired Teachers.

And we… when I'm doing my newsletter, I can't even put in endorsing any candidates. I can put in about issues.

And that's the same with CARA. We can… we can, uh… do issues, but we cannot endorse.

What we did for Proposition 50, we cannot do for the rent board slate.

Specific candidates. It's very clear.

Right, because that's an issue, that is not a candidate.

Can I put up my hand? Again, Carol, when the time comes.

Right.

Okay, Patrick, um… you can't…

You can't, uh… speaks of what…

Patrick, you said you don't have your microphone hooked up, but I see your hand up.

Is he in chat? In chat, he said that he can't… he doesn't have his microphone hooked up.

Oh, okay. No.

My computer is not working properly. I'm not able to raise my hand.

But I just want to say I agree with… with David and Haley said. It's true. Mm-hmm.

Okay. Dirk?

Well, I'm a triple non-profits, and that's the case. For all of, uh… Anthroxy is true, but not the candidate. So, I'm going both work days from Betsy.

Everybody is saying the same thing, and after… unnecessary dick, though.

We're not… Okay, well, I think it's time we move on to something else.

I'm sorry, brain's just walking. Okay, we're gonna leave the rent board to the…

Board meeting on first Wednesday of. October.

Okay, and I'll… I can say more then about why I think it's valuable for us to stay on the planning team.

And be a sponsor. Okay, you can say it then.

We need to let this go for now.

Carol, where is the meeting going to be held on the first Wednesday?

For the executive board.

The board meeting will be held at 1.30 p.m. On the first Wednesday of October.

It's gonna be on Zoom. Yeah.

Aware, the location. Oh, thank you, thank you so much. Okay. The same meeting ID, everything the same. Okay, thank you.

Let's see… Oh, thank you.

First Wednesday of October is the 1st.

This next week.

Okay, then… the next, um…

Recommendations to Board. Betsy, what is that? Well, that was to make sure we leave time to…

Vote if we're gonna vote. Okay, so then the next point is… upcoming topics and speakers.

Um, uh, so… Um.

I feel the communication is so bad, I can't really… page much, but right now, there's…

Carol had, um. You know, we participate.

About 4… It's a great Panther members.

Participate with the homeless, uh. With a group that's doing advocacy in Berkeley.

For, um… people who are… Uh, unhoused.

And, uh, there's a group that's working to create a safe parking program.

For RVs and vehicle dwellers and or tiny house. Village on a public street. We're, we're…

You've been talking to folks, and Maria Soule has been very active, Carol has been very active, I've been out of town.

But otherwise active, and I'm hoping. To get, uh, a couple of reports on where.

Uh, homeless… homelessness policies are going. And Carol Morosevic has.

Like, 3 or 4 points set. She brought up in a conversation with me, and I'm hoping.

She'll go through that. Um, because there's a lot of backlash now.

And, uh… We're, like, one of the few organized.

Group, uh, community groups that is actively supporting. You know… this issue from the point of view of the voices of.

People with lived experience, including our own members. Seniors, as I keep repeating, seniors and disabled adults are the…

Most growing category of people becoming homeless. And, um, the city… Uh, auditor has suggested recommendations, the city.

Homelessness committee, not commission, but the staff. Have made a report.

You know, both those came down last week, and there's a lot of… off of citizen and business opposition to…

Continuing programs that support our unhoused neighbors, so… maybe Kel can say a little more about that issue, the issues, and…

Recommendations coming out of this, uh. Her experiences with this, uh…

Berkeley, safe parking, and Tiny Home Village Working Group.

It looks like Carol's no longer in the meeting. Well, then let's talk… let's…

If you want, Betsy, I'm on the meeting, and I'm also a part of the group, if you want that, but otherwise, you can table it to next meeting.

No, that's right. Helen, Helen is another active… person. I think, uh, do you want to say a little bit about the meeting that was yesterday with, uh, Ben Bartlett?

Sure, if that's what you want help with, I'm very happy to do that.

Yes.

Um, I'll go ahead now, if that's okay. Yeah, yesterday, Tiny Village Spirit Homes had a meeting with Ben Bartlett.

And the meeting actually got some traction. Um, I actually had opportunity to speak with Ben Bartlett after the meeting.

And he kind of spoke further about how he would like to.

Make this something that… he's, uh, kind of leading, so he, in some ways, uh, wanted… is very involved.

Um, I… I am in, uh. District 2 is Tara Taplin's district.

And I do know that Terry Taplin is one that's not 4, but when I posed that to Ben Bartlett.

He said that he would… get involved with helping the group in organizing it to see if he can get buy-in, and he felt.

Good about getting majority of the council members. Involved and wanted to put the time in which.

Uh, was amazing. So, the group must have, um. I wasn't in the meeting, I was there after the meeting.

Um, the group put on a fantastic presentation. And then really was able to grasp the concepts and ideas. So, um…

And all it went well, and I'm just grateful with how much effort the group put into this.

That everybody played a significant role in the parts of the meeting they led.

If there's any questions, happy to answer questions. I'm not sure how many people know what tiny homes.

Village spirit is… Um, I could give you a little bit more information, but Betsy wanted me to just sort of report on the meeting, and I hope that was clear enough.

Thank you, thank you, Helen. I'm not hearing anything from Betsy.

Yes? Oh, I'm… did I… I'm here. I'm here, and I put my hand… please, let me…

I'd like to respond briefly. Please do. So, is that all right, Carol? Go ahead.

Okay, so thank you, Helen. Um, I'm… I'm going to… getting me on to them.

Sure. Okay. So… Oh, okay. Alright.

You hung up there? Yeah.

Quick, quick, click like button. Sounds good.

You're supposed to speak.

Oh, there we go, there we go.

There's range, oops.

So, um, yeah, thank you, Helen.

Um, and I see Patrick has a hand up, so…

This is, um… what I wanted to say, two things, so…

Uh, Terry… so…

What Carol appraised me on was, um…

several things. So, one, city council just

canceled because of all the pushback, two public toilets.

That had been planned

As an amenity to all Berkeleyans, but especially for folks who are living on the streets.

Two public toilets have been canceled because of backlash.

from a neighbor's group called Beautiful San Pablo,

And we had voted to support those toilets. I mean, we…

We weren't making them happen, we just generally have been supportive.

of, uh, you know, making life a little easier.

And, uh, certainly from… so…

That, in addition to this,

Uh, the…

I just am aware there's much more opposition

Especially in Terry Taplin's District 2.

As well as District 3, where Ben Bartlett is,

And in District 1, with Rashi Keshwarwani. So there has been…

On the one hand, we're…

getting reports about

all the good progress to house people who are unhoused,

But, uh…

On the other hand, the city is still having sweeps, or taking action. It's not as bad as it was.

And citizens and businesses are trying to basically eliminate

any kind of public-facing homeless services. I'm exaggerating, but you get the idea.

So, um…

uh… what…

Some of the best practices that I heard from Carol, uh, that… that Ben

recommended. He… is he said, focus. Focus on a particular…

Target group, like seniors.

Right? So…

Seniors are fast-growing in the homeless field, sadly,

And they are underserved by shelters.

And other programs.

Um, uh, we also have a strong, I think, need for more mental health

uh, you know, active mental health outreach. So, gray panthers and standing up for a senior

safe parking programs is actually a natural.

So, I feel like that's something I would… I… I'm hoping we get clarity on, that we could pursue.

You know, in support of what other groups are doing, but to get them on board,

Because the city is in a deficit,

A two-year deficit that was kind of hidden.

from us a little bit, but there is a deficit, there's no new money, there's no new monies.

For homeless services, and um…

So the strategy of asking City Council to somehow bless a project…

That is just very ill-defined.

So far, there's support for this.

safe parking, but I just want to remind that. Also, you know, Helen is in a district, uh, Shoshana, I think her name is the council member.

And that's someone we could talk to, so there is a committee,

Coming up, called Community Life.

And well-being or something like that. There's a committee with Igor…

Shoshana and…

I'm blanking, maybe Cecilia Lunapara.

Um, and that, that, uh, Carol had information about how we could talk to them about support.

And where, um, some additional funds.

could come from in the way of mental health services. But I'm going… I'm kind of broad. I'm sorry, I'm losing focus.

Um, so if anyone would be willing to go to that,

that, uh, council, committee,

and speak up for this, that's great. We… we should…

hopefully talk this further.

Um, we do have a commitment

to speak up and stand up for

you know, not just seniors, but disabled adults, and I feel like we've done a really good track record

But in this case, uh, that message, in the case of our homeless advocacy, sometimes that message gets a little

lost. So…

Um, if we want…

to have further discussion.

and support, um…

I'd love to hear that. But uh… but I know, um…

Carol, I'll just pause, and this is something we may have to pick up again with speakers.

and future topics.

at our next meeting, so…

Yeah, and you know, thanks, Betsy, and I, um, again, just to clarify here, I'm coming from giving an update on the meeting yesterday when I spoke to Ben Bartlett after the meeting.

And asked a few other questions. And so I'm just sharing what… where his interests are, and what he noticed.

Uh, because, you know, he knows I'm on the Commission on Disability, and we had, you know, he was wondering. So, but with that being said.

Um, Ben Bartlett had an interest in a sheltering, you know, women.

Um, that was an interest that he had. And I know that we should be focusing and attending maybe members of this group would like to come to these meetings.

Because I do think it's our unhoused. Community members that are involved with.

Doing this, that we're listening to their lived experiences. I know we have interest here with the Gray Panthers, but I don't think we should be steering.

The work that they are doing, and I think we should be joining the meetings and listening to their.

Interests, um, and I appreciate, you know, uh. All the involvement we've had. I know Betsy's been working hard on this as well as Carol.

And we're making some great progress. And, um, everybody who left the meeting, uh, really felt good.

About, uh, how well they did. They've been meeting with other people.

And so this is a long process that I think they've been doing a really good job on.

But, uh, those meetings maybe would help if. We added that so members might be able to go when the tiny village home meetings are, and maybe, you know, members here can go, because a lot of people have a lot of knowledge in this area.

And that's just my thoughts. Thank you.

So, I think it's just an update, and that, um, about 5 of us are

in… as you hear, it's…

A number of us are at these, uh, sometimes weekly, sometimes

twice a month, um, gatherings, uh, in conversation, and then occasional meetings with council members.

Um, so, obviously, we don't necessarily have one mind here.

Um, can I make one… I'd like to make one other… this is an announcement that Carol…

mentioned to me that is of interest for those who are working on mental health issues.

I don't know who here is interested in that, but you know,

Uh, I will just say that the disability rights

advocates? Is that what they're called? The… the lawyers.

Who sued on behalf of residents of the Alameda County, and including one resident of Berkeley.

Sued the county regarding. Um, bad conditions at… John George.

Is that the name? And Santa Rita Jail. Those are, like, forcible admissions for people with a mental…

Breakdown, or, you know, some kind of endangering people. You know, forcibly sending people there, and it costs a…

Several million… it costs in the million dollars and more range for this city of Berkeley to send people.

To these, uh… somewhat dangerous and badly working facilities.

Um, so, uh, this disability rights advocates, Helen probably knows. Knows them, are in negotiations.

And no one at the City of Berkeley in Carol Morosevic's experience is really… asking for some of the settlement money.

Which would be helpful. In other words, the mental health commission.

Is supposed to be negotiating, but… Uh, uh, uh, no one here is able to tell us that, but Carol Morasovich was saying.

You know, this… this needs to be brought up to city council members.

As well as city staff. Because right now, uh… it's unclear that anyone is asking for some of that settlement money, which could help.

That particular aspect. Of the, um… homeless services, especially.

For people with… with… mental illness. It would help.

It would help anyone who's forcibly hospitalized. So I'll just leave that, uh, leave it at that.

Thank you, and other people may have comments about that, but… I'm good, Carol.

Um, care… Carol?

I hope you'll come back and facilitate, but otherwise, I'm going to step in for a minute.

And say, the agenda. Of other upcoming topics and speakers is that, um.

Um, outgoing board member, Christy Martin. Is stepping down, and she will not be… she's not looking to serve on the board again.

Um, but she has had a long-standing topic of interest that.

Um, is shared by a person… by Dirk Neyhart, who we… who has expressed interest, and the board.

Is likely to put forward his name. So that is in medical-assisted, uh.

Aid in dying. And that's an issue that Christie has… passionately pursued here in Berkeley with the Health Department and.

There's a state commi… a state committee. That's working on this, and uh… She offered an old friend of hers who is an expert in the bioethics of assisted.

Um, um, death… assisted dying. Like in Switzerland. In fact, he lives and works in Switzerland, where.

You can apply for assistance suicide. That's not the right term. Anyway, that's a possible topic coming up.

Maybe this winter, even in November or December. So…

I see… I think we're… we might be ready to… to… to… to close this, but uh… Are there other announcements.

Besides the ones that are listed in the. In the program, in the agenda.

Are there any additional reports to be made here? Hi, Nancy?

Oh, and Carol is back, okay. I'll turn it over to Carol after calling on Nancy. You've got your hand up.

Hi, just… If Carol wants to go first, I can make my rate way back into my room where it's quiet. I do have an issue.

Well, she… she's… she would be taking back. Moderating this meeting.

Ah, gotcha. Okay, so I have, um, an issue that was brought to my attention.

Um, about a transgender woman who's 33 years old. Um, she was in, um, UCI, and over 100, uh, or hundreds, I should say, just over 200.

Um, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, and licensed and unlicensed small beds.

Um, all refused her, and there's, um, there's loads of evidence. They did some digital forensics.

All over the place, because it was suspicious that no one was going to accept her, even though they had numerous open beds available for her to, uh, recover. She was hit by a car and became a quadriplegic.

Um, she also had stage 4 pressure wounds that went unreported. Um, but the… the notations and documentations in communications.

Um, within the nursing homes, uh, to the hospital, which are deleted, um, and they're not supposed to be, but they were deleted.

Um, they recovered the, um… the communications, and it said, um, there were, like.

Degrading comments about transgender, and they weren't going to accept a transgender person.

Um, things like that. And so, um… One, there's, uh, imminent arrests that are gonna be made here soon.

Um, by the, uh, homicide detectives, they're going into unlicensed. Um, the unlicensed, uh, six-bed homes.

Uh, that refused to take her. But, um, they're also gonna be, um, sending over.

Uh, to other law enforcement at the highest level to do investigations on this.

So I'm asking for a support letter. Um, from all gray panther's organizations across the country, we're also asking for any media connections to be made.

Um, you can do that through me and her representatives. And her lot… law firm's, um… uh, immediate connection.

And I sent that over… you're welcome, I sent that over in an email to you and Carol.

Thank you, Nancy.

Some details.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'd like to make an announcement also. Carol.

Go ahead, Cecilia.

I just wanted to say that the Healthy Living Festival. That's United Seniors gives it every year.

At the zoo, we have a health and living festival every year at the zoo.

From 9 a.m. To 2 p.m. And if you want to attend that affair, please call the office at 510…

510, um… And that's something.

United Seniors, like, you know… 852.

Okay, I wanna know. 890852.

829? 0852. Now, what… what's the date again?

0852. Hmm…

Oh, I'm sorry, the date is… it's Thursday, this coming Thursday.

From… from 9… from 9 to 2. This coming Thursday at the Oakland Zoo.

Mara.

Okay.

And, uh, it's the kind of thing where there's buses, you can ask for a ride to go there.

To the Oaklands… Yes, ma'am.

Oh, Matt's like, you got to contact the office. Because they have buses that will pick you up at certain senior centers.

A different thing is managed. So you have to contact the office and speak to Mary.

Mary Bread. She's assistant, um…

Since this isn't so…

You got a table. We had a table at the… at that event one year, a while ago.

Thank you.

Oh, you're already taking care of it, that's good.

Oh, no, no, it was the past year. It was some years ago.

Oh, yeah, right, every year that.

Living Festival at the zoo. It was at the, uh… the church on San Pablo.

Where we had the table.

And you're right. And one year, I think, rains just on its own went… it must not have been a gray panther table.

If that was for the convention, for the United States Convention.

Oh, okay. Okay. So, um…

That's what I was, uh-huh.

I went to the Healthy Living Festival, but I never got to the zoo.

I went up and down 3 rows of… of… uh, tables.

And collected things, and I got some interesting things. One was a little… stuffed zebra.

But then I… I got heat exhaustion. And, um, I was having trouble with AFib, but they didn't diagnose it until a month later, and then I got my pacemaker.

Wow. Um.

So, uh… there were some other… Carol, can I…

Yes, please. I wasn't prepared to moderate today.

Just proceed with announcements and go over the ones. Okay, thanks. And then…

You did an incredible job, as far as I'm concerned.

You know, I'm sorry. You know, that telephone number is still an 829-729.

72908. The telephone number is 5…

Say again? Okay, 7…

729-0852. I'm sorry, because I…

And so it's… it's tomorrow, is that right? Ms. Cecilia? Okay.

Yeah, it's tomorrow. Yeah, it's somewhere from 9 to 2.

Uh, there's something… there's something else going on tomorrow. Um.

This healthy li… this, uh, health… and well-being committee of the Berkeley City Council, I think, is also meeting tomorrow, but…

I'll have to get confirmation of that. If anyone wants to go and hear.

Thoughts about some of the issues we've talked about today. Thank you, thank you, Ms. Cunning.

Miss Cecilia. Alright, so, uh, what I've… Uh, in the announcements, in the program.

Um, um… October 18th is another No Kings National Day of Protest.

And I got word. Of, uh, an event at the corner of San Pablo and University Avenue.

Uh, and I'm not sure where the other events will be in Berkeley or Oakland, but, um… I did want to see if there is an interest in having a gray panther presence.

With our banner, uh, I know some of you will be there anyway, you know, you'll be wherever.

But is… is there… are there some people that, uh. Could, uh, you know.

Are interested in… in being, you know, I'd like to go, and I'm more likely to go if I'm.

Part of a message, you know, so it would be quite wonderful if we, since we have three, four weeks.

Three weeks to plan that we could have. Not just our banner, but also signs representing the issues that were.

Concerned most about. Personally, I wanted to advocate for toilet… a public toilet, but that's me.

Um, um, but if there's a couple of people, I see Carol has her hand up.

And, um, if there's others who will be in town in… you know, around to show up in person.

Um, great. Um, and it will be after our board meeting, so we can talk a little more about.

That at the board meeting as well. So, Carol, you have your hand up, and I'll put you down as interested.

Planning. Usually, Robert, who seems to have dropped off, uh. Robert's always, you know.

Has raised his hand. Did you wanna… say something, Robert?

Yeah. Yeah, I'm posting as a banner, so I could bring the banner.

Okay. Okay.

And, uh, Robert and Carol, so… We'll be sharing more info about that, and if you are at another event, let us know. Dirk, I see your hand is up. Did you want to…

Share. Are you interested in being there with us?

Rope things, whereas the venue and time place.

Which, which, uh, which event? Oh, well, there's multiple…

No kings.

Rallies, there's multiple gathering places by different groups. I'm assuming all over the Bay Area.

Uh, that's how it worked last… the last No Kings Day, but there's one event right at University in San Pablo, which is a few blocks from me.

Uh, and there'll be other ones in Berkeley, so I'm looking to see.

We… can we show up somewhere with our Gray Panther banner and some signs that represent.

Our concerns. Yeah, Holly.

Yeah, is there any place to sign up? I know a lot of times, Indivisible puts up.

A sign-up sheet for these things. Is this… a registered event so that people can sign up for it and show that they're coming.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

And no pinks.

Okay.

There's a map of events and a… Okay, Dirk knows that too. There's… there's… I'm… I… a Quaker friend sent me a notice saying there's going to be an event at University in San Pablo, all four corners.

Is planned. I don't… I assume it's indivisible, but we can still show up as Grey Panthers.

Yeah, they've done that before. Right, um, can you send that out to the list?

Yeah. I will… let me make a note, because, um…

It would be good… it would be good to have that out to everybody.

To… but I know there's other events. Yeah, I'll send the link to… the notice about that one.

Right, because I have in the past gone to, uh. To do stuff with acapella at… The, uh, no kings in Oakland, but I'd much rather be staying in Berkeley, and I could bring.

A small sound system and play music.

Ooh, nice.

Sweet. Nice, yeah. Uh, okay, so I'll send it…

Yeah.

Uh, to… uh, uh, to… especially…

The four people, but you'll probably all get it, along with the invitation to the board meeting.

Right, and then I could send it out to other people.

Sure. Yeah. I'm looking forward to it. I'll be back.

Um, okay, thank you all. Um, October… So, October 3rd.

The first Wednesday, I… October 1st, I'm sorry, is our board meeting, first Wednesdays. Usually, we're trying to stick to that.

Uh, the member socials that Carol. Organizes second Wednesdays.

And she may have an announcement about that. Um, and then October 22nd is our next.

Um, what would be a speaker meeting, but it's our annual member meeting and board elections, so… We do tend to focus on local elections.

Um, um, or local… you know, things that are of, of, of, uh, around the election season.

But we also devote time to ourselves, to our history. And, you know, um… members, you know, concerns, so…

Um, we'll be… Carol and I will be planning that, and the board also.

So, um… I will… yeah. Carol, any final words, or…

The social… The social…

Any other announcements that people want to make? And then we'll have…

The socialists coming up on the second Wednesday.

Carol?

The social that's coming up on the second Wednesday of October.

Will not be at the deli, it'll be at, uh…

Oh, I don't remember the name of it. It'll be over on Dowditch.

I think it's called The Hub. It's Boutage, yeah, and…

The hub.

And we can arrange rides, because parking is pretty tight, or you pay for parking, basically.

Yeah, and it'll be potluck. We… if we want anything to eat or drink, we have to bring it.

You know, try to bring something to share.

Sweet. Um, I see that Helen has her hand up, please.

Share.

Yeah, thank you. Um, this I posted, because they do a lot of posts on the Gray Panthers, uh, Berkeley East Bay Grand Panthers site.

And I just wanted to, uh, raise up this. Uh, Disability Rights California.

Is, uh, holding a webinar, and if you're a renter with a disability in California and have questions about evictions.

Learn about your rights in this workshop. Which will cover eviction notices, requirements, what to do if you receive an eviction notice.

And tips for resolving or preventing these issues. Uh, this is a webinar that will be on Tuesday, October 7th.

At 1PM. And the information is on our Facebook site, but if anybody is interested, I am more than happy to forward this to.

Betsy or, uh, Carol, uh, to get out, because I think this might be helpful for folk.

Thank you.

Great. And, um… I did want to… yeah.

Oz has her hand up.

Alice, you're on mute.

Carol?

I… I don't actually see, uh, Alice… Oh, here we go.

She's on mute.

So I'll ask her to unmute. Hopefully she can hear.

Oh, yeah, I… I didn't know how to unmute, so I was writing… I don't know how to unmute.

And Dirk put us… oh, yeah.

Um, I'm sorry, I often don't know that the meetings are going on.

And, um, I'm having a problem with the city of Berkeley.

I… you've dropped off…

Yes?

Yes.

Yeah.

Uh, I've dropped… can you hear… can anybody hear me? Oh, okay. So, um, the City of Berkeley has been harassing me for being autistic and dyslexic for the last 3 years, and they're…

They're saying… they're giving… telling me I have code violations, and I've cleaned up my property considerably, and I don't know what to do, and I just am reaching out.

To ask if anybody can give me any advice or help. I mean, their requests are pretty much unreasonable. I have metal cabinets around the outside of my property, and I'm not talking, like, tons of them. I have a file cabinet where I keep paint inside, because.

Actually, if paint is combustible, it's best if it's in a metal cabinet, not in a wood cabinet where it can catch fire.

And they're saying that I have this small refrigerator where I keep cat food for feral cats.

And I have a toolbox, and they're telling me I have to… I can't have those on my property.

Or on my front porch, and my front porch has plenty of room for fire department to walk up to.

And they're saying that my organizer bin is a place where rodents are going to be having harborage, and I just feel they're really unreasonable, and I don't know if this is not the place to talk about this, but I really need help.

And I just happened to see that you guys started at 1.30.

Does anyone have a resource for Alice? I see Helen's hand… Do you want to respond to Alice, Helen?

Or do you have your… a further… announcement.

Yeah, maybe the information… that I provided about, uh, people's rights with eviction notices and whatnot, which is a webinar coming up, might be helpful for you. It's specific, tailored towards people with disabilities.

Um, I believe that was you, Alice, who was asking, and I was going to send that.

Information to Betsy and Carol, and maybe when they send it out, you can take a look at it. Um, that might be helpful.

Okay, I think Betsy Morris, do you have my email? From the Quaker meeting.

If it's, um… Alice, do you want to give Helen your…

Well, so you'll be direct?

Sure. Sir…

My email is also in the chat. If you cut, copy, and paste it.

I don't know who you… who's talking, it's very hard to tell on my cell phone.

Yeah, this… this is Helen. And I am the cat in the chat.

Yeah.

Um, my email is… Brinach, B-R-A-N-A-C-H.

Okay.

At comcast.net. You can email me and ask me specific for the webinar, and I will get that information to you. It will be coming up in October 7th.

October 7th. Can you tell me your email again? Br… Yep.

Sure, are you ready? Okay, B as in Bumblebee.

Yep. Yep.

R as in radio. A as in Ant.

N as in Nancy. A as in Ant.

C as in cupcake. H as in Helen.

At Comcast. Dot net.

And then at…

And just give me a reminder, because I get a lot of emails, but I really, uh.

Would like to help where I can.

Thank you, I appreciate it. Sorry for joining you so late and missing every, like, tons of meetings.

Um, let's see, how do I go back?

That's okay. Yeah, glad you're here. Um, I put another resource in the chat.

Oh, well, welcome!

Um, it's for the Independent Living Resource Center, but that's for.

San Francisco, you can give them a call, and they'll connect you to resources wherever you are.

It's funny, because I just got off the phone with Justice and Diversity at the San Francisco Bar, and they're like.

Everybody just always says, we don't have any lawyers' experience with that kind of thing.

Do you…

So, they don't really help much. Uh, and I… I don't… I'm not… I'm not very technically savvy, and I don't know how to get around, so I don't know…

How to get to the chat part of this, either.

Um, do you have a pen and paper handy? I'll just… read it off to you.

I do. Okay.

Okay. H like Harry, T like Tom. Like Tom, P like Paul.

S like Sam? Colon, forward slash, forward slash.

Yeah.

Www.ilr.com. C, S like Sam, F like Frank, dot org.

Okay, I… Well, I mean, I feel that there should not be…

Are you looking to become compliant? With their, uh… orders, basically, or…

Them nitpicking on my property. I mean, the last light lady, her name was Prudhomme.

She was like, you know, this is America, you should be able to live like you want to live, you, you, you know, not everybody has to have a green front lawn, and my lawn is an educational… my friend of my house is an educational… garden where I grow all fruit trees.

And I educate the kids on honeybees and where almonds come from, and, you know, kids… Get to learn a block and a half away from Malcolm X.

And, uh, you know, I have so many people who come by and say, I walked 10 blocks out of my way just to come past your house, because I love your garden.

You know, like I said, you know, I've cleaned up my property.

And the communication skills of the people in the blight department, this particular person, I just feel very targeted, and I… Cleaned it up so… it looks so great today, and she's, like, saying, oh, you can't have, uh, milk crates in an organizer. I have one of those.

Quads, that's 6x, uh, 3x… 3x2, and she's like, oh, rodents will go and live inside those milk crates. And it's like, well, you know.

The milk crates are open and airy. I could use the, uh, the cloth ones that come with it, but I would think that you can't see inside there, and that would be worse. They just don't want me to have anything on my property, like, what's wrong with having a tiny fridge on your front porch if you have a front porch that's 6 feet long, and it only takes up 2 feet?

Right.

So…

There's still 4 feet available. So, I just think they're really unreasonable. I mean, for 2 years, they told me the vehicle in my driveway was an abandoned vehicle, and I kept looking up, it's not abandoned, I own the vehicle.

You know, it's registered to me, and she said this for 2 years, and then she finally came down with, oh, well.

It has no license plate, and it has no VIN. I'm like, it has a VIN every vehicle that was manufactured in the factory has a VIN.

So, um…

So… so, Alice, I, you know, come back. Thanks for joining.

Yeah.

I… if you can hear me. I do want to recommend.

That you get in touch with your city council member. You live near… and… and maybe that's not going to be helpful, um.

Oh, he's a backstabber, unfortunately.

But I do know that a lot of systems in Berkeley are complaint-driven, so there's some neighbor.

I think… I think they moved away 3 years ago. You know, I don't… I don't get it.

Potentially who's bugging. Well then, uh…

Okay, so I'm just saying… you know, I don't know the exact pathways, but…

Some combination of complaining to her supervisor. Um, or this person's supervisor, or… and Dave Blake probably could tell you more.

Or you're your city council member, since they are supposed to run some interference with you, if you're not actively doing something illegal.

Um, that's just my… that's just my… and the second thing is.

It sounds like you're doing great stuff, and maybe the, um… the community garden network, uh, BMUG, or the.

Berkeley Resiliency Network, you know, that promotes. Things like bee gardens… I'm just saying maybe some allies.

You… are you Betsy?

Are good, but honestly, if you're not actively doing something illegal, I don't… I don't understand. I'm sorry you're getting harassed.

I know. I don't either. Are you Betsy Morris? I see your face talking, and it's James or Betsy, okay.

I am. Yeah.

Okay. Alright, I think I have your phone.

Yeah, sorry, I didn't rename myself. Um, I know we, uh…

Yeah, Dave's gonna…

Alice, if I may? The other person I know who went through a similar difficult period and.

Is that David?

It didn't end up well for him, but may have some experience to share with you, is Asa Dodsworth.

Oh, wow. He's my neighbor.

Oh, yeah, I know Asa well. Yeah, no, I was one of the supporters, I went… I went to, uh, court with him when they were giving him a hard time about his roosters.

Um, but he's kind of, you know, I don't know, he's, you know, very domesticated now, and just taking care of kids.

But he could… he could at least commiserate and might… you know, talk about what…

Beautiful.

Yeah, I didn't think about him. I have… I have… there's a woman named, um… Uh, Ilana, Auerbach ran for council up in the northern part of Berkeley.

And, um, you know, she's on the chat, because I'm on a text chat with other people, and you know.

Like, they said that, um… You know, I pointed out, you know, the city sponsored compost bins, and I have my compost bin in my front yard. You know, the city…

Sponsored the compost bins. They want us to compost, and then they complain that we have rodents. I don't have any rodents, I have cats, and I have zero rodents, but they're telling me I have rodent harborage.

Anything could be Rodent Harborage, you know? I mean, the way they're saying it's like… I don't understand what the issue is with the metal boxes.

You know, they're not… it's not Harbridge, and the metal fridge for keeping food in is not Harborage, and.

Boxes that are empty are not harboraged. And they're right at the front door, so there's too much traffic for rats to be living in there, not to mention it's right next to where the cats are fed.

Part of the problem is that they can no longer do what they used to do, which was declare property to be a blight.

Well, that's what they're doing. They told me that I… White nose, yeah.

They… they found that in court. They found out, hold on. They found out it… they found out through the court process.

That just being a visual blight is not enough to enforce actions against a homeowner.

So, they are… but what they're doing is they're responding, as Betsy said, to a complaint.

But someone who thinks your place looks like it has unusual stuff in front of it, which doesn't look good.

And they're trying to find some way to compel you. To clean it up. And unfortunately, like Trump.

They have their hands on the wheels of government, and there's lots of painful things they can do to you. So, um, the… Whatever you do, you need to develop a Plan B.

Yeah.

Where you actually don't have those things in your front yard, just to know that you can get out of this quickly if you need to.

Because they do have the power of the… of government behind them, and, you know, ASA was fined $100 a day.

Um, until he was forced to comply.

I mean, I have complied, and that's the hard thing. I keep complying, and they have… keep, you know, they slowly take things off the complaint.

They keep coming up with new things. Because you don't look normal, but they know they can't…

Right, exactly, and they keep changing the reason.

They can't pull blight anymore. They lost on that issue.

Blight is not… Right.

So.

So, so what they call it, they call it code enforcement, and they, they still haven't… you know, but again, okay, if they say that the code is…

I'm just saying they have lots of ways to harass you, and they're bureaucrats, so they just keep going, no matter what you do.

Well, can she not, uh, appeal to the supervisor, or… of this person.

Or, you know, is there no way to… Get your yard declared a model…

I don't know. Um, not gonna happen.

Habitat Garden. Okay, I don't think then…

No, I don't think… I don't think it will work, because this is my front steps, and I understand…

What I'm gonna suggest is that, uh, you contact. Asa Dodsworth, maybe Dave could be consultative, or someone else who can.

I will.

It's not… this is really not my area of any expertise. It is ACES.

Consult with you, but we actually need to wrap up. Our meeting.

Dave, do you have a phone number? Okay.

You have his number? Asa Dodsworth?

I have ACE number, yes, yes.

And Fred… Fred, Ace's father. Or his… or his mom.

Okay, and…

Linda might be useful, too.

Uh, yeah, you think, uh, I don't know his mom, but I know, uh, Fred.

I'm calling.

And, um… There… there are, you know, these, uh, people who are…

Right, they've wanted… they've wanted to come to my garden on a lot of occasions.

They showcased permaculture gardens, you know, diverse habitat.

You know? But…

Beautiful! Cfl… I mean, they are much more better, maybe, at writing a letter to support your specific.

Strong suit, you know? That's all. Um, keep in… keep in touch.

Yeah, okay.

I doubt that will work. I really, I really think you need to address them issue by issue.

And because in the end, what you're claiming is that you're being harassed.

Wow.

Well, again, again, you know what? Right.

And then you have to fight them in court, and that's not something you don't… you want to get into, I don't think.

Actually wanted to hire a lawyer, but I can't even find a lawyer that will do this.

You know, do we know of any lawyers who would take on.

You know, the issue, because, I mean, I don't exactly know how to go up against the city in… in… in the court.

I mean, I would like to retal… you know, they're retaliating against me for God knows what, you know?

Um. You can…

You know, Ben Bartley used to walk past my house and be very cordial to me for years, and then… He got involved in this, and I was talking to his assistant, whose name I just forgot.

James Chang.

Who's also on the thread. James, who's also on the thread, and they were all very nice until the day they showed up when we were all meeting in front of my house with.

Uh, disability rights, because I'm disabled, and the vector control, and I've put in.

4 calls to vector controls, and they never return my calls, because.

They were the ones that said, the bins that I had had gnaw marks in them, but I got them with the gnaw marks, so I switched them out, and it's over a year, and there's no gnaw marks. I have no rodents at all. I have rodent traps, and I have cats.

Yeah, I'm busy. Yeah, come back later, thank you. If all right.

So, I mean, and like I said, with the vehicle.

I'm surprised that they're punishing you for… I'm surprised they're punishing you for the compost bins. That is surprising.

Well, they're actually not complaining, but they're saying that. That a ref… that a toolbox on the ground that is metal, where no.

Rodents can get underneath is creating rodent harborage. See, the thing is, it's not logical.

After some… yeah, I'll be gone at 7.

And that's why the whole thing with the truck being an abandoned truck on my property, it's not logical, because it's not a truck.

I mean, it's not abandoned, it's mine! You know, and I… yes, I know…

Um, Alice… Alice, I… I have to, uh, ask you to, uh.

Yeah. Yes.

Slow down, and hopefully you'll… you've gotten something from this. I realize it's complex and ugly.

Yes. Right.

And it goes on and on, but… here today, right now, after 2 hours on the Zoom call, we're gonna…

Yes. Yeah. It looks like Nancy had something to say.

We're gonna… we have to close out this meeting. If you're on our database, thank you for coming.

Right. Yes.

And, uh, I… I'm gonna give the floor to Nancy, and then we're gonna have a.

Okay, thank you.

Poem, and we will be back. Next month, with this kind of public…

Okay.

Speaker meeting format. Yeah, Nancy, did you… have something to… wrap up with, or…

You need to unmute, yeah.

Um, I just wanted to give you guys a quick share. Um, one, it was really nice to see everybody keep up the good work, and.

Thank you, V. Um, we've got a… an open, uh, investigation here.

Um, that's gone right to the top at my nursing home, um, but it's gone right to the top.

Um, with investigators. Um, because of… there's been a, uh, 10-plus year.

Um, sexual molestation, resident to resident. Sexual molestation cover-up.

Um, and he's incentivized because he's… he tells investigators. So, the facility tells them.

To the investigators, whether it be ombudsmen or California Department of.

Aging, or whoever it is, is that's investigating. Go talk to Martin. He sees everything, he's all over the place, so he always says.

Or usually says, I was there, that never happened, that person… lied, uh, something like that. So he gives witness testimony, and they incentivized him with.

Food, clothing, cash, all this other stuff, and he's been here for nearly 20 years.

Um, and he gets carte blanche. People just look away. They've reported, reported, reported to their supervisors and to director of nursing here, um.

But it's all covered up. They're told not to put anything in writing or in communications, and this is a widespread problem.

Um, uh, PBS did an article about. How, uh, sexual assaults.

Um, and sexual abuse. Um, information doesn't get disclosed to the public in, um.

Interviews and records and things like that. So, um… Now the ombudsman is not even… recording witness testimonies that they've taken.

Um, and we've gone to the brand new state ombudsman.

Excuse me, Nancy, I'm totally lost at what you were going to… could you start out by telling us what you expect from us?

Um, yes, I do want to ask if anybody is willing.

Um, to make either anonymous, or you can give your name, just calls that I've reported to you.

That there, um, is sexual molestation covering… cover-up. Happening here, um… At the nursing home, because it's been going on for over a decade, I hear. I've only witnessed it since I've been here, 2019, on a near-nightly basis.

Um… Yeah.

Well, nightly. Um.

Nancy, I'll… the best I can do right now is to take this to the board. I'm… pretty… we're pretty pressed.

To… to… but… I would like to encourage you to go talk to Carrie.

Yeah.

At the na… you know, on behalf of the national. Or, you know, because she has so much…

Okay. Right.

Experience with… with the, you know, how do you intervene with a nursing home that's gone rogue like that?

Right.

Um, that is pretty awful. The other suggestion I… this is a long shot, but, um…

The, uh, this… there's a new San Diego chapter, they're… they're, like, graduate students in public health, and I think they want to be… advocates in at least San Diego is closer to you. Like, if a letter from East Bay Gray Panthers were like.

Right. Yeah.

Right. Thank you.

700 miles away, but um… you know, it's huge. It's a huge issue. I, I, I…

Horrifying to hear about. Are youth safe?

Thank you.

Well, what about… what about putting one of those Ring cameras where the sexual abuse is happening? They can't catch them on camera?

I'm actually in training to get arrested, because it is, um, it's very illegal.

You know.

Um, to, uh, record anyone who lives in a nursing home, even if it's sexual abuse happening.

Um, and so I'm… I'm training, um, this week, throughout the end of the week.

Um, to get arrested, I've got $20,000 in bail. Set and two pro bono attorneys.

Um, but yeah, it's…

Wow. A bliss… oh, wow.

Hi, Beryl.

So, if the person who's…

Nancy, if you could tap me or catch my email and shoot me an email.

Uh, there's an ADAPT member that I know that's helped out the Great Panthers, who is an ombudsman.

Um, they might be able to give you some direction here. Their name is Lydia. They have a disability themselves. I would be more than happy to see if I can make that connection, but she's one of the top people that does this work.

And she's, uh, has done some work with the Great Panthers, um, when I brought her in with, with, uh, these areas. So, uh, Branaka.

Fantastic, yeah.

Net, just shoot me an email, and I will do my best to see if I can get, uh.

More advocates who specialize in this area to help you out. Sorry to hear that's happening, that's horrible.

Yeah, that's pretty widespread, um, but thank you very much, I will do that, Helen. I appreciate you all.

Uh, do you have Helen's, um, email? Or contact? Okay.

I do, yeah.

Wonderful, wow, wow. Um, inspiring.

I'm… I'm… I… I'm gonna have to get off.

Not that you couldn't continue, but we will be picking up some of these discussions.

On the board level, and then meeting again. Um… Wow. Um, thank you. I want to put a shout out to Helen.

She, uh, educated the National Grey Panther Council when it was doing its research on nursing home.

Reform and brought Lydia into that. Who was an incredible resource, so Helen is really, um…

You know, it's not all on her, but she manages, uh… A lot of the Facebook postings we do, and it's mostly about disability rights, and we…

Um, I just appreciate all of that. And she's always asking, what are we doing? And I'm always… I have to say, what are we doing not enough of?

So, I'm really happy we have those resources. Um, thank you, and uh, one last, uh, Dave, do you have a worthy poem?

Oddly enough, I think I do.

That can capture… Yeah, okay. Hopefully it captures whatever the spirit of our meeting was today, and…

No, I went so… I went a different direction entirely. But maybe, I don't know, maybe.

Okay. Well, whoa.

This is… this is a poem by Richard Wilbur, who some of you may have heard of, have heard of.

He was, uh, not as famous as Carl Sandberg. He was the Poet Laureate before Carl Sandberg.

Uh, in the… in the Eisenhower. Carol. And this poem is called Beasts.

Beasts in their major freedom. Slumber in peace tonight.

The gull on his ledge. Dreams in the guts of himself, the moon-plucked waves below.

And the sunfish leans on a stone. Slept by the Lyric water.

In which the spotless feet of deer make dulcet splashes. And to which the ripped mouse.

Safe in the owl's talon cries. Concordance. Here there is no such harm.

And no such darkness. As the selfsame moon observes where.

Worked in window glass. Its sponsors now. The Werewolf's Painful Change.

Turning his head away on the sweaty bolster. He tries to remember the mood of manhood.

But lies at last, as always, letting it happen. The fierce fur, soft to his face.

Hearing with sharper ears. The wind's exciting miners.

The leaves panic. And the degradation of the heavy streams.

Meantime, at high windows. Far from thicket and padfall.

Suitors of excellence sigh. And turn from their work.

To construe again the painful beauty of heaven. The Lucid Moon, and the Risen Hunter.

Making such dreams for men. As told, will break their hearts, as always.

Bringing monsters into the city. Crows on the public statues.

Navies fed to the fish. In the dark, unbridled waters.

And while you're continuing that, I also ran across recently a quote by W.E.B. Dubois.

Who was asked how it felt to be the first man, the first black person.

So you had a graduate degree from Harvard. A PhD from Harvard, and he said.

The honor was all theirs.

The honor was all theirs. Du Bois.

The pronounce it divorce. Du Bois.

Boys? Yeah, I never know.

Boys. All right, with that, um…

Boys, just…

Stay true to yourselves. Let's reach out and be helpful where we can, and um…

Maggie Kuhn would be 120 this year. Our founder, so… Yeah, keep roaring.

All right? Hannah, it's great to see your face, and uh… Dirk will look forward to having you on the nomination slate, um…

I'm sorry, I'll say once more, because that was a tough poem.

And, uh, more power to all of us. Okay. Last words, unmute, shout out.

Uh, hi.

I just wanted to remind people who are interested in that poem that it's called Beasts.

And it's by Richard Wilbur. Who is a great poet.

I think.

Thank… thank you.

Thanks, Betsy! Thanks, Carol! Good to see you all!

And to be seen. Take care.

I can hear you fine now.

I think next time we'll have someone else host this. Uh, our Zoom room is available for other people to actually host on, so…

It may just have been my connection that was so bad, but anyway, good to see you all.

Take care, uh, good luck, and keep in touch.

Ready? Aim…

I will say one apropos of… Alice, uh, Alice, my husband just read me a little joke yesterday that, uh.

Temple Grandin wrote, she said. If, uh, we didn't have… people with autism in the world.

Uh, the human race would still be sitting around in caves talking with each other.

So… Uh, I thought that was pretty funny. So, take care.

Yeah. Maybe. See, so, uh, there's very few of us here. Are you going to the, uh, Strawberry Creek meeting these days, or are you going to Berkeley meeting?

Okaywho sued

 

Homeowner and Housing Fraud and Scams: August 27 Public Speakers Meeting

Featured Guest: Lisa Sitkin
National Housing Law Project

PROGRAM

1:30 Welcome and Introductions 

Board News/Requests

1:45 Featured Speaker(s) -

    Q&A and Discussion

3:00 Action Updates and Reports

NEW BUSINESS

ENDORSEMENTS

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Board of Director Nominations are now open and may be made until the Annual Election Meeting October 22.  Any Gray Panther Member in good standing and up to date on annual dues may nominate, vote, or serve on the Board. 

Current Board members are Betsy Morris and Carol Crooks (co-convenors), Cecilia Williams, David Blake, Helen Walsh, Kristy Martin (stepping down), Maria Sol, Raines Cohen (database coordinator), and Robert Magarian (treasurer). We are seeking a Secretary of the Board. Call Betsy 510-842-6224 for more info.    

The Board met August 11 and a majority endorsed BAROW (Berkeleyans for Accessible Rights of Way) to represent concerns of disabled pedestrians to transportation and urban design plans on Telegraph, and elsewhere.  Concerns are that bicyclists would be relegated to indirect routes off commercial streets. 

The next Board Meeting is September 4, 2025; the next speaker meeting is September 24, 2025. 

3:30 ADJOURN 

Open zoom discussion until 4pm

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Automated Summary - may be inaccurate

The monthly Speaker meeting covered board member nominations, upcoming speaker presentations on housing scams, and various committee updates. The group endorsed a film about senior homelessness and discussed homeownership preservation issues, including scams targeting senior homeowners and resources for reporting fraudulent activities. The conversation ended with discussions on housing policies, community organizing challenges, and health-related topics among activists.

Next steps

• Board: Finalize which board members are stepping down before the October election
• Board: Announce slate of board nominations at the September meeting
• Carol: Send out meeting guidelines in writing via email to members
• Lisa: Provide her PowerPoint presentation with resource links after the meeting
• EBGP: Put the "No Place to Grow Old" film premiere information on the calendar
• EBGP: Send out information about the "No Place to Grow Old" film showing in September at the Roxy Theater

Summary

Speaker Meeting: Guidelines and Nominations

The monthly Speaker meeting began with introductions and a review of meeting guidelines proposed by the board, which will be discussed further at future meetings. Board member nominations were announced, with current board members listed and a call for new nominations by October 22. The meeting will feature a speaker on housing scams at 1:45 PM, followed by committee and coalition liaison updates, and will conclude with potential endorsements and new business announcements.

Senior Homelessness Film Premiere Sponsorship

The group endorsed/sponsored a film premiere in San Francisco called "No Place to Grow Old" about senior homelessness, with their logo to be featured as a sponsor. Lisa Sitkin, a supervising attorney from the National Housing Law Project, was introduced to speak about homeownership preservation and scams targeting senior homeowners. The discussion began with an overview of homeownership preservation issues, including mortgage-related problems and successor/heiress issues, with Lisa noting that her organization provides expertise and policy advocacy rather than direct legal services.

Homeowner Scams and Prevention Strategies

Lisa discussed various scams targeting homeowners, highlighting how they have evolved and intensified, especially during the foreclosure crisis. She emphasized the importance of preparedness, including understanding mortgage terms, future costs, and the need for estate planning. Lisa also addressed common scams such as foreclosure rescue schemes, deed and title scams, and the risks associated with reverse mortgages. She provided resources for reporting scams and stressed the significance of monitoring property records to detect fraudulent activities.

Real Estate Scam Awareness Presentation

Lisa presented on various types of real estate and mortgage scams, including title theft, hard money loans, home improvement schemes, and reverse mortgages. She emphasized the importance of being cautious when dealing with contractors, financing options, and unfamiliar companies offering quick cash for homes. Lisa also discussed recent developments in the real estate market, such as extended listing agreements and post-disaster scams. She encouraged attendees to do thorough research and seek reputable professionals when facing financial difficulties related to their homes.

Housing Scam Reporting Resources

Lisa presented resources for reporting and addressing housing scams, including federal and state agencies, non-legal housing counselors, and legal aid options. Betsy discussed solutions beyond hiring lawyers, inspired by Berkeley's upzoning and a social worker program in Ann Arbor. The group agreed to follow up with city council members and explore protective options. Carol suggested collaborating on sample materials for vulnerable populations, and Helen inquired about resources for homeowners with disabilities. Lisa expressed willingness to continue the conversation and develop accessible materials.

Berkeley Bike Plan and Initiatives

The meeting focused on several key topics. Norma discussed how China's high rate of home ownership and dropping prices for goods and rents could be a model for other countries, and she encouraged attendees to change their voter registration to the Peace and Freedom Party. Helen Walsh provided an update on Berkeleyans for Accessible Rights of Way, a group working on the new Berkeley bike plan, and shared information on how to submit comments on the draft plan. The meeting also touched on the LTSS for All coalition's ongoing work to improve long-term home-based supports and services, and Betsy announced plans to follow up with various organizations and leaders for future discussions.

Homelessness Advocacy and Housing Updates

The meeting covered several key topics related to homelessness, housing, and advocacy efforts. Arlene provided an update on Measure W, highlighting concerns about the oversight committee and the need for accountability in service provider policies. She also mentioned upcoming teaching events at Laney College. Betsy shared information about the Housing Now coalition's efforts to support tenant rights through legislation and lobbying. Nancy discussed her work with nursing home residents and concerns about fraudulent billing practices. Carol provided updates on Berkeley's allocation of Measure W funds and ongoing efforts to address homelessness. The group discussed upcoming meetings and events, including a board meeting on September 3rd and a Health Life Enrichment Committee meeting on September 25th.

Meeting Adjourned, Future Plans Set

The meeting was adjourned due to low attendance, with plans to reconvene on September 24th. The treasurer reported receiving $500 from the ecology center for disaster relief and noted some recent member renewals. Arlene mentioned attending her first faith and justice breakfast in Walnut Creek, while the group discussed housing policies in China and historical social housing initiatives in the United States, particularly among Jewish communities.

Challenges in Activist Health and Well-being

The group discussed challenges in community organizing and the need for more compassion and empathy among activists. Arlene shared her personal health issues and the need to sometimes step back from activism due to limited capacity. The conversation touched on the importance of self-care for older activists and the impact of environmental factors and medication on health. The group also briefly discussed health-related topics like turmeric and its benefits.

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Meeting Chat (unedited)

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Raw unedited automated closed-captioning transcript - may contain errors or misattribution

And we can formally begin. In 3… 2… 1…
Hi, everybody! Great panthers and guests. We're currently 11, but we usually.
Get people trickling in. For 20 to… between 20 and 30.
I'm really happy… Oh my gosh, that this monthly speaker meeting came together.
Carol, my co-convener, and I. we'll, be divvying up the moderator  tasks. And I just put
The program in the chat. Now, for, let me read it for those who don't have chat
So we… we begin, 1.30 with welcome and introductions, then we'll have some board news.
And communications, then we… our featured speaker, Lisa Sitkin. Who's, I'll introduce.
at 1.45. And I think that'll be robust. There's a couple people that I'm hoping will join.
because they have had experience with housing. Scams and frauds themselves, so…
at 3 p.m, or when our speaker and our discussion is done, then we'll go into.
More, sort of, action updates and reports from our committee and.
Team, coalition liaisons. then we can have some new business endorsed, which we don't have plans for making a decision today.
But there are some announcements… no, that… about endorsements.
that I guess, is new business, and uh… so Carol, why don't… you start us off…
With, our… experiment in meeting guidelines. The board is using these meeting guidelines, but we want to run it by members.
We're getting a few more people now.
Hey, um… Yeah, so actually, if you bring that up, or however you want to bring it, let me.
Finish welcome and introductions. So, first off. Welcome again. Hi, Helen.
Pam, Patrick. Leon Cheryl, uh…
And, Robert, our treasurer, um. I want to just say that yesterday was Maggie Kuhn's 120th birthday. For those who don't know her, she's the founder of Grey Panthers.
And the New York City Gray Panthers chapter, which kind of.
Wow.
Inherited, um. And the national group that she created and served on.
Closed the New York City group had a birthday party for her yesterday.
I mean, she's long past, but uh… But if you have a chance, check out videos of her.
Online, Wikipedia, and… You know, it's always good to know where a group came from, so we can see how we're…
Getting better. Or, you know, what we can… what we can, learn from that.
Okay. hi, hi, Julia, good to see you. okay, then, uh…
Why don't Carol, why don't you… share the board agreements with the group.
Okay, the meeting guidelines. Our one mic, meaning that one person speaks at a time.
Step forward, step back. Um.
Each person should share, and then allow time for others to share.
Keep individual remarks to under 3 minutes. Respect each other, respect ourselves.
Accessibility. Support our co-conveners and timekeeper.
And these were the meeting agreements that we came up with for the board meetings.
we've been wanting to do them for regular meetings. And we can take…
Primates from the floor. That changing those or adding to them, or accepting them as they are.
For the general meeting. Guidelines.
and… Are you… are you complete on that, Carol? Because I wanted to follow up.
Yeah, I'm… that's it.
can I suggest that if people have. Comments or suggestions, feel free to put them in.
Chat for now. This is gonna be brought up the next three… to speaker meetings, and uh… We have our annual member meeting and board elections in October, and so that would be a great time.
For any further conversation, you know, discussion about. You know, meeting guidelines or other things people feel would make us work together.
Even better.
Yeah, it would be good to have a large group when we… When we do that.
So, great. We don't… we don't really have a timekeeper… oh.
After people have trickled in.
Helen?
I just wanted to say I like the start of this.
And I appreciate the time you put in to put something together to get us talking about this, so thank you.
Thank you, Helen. Thank you, Carol. Um…
Board…
I miss the word that you said, you missed… you like, Helen, you like talking about what was her?
Public, it sounds like. Okay, that's the…
I liked how this is starting with, giving us this opportunity. Yeah, I really appreciated that.
That's… that's fine, thanks, Dante.
Yes.
For… for meeting guidelines or member guidelines. In… when we gather, yeah.
Yeah, and that you're going to introduce it over several meetings, so people can participate. I really appreciate that.
I'm glad you could make it today, Helen. Um…
Could we… could we have it in writing, an email or something, so we can…
Sure, we'll send it out.
Yeah, I like to read things. They stick better. And refer back to them.
Carol, you were also gonna bring up.
Nominations? Are you prepared for that, that announcement?
Yes, just a moment. To bring it back up.
Okay, we have, Current board members are… Betsy Morris and Carol Crooks, co-conveners.
Cecilia Cunningham. David Blake, Helen Walsh, Christy Martin, who is stepping down.
Maria saw… Reigns, Cohen.
It's the database coordinator, and Robert McGarion, who's the treasurer. We're looking for a secretary of the board.
you can contact Betsy at 510-842-6224 for more info.
That there's some… earlier language.
About the process. I'll just…
But I'll read it. Board of Directors… board of directors nominations are now open and may be made.
Yep.
Until the annual election meeting, October 22. Any Grey Panther member in good standing and up-to-date on annual dues.
May, nominate, vote, or serve on the board.
And there's no… there's no limit, particularly. We… we don't have a quota.
but we need at least 5, which we're good for, which we're all right. And… and I… we're still… finalizing whether any board members would like to step down.
Um… But for now, that's the status.
So… were there any questions about that? And get in touch if you're interested in serving or would like the job description.
Um… And, uh.
I'm gonna capture my brain… let's see. So this is part of our bylaws, that we have an annual.
Cycle. September is when. We in… the board is… announces.
any… slate, or recommendations that have already gone through.
The process of meeting with us. and… and there are a couple people who are… have expressed interest.
um… and we'll talk about that in the Tuesday meeting. I mean, I'm sorry.
September meeting. but members can make nominations, from the floor.
On October 22nd, so… If you're interested, but not currently a voting member, hey, start building your…
Building your support. let's see…
I think that's it. Okay. So, I think we're… there's… there is a bunch of, um…
news and requests, but I think I will… just announced one of them. This was at our board meeting.
earlier this month. we voted to endorse.
Or sponsor a film, film. Premier in San Francisco called No Place to Grow Old.
And, we actually looked at the trailer, which I recommend.
Anyone look at. It's a… a film that the, um…
San Francisco Public Press and a couple of. Sponsors they have in San Francisco.
uh… And… and it's, three… it's… it's a very thoughtful film about three seniors.
Who find themselves, for very different reasons. Homeless at, you know, over the age of 65.
and they are… the film was made in Portland. Kind of a sister city to what, you know, Oakland or San Francisco.
And Berkeley, has as a place where, um. Unhoused brothers and sisters, unhoused neighbors.
Have… have… have… set up camps, or are still being generated by high rents.
So, we'll tell you more about that film if… send out the info. It's being shown September.
I think it's the last Friday in September, and there's a panel discussion.
The focus, and it's at the Roxy theater, so… I'll put this on the calendar, um… But our logo will be one of the sponsors.
Because, unfortunately, the San Francisco Grey Panthers. is kind of on a hiatus.
They had some… challenges with.
among their board, although Art Persico, who's often joined us, is still… is still doing things at the national level.
So, I think that brings… board news.
To a close for now, and we'll… we'll come back to other… reports from members after.
Our speakers, so let me introduce… Lisa Sitkin, who is a.
Supervising attorney? Is that the proper title? she is from the National Housing Law Project, which I had not heard of.
but, she can say a little more about that and her work, but she comes highly recommended from our member, Carol Morasovic.
As, an expert. and presenter on homeowner…
And I… and maybe other kinds of housing, rental housing fraud as well.
So, would you like to say a few more words, Lisa, about… who you are and how we can know you.
What…
Sure! well, first, thank you for having me. I'm happy to know about the group, and I am a…
Almost lifelong Berkeley resident. I grew up here, and I still live here.
so it's nice to present to my neighbors, even if it's.
Virtually. Um… So, as Betsy said, I am a supervising attorney, on the staff of the National Housing Law Project.
And, um… the organization is, um…
Long-standing, we've been around for actually over 50 years. I haven't been there that long.
and, we were created, actually, as a support center when, um.
The whole, sort of, infrastructure of legal aid in the country was… getting started. in addition to direct service legal aid organizations.
and agencies, there was, at that time, federal funding, no longer.
for what are called support centers that would be sort of hubs of expertise about certain.
Issues, and could be available to the frontline legal services agencies, and attorneys.
To help them with. Case consultations with trainings, with keeping them up to date on things, and as time progressed, we also.
got very involved in policy advocacy, so sort of. Translating what, you know, a legal aid attorney might be seeing on the ground.
To, take that, to our partners and… think about it and propose policy changes in Sacramento and in D.C. Also.
we are currently bigger than we've been. We have… attorneys and other staff, in different states around the country and a small office in.
Dc, but our, sort of headquarters main office is in San Francisco.
Although, my office is here in my dining room. Um… And, originally, the project, was really focused entirely on.
Tenant and rental issues, and… is really sort of a hub of expertise. We also put out a manual that legal aid attorneys around the country use.
On federally subsidized rental housing programs, so… Section 8, public housing.
If you're familiar with LIHTC, the tax credit program. all of those are kind of in our wheelhouse. Um…
But during the foreclosure crisis. they expanded, I wasn't there at that time. Um…
To also work on issues related to, um. Preventing foreclosures and, what I have taken to call home ownership preservation.
for low-income homeowners, and often that ends up being a focus on senior homeowners.
But not… not exclusively. So… I lead a very small team, me and one other person, at the project who.
Focus on those home ownership issues, um. And I came into that job after…
Spending basically the entire foreclosure crisis starting in 2008. working in direct services with homeowners in the Bay Area.
trying to, help them prevent foreclosure and hold onto their homes.
so I've kind of taken that. 9 years or so of practice experience, and I now.
Do a lot of training, policy work, and, case support, so I consult on people's cases.
so what I'm gonna talk about today is, um. Broadly speaking, homeownership preservation. I'm going to talk a little bit about what.
I see that as encompassing in terms of helping folks actually keep their homes and keep their homes and their families.
and… there are so many directions that could go, but I'm keeping it narrow. So, you know, one…
Possible path one could take is talking more about social housing and community land trusts, and that as a way to preserve.
and affordable home ownership. I'm not talking about that today.
I'm not an expert on that anyway, I'm very interested. but what I am going to talk about is, helping folks who, you know, own the home.
remain owners, and as I say, be able to pass that along if they want to, to heirs or to whoever they want to pass it along to.
Could be a land trust. Um… So, and then I'm gonna sort of hone in particularly on.
The wide variety, unfortunately, of scams that we see targeting. senior homeowners in particular.
and just kind of go through an overview of what those different scams.
Look like, a little bit about what to look for.
and then, um… I have… I haven't completed my links, but when I give you my PowerPoint after this, I will have a bunch of links for resources and where you can report things.
I'm perfectly happy to answer questions along the way. I don't… it doesn't seem like that's maybe your… etiquette, but.
If people have them, it doesn't bother me at all, so it's very informal.
so do I have sharing… ability… Okay. Great.
Yes. It should. I… I did want to.
As you begin, I just want to say that this issue.
really came to our attention before COVID. due to, thanks to a group called…
I want… well, several groups in Oakland that… of… of… Black homeowners who had lost their family home.
Or their parents, you know, willed home to… to them, and it raised how vulnerable we can be, even with a will, even with a trust.
that be… So, I don't know if everyone here remembers that. I don't think… I think only a few of us were at that.
In-person meeting, you know, 7 years ago, but I… I just wanted to offer that as context, that this… There's a lot more going on.
Than… than meets the eye. Okay, thanks. And here she… here you are.
Looks like Dirk might have a hand up.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah. No?
I'm protecting homeowners. Does your group ever protect renters who get affected?
So, um… Many of my colleagues work on issues related to protecting tenants.
and we work with a lot of legal aid agencies that represent people in eviction cases.
Our organization doesn't do what we call direct services, so we don't take on individual.
Clients were sort of, like. A little bit of a think tank, I guess you could say, but support center is really what we're usually called.
So, um… there are people I work with who know a lot about those topics. I know a little about them, and I'm happy to try to answer questions if they come up, but this is really focused on.
On home ownership, since that's my particular area of expertise.
Thanks.
And… and thank you, Dirk. and Lisa, we have some folks… who have limited vision, or…
It's helpful if you read what you really want us to know from the slide.
Absolutely. Okay. So… let me…
Start up. So, this is an overview of what I'm going to be talking about.
Sort of gestured toward it, but, I want to talk a little bit about what homeownership preservation is. It's much more than just preventing foreclosure. That's a pretty narrow piece of it.
I'm gonna talk a little bit about special risks for older homeowners, that many of you may be well aware of, so… We'll see if that's new or not.
I want to focus a little bit in on mortgage-related problems that homeowners encounter.
because that's a big piece of what I work on, and, in that section, Betsy, I will also talk about.
or actually, I guess it's in the first section. I will talk some about the successor, the heirs kind of issues that we see, maybe in both of those.
then as I said, we're going to talk about, um.
All these different varieties of scams targeting homeowners, it's kind of… horrifying how many different… versions of them. There are, and they all kind of overlap, but, it just seems that.
Every time you think you've sort of dealt with one piece of it, there's kind of a whack-a-mole.
They come back and have some new scheme. and that's been going on forever, but really, really ramped up, during the foreclosure crisis, unfortunately.
when a lot of people were… in great distress, and were very vulnerable.
And the scammers have kind of kept at it ever since.
and then I'll just talk about some resources and where you can report, um.
And I might have some questions for you at that point, too, because you may know more than I do about that.
okay. Homeownership preservation, so I kind of divided this into two parts, because usually.
people think of this as being about when there's a crisis, you know, somebody's facing foreclosure, or has gotten scammed or something, and you have to clean up.
This problem, this mess. But I think of it as starting well before there's actually a risk to homeownership.
to think a little more holistically in terms of being prepared.
Before that ever happens, and laying, you know, solid groundwork.
people, you know, are at all… stages or, levels of preparation, I think in this way.
I have been a homeowner for a long time and haven't checked all these boxes myself, I will say, so… you know, it's a work in progress, but these are the things that.
I think we all… uh… who are homeowners.
wanting to hold on to that, precious resource, need to be thinking about. So… Obviously, understanding current, but also future costs. So for mortgages, you know, being clear about.
What the terms of a mortgage are, is the interest rate going to go up, is the payment going to go up at some point, and planning ahead for that.
Similarly, with property taxes, because of Prop 13 in California, we don't have.
you know, rapidly escalating property taxes the way, people do in other states.
But, there can be reasons that taxes go up. Nonetheless, and they do go up at least a little bit every year, so that's something to keep tracking.
Homeowners insurance, we are obviously in. Kind of a crisis at this point, a crisis.
everywhere, certainly in California, and those prices are going up.
I don't have solutions, but, being aware of what's happening and what the trends are, and knowing that.
In order to hold on to the home and, you know, protect that investment, you need to actually.
Have an insurance policy that you can afford, and that will renew, um… is an important piece of this. And then, of course, maintenance and repairs.
I… my elderly parents, who also live in Berkeley, have a lot of deferred maintenance on their house, and makes me quite aware of.
the toll that that can take, and the way that it can sort of erode.
Um… stability of homeownership and ability to stay in the home, too.
obviously understanding the household's financial situation, and I… I… I know this may seem sort of an obvious point, but I was always very struck.
and I think it's kind of, in some sense, human nature for a lot of us, but when clients would come in who were facing foreclosure when I was doing direct services.
with how, kind of. Little solid grass. People had just of what their financial situation really was. There's sort of a…
day by day, or week by week, and, some people are totally all over it, and some people just want to bury their head in the sand a bit, but… being prepared for any risks to homeownership, I think, requires.
having a really solid, um. Understanding of what the financial situation is now, and where it's headed, you know, if somebody's retiring, what is that?
Gonna do to cash flow and things like that. and then estate planning.
is also a part of this. I have had… so many clients and so many case consultations involving families where.
the homeowner passed away, and, maybe they had a will, maybe they didn't.
They definitely didn't have… a trust, which in California is in a lot of ways kind of the best vehicle for this to avoid a lot of costs.
To your family later. And complications and delays.
so… Estate planning, I think people steer clear of, because nobody likes to talk or think about death, or most people don't.
and also because it sounds like it's going to be expensive.
there are increasingly some lower or sliding scale. lower cost or sliding scale, and sometimes even free, estate planning services for, like, simple estates.
that can allow someone to do… the planning up front that really makes things so much easier for their family that they want to leave a house to.
it's also really important because if someone passes away. While there's still an outstanding mortgage on the house.
In order for the air to be able to communicate and get information from.
The, um… mortgage servicer about that loan, and to know what's going on, and be able to deal with any problems that come up with the loan.
they need to show that they have. Title, or a claim to title, and that requires that the original owner, you know.
Do some… some estate planning so that it's there, in the paperwork, and… The air isn't kind of starting from ground zero.
So, that's a really important part. for the kind of long-term, intergenerational.
Kind of passing of a helm. And, a big concern, particularly in, um.
BIPOC communities, a lot of, um… Black families who I worked with, for a variety of reasons did not have access to or information about estate planning, and.
We just saw so many houses lost to. That, really, when it could have been prevented. So, it's something…
That, I've been pushing to have more of these services available, and… as I said, there's… there's some uptick in that.
And then the other piece of this these days is disaster preparedness.
Which I'm not great at myself, but, as we know.
fires in particular here can, be a threat, and, um.
Having both insurance and, you know, other preparation for that is part of… preserving the homeownership.
So, the kinds of crises that we see that are threats to homeownership.
Are when there is, you know, a change in financial circumstances.
that can be a drop in income or increased expenses.
that can drive, then, a mortgage delinquency, which can lead to.
Potential foreclosure. Also, a lot of people, you know.
Have a precarious hold on their home because they've been victimized by a scam, and sometimes those scams follow from the financial hardship. They're in distress, and.
Vulnerable and somebody who says, I can give you cash up front.
You don't necessarily read all the paperwork. So, um… a lot of people who come into Legal Aid offices looking for assistance.
with, holding onto the home are in that situation.
another thing that folks don't always think about is that there can be non-mortgage judgment liens, so if there are outstanding debts or losses that somebody won against the homeowner.
they can sometimes get that. Reduced to a judgment from the court that then gets recorded as a lien on the property.
And in certain circumstances, the creditor, or whoever has the right to collect.
May actually seek to foreclose because of that and take the house. there are some defenses to that, and homestead exemptions and things, but… It does create, real issues for people.
And then, of course, natural disaster, which… I'm not gonna say a lot about, but that's… you know, we've dealt a lot with, colleagues down in LA who are working with the folks, you know, in the wake of.
Of the fires in January, and… it's… quite heartbreaking, what the decisions that people are having to make, and the kind of displacement that we've seen.
so for older homeowners, the… they are, in many ways, kind of…
They, have a bit of a bullseye, I guess. and very much a target of… of scams.
And some of the reasons for that are often they've been in the home for a long time, and.
For those who are in Berkeley or in the East Bay in general.
you know, property values have really gone up. over time, and that means that they probably are sitting on a lot of equity, which makes them a very attractive.
target for a scammer. many homeowners, although they have a home and have this asset, which may be worth a lot.
are on a fixed or limited income and have limited assets, and.
that puts them in a position where. The main, sort of, source of wealth is the house, and so.
Offers and, solicitations that involve. Kind of taking value out of the house in order to do X, Y, or Z, or have cash.
Are, you know, it's obvious why those are attractive and why people get.
Lured into them, because they need some… more cash. Um… As I said, deferred maintenance problems, isolation can often cause older adults to be susceptible to abuse, and that's both from, kind of.
Outside scammers, but also from family members. We see many, many.
issues come up with older homeowners whose. Grandkid, or niece, or nephew, whoever, someone in the family, their kid.
you know, introduces them to someone who's gonna give them this great loan, and, um.
Take care of everything, and get them out of foreclosure, and all these things, and… and it ends up being kind of a vehicle for that person to suck money out of.
Out of the house. Um… Or to, you know, take away ownership or control of the house in some way. So…
That's, uh… unfortunately quite… quite a frequent occurrence.
cognitive issues, whether actual or just perceived, I think also kind of.
Make, older homeowners. Seem like a really good target.
and I don't know if you think that there are other… sort of, characteristics of older homeowners that make them.
Vulnerable, but I just leave the list open if anyone has thoughts on that.
Just, uh… If we paused.
Betsy?
Um… If there's someone with, you know, we've had people.
Who, multiple issues in their marriage, late in life. With their partner and themselves.
Hmm.
So it feels like there… and not enough money to have a personal lawyer, and it's more complicated than legal services.
Usually handles… we have a… A person who joined us, um.
you know, supporting member a few months ago. Who brought up some ghastly stuff.
You know, concerns and, I maybe wonder if you might.
Address, this isn't a scam, this is… This is just people get reverse mortgages or line of credit to support themselves.
As we get older, what with the fixed income, so maybe you'll get to those.
Those stories.
Yeah. Yeah, I do talk about… I have reverse mortgages in a miscellaneous list of other scams, because.
they're not always a scam, but they very easily can.
Act like one, so… Yeah, yeah.
Right.
So, just to hone in on mortgage-related problems, obviously people, for various reasons, may miss payments, and um… I just wanna… I don't wanna take a lot of time on this, but wanted to just, let people know, to the extent that you're not familiar with it, that there is.
You know, a very specific… timeline… Someone at the door. Um…
In California, there's a… there's a statutory, scheme that governs.
Foreclosures, and the main thing to know about it, I'm not going to go through all the steps, but the main thing to know is that.
first of all. under federal rules, which we hope will stay in place.
no foreclosure activity can be initiated, no legal activity, which means recording what's called a notice of default.
Can happen until someone is at least. 4 months late. So, just in terms of people having a sense of, like, what their timeline is, if they've missed payments, how much time they have to resolve something, or…
Excuse me, just a minute. Can you, Erin, can you go on the porch? Or… yeah.
Um… Anyway, so it can't start for 4 months, and then in California, we have what's called non-judicial foreclosure.
So, the lender does not actually have to go to court in order to initiate foreclosure. They just have to record a series of documents according to a certain schedule.
And then they can basically schedule an auction of the house.
there are complicated reasons why that is, and there was a trade-off.
That… to some extent benefits borrowers, but.
It does mean that things can happen. Without people really being clear that it's going on. They get notices.
And ultimately, there's something that actually gets posted on the door, but… it's… but I think for such a big thing to happen as a foreclosure, people sort of expect there will be more process or a court involved, but they're not.
So, the lender can initiate the foreclosure by recording a document with the county.
after… at least 4 months of delinquency. Then they have to wait another 3 months.
Um. Before they can take the next step, and the idea is that that would be time to try to reinstate or work out some kind of, um.
modification or other accommodation that would bring the loan current.
then they record a notice of sale, and then there has to be… that has to be posted on the house at least.
20 days before a sale can occur. So. basically, it's at a minim an 8-month timeline from when someone first.
Falls behind on their mortgage, and I just think that. Having that kind of… window, in our awareness is helpful.
loss mitigation that I refer to here on the slide is.
The general term for the back and forth between a borrower and the mortgage servicer.
when the borrower is behind, and they're trying to find some kind of way, arrangement.
To bring the loan current again, hopefully, and that can mean changing terms of the loan, like interest rate, or extending.
The length of time for paying back. and, sometimes, especially during the pandemic.
People, who were having income interruptions would. Go on a brief pause, or sometime many month pause, called a forbearance, and then when they had.
That many months due at the end of that. That would get kind of tacked on to the end of the loan, and…
Zero interest on it, but it would have to be paid back at the end. So.
That can look a lot of ways, but that's… that's what loss mitigation means.
and then there are a lot of problems that, really, I put squarely in the mortgage servicers.
Court, they… There are a lot of communications challenges, both, issues when, for example, there's a successor or an heir.
And the servicer won't talk to them. Um… Or they just communicate very poorly. I mean, as anyone who's looked at a mortgage statement or a letter from a mortgage servicer probably knows.
there's a lot of legal mumbo-jumbo, a lot of jargon. They're not written in a way that's clear, and sometimes they're just wrong and inaccurate, or they say something, and then you call, and they say something else.
So, a lot of issues. Arise just because of that.
There can also be, you know, billing and application of payment errors, there can be errors with.
The escrow account where they're collecting payments for taxes and insurance.
and that can get screwed up in various ways. And then the other thing that goes on kind of behind the scenes is that.
you know, you may have… a loan that's serviced by…
Nation Star, or Shellpoint, or something, but these companies, there's been a lot of change and merging and buying and selling and going out of business in the past.
Couple decades, and the servicing rights, the contract to service your loan and collect payments and everything.
Get sold and get transferred, from one company to another, and that… process is not smooth in most cases, and can also.
Cause issues that then… have an impact on the borrower.
It should be that they just let you know, and you start paying the new servicer, but… There are often problems.
and then, as we've been alluding to, successors and interests, or heirs.
Often have challenges when there is a mortgage on the house, either because.
The original owner, or they themselves after, you know, one source of.
Payment and income has passed away. have fallen behind on the loan, and they have to do this loss mitigation, and talk to the servicer, and get things back on track.
or sometimes they just have trouble. Getting their payments, you know, applied and taken correctly.
if somebody can afford the loan who's a successor to the house.
there's nothing that, um. That keeps them from simply continuing to make the payments. They don't really have to do anything other than that, but we do see.
That, servicers can… cause issues and, again, be unwilling to talk to someone.
there are some federal rules about how that's supposed to go, but again.
If somebody can't show that they are the successor, so there isn't, you know, a probate case open that.
Shows them as the beneficiary or a living trust. Now, you know, is gonna transfer to them.
They… or they're not, you know, jointly on title. Sometimes it's a spouse.
They, can have a lot of trouble just being able to communicate with the servicer.
Betsy.
Could you just move your chair about 2 inches to the… there you go.
you were behind your name, and it's harder for… people who… no, no, lip-read.
Oh, sorry about that.
So, there was a request, but, is that… No, I think…
Okay, is that better? Or am I still behind it? I can't see how it is, so…
Okay. Cool.
It looks better to me. You could even move a couple of inches more to the… to the left, I think. Yeah, that's…
That's… hopefully that works for whoever. Oh.
Okay. On my screen, I'm now behind my name, but if people can see me, that's flying. That's fine.
Okay, so let's go on. So, here is our catalog of scams.
Um… So, the first category, and a lot of these kind of overlap.
But just for purposes of, uh… you know, listening and talking about them.
the first I would call foreclosure rescue scams, in quotation marks.
sometimes it's also referred to as mortgage relief assistance. and these are the things that really just, um.
Exploded during the foreclosure crisis. There were just all of these businesses, and.
Conglomerates that, you know, got into the business of. Basically defrauding people, saying, we'll help you, you know, you're in foreclosure, we're gonna help you, and one of.
You know, several different ways. Just pay us money, and then they might string them along, and um…
Do a little bit. They might do nothing at all, but they would just basically take people's money.
these can involve attorneys, realtors. You know, real estate investors who come around.
they often, as I say, charge an advance fee. and in California, once somebody is in…
Foreclosure, any, like, foreclosure consultant, if that's what they call themselves, or somebody who's saying, will help you get out.
Cannot charge an advance fee. They can only charge. After they have performed the services.
So, a lot of attorneys, for example, usually take a retainer fee.
and they're not allowed to do that either. They are supposed to do the work, and then they can charge, and that came out of.
just the millions and millions of dollars that people had, stolen from them, basically, by these outfits.
Said, we're gonna help you, and then… did very little, made things worse, or did nothing.
Often what they will do is say that they are going to handle all the interactions, which they usually call negotiations.
With the mortgage servicer. and I put negotiations in…
quotation marks because. In these cases, the mortgages, there are rules that whoever, like, actually owns your loan in the background has about what can and can't be done to, you know, lower your interest rate, or.
Allow you to repay over time, or things like that. and those are the rules that the servicer has to follow. They have a contract with the owner, so…
When somebody says, I'm going to negotiate with the servicer, I am always.
On alert, because it means that they're trying to make it seem like they bring some great.
Insight or knowledge or expertise or something to these conversations, when in fact.
They tend to be about… sending in some papers, giving some numbers, saying, yes, I can afford that, signing a form. It's very…
Ministerial, really. sometimes they tell people to redirect their mortgage payments to the scammers, so they say.
You know, just stop making your payments, or, you know, if you're behind, but you want to try to.
Start making them again, send them to me, and then they just take that money.
one of the things that they, uh. Used to tout, I think they're still doing it, I haven't seen as many these days, but it was called a forensic loan audit, where they would say, oh.
You fell behind on your mortgage, but the real issue here is that when you first got your mortgage years ago.
there were all these legal violations, committed by the lender.
And we can get you out from under this loan because of all of these violations. So pay us.
$5,000, $7,500. And we'll do this forensic loan audit, which sounds very official.
sort of like CSI for… accounting. and…
Then they come up with these reports that are very… I mean, you could just get one off the internet, they're not real specific to anyone's loan, generally.
And they identify all of these violations, which may or may not be accurate.
Usually not, but one, they don't then actually offer to help you do anything about it.
They just charge you to do this report. And two, in most cases, even if there are violations that go back to when somebody took out a mortgage originally.
Most of those violations. Basically becomes stale. There's a statute of limitations, so they can't really do anything with.
Those issues. Once more than 3 years has gone by since somebody took out the loan.
So, I always know it's a scam if somebody has a loan that they got 22 years ago, and somebody is offering.
You know, a $7,500 forensic loan audit. That's just going to be of absolutely no value to anyone.
sometimes the attorneys who are involved in this type of thing promise or guarantee.
These amazing outcomes of litigation, and say they can get you your house free and clear, and all of that.
As with so many things, if it sounds too good to be true, it's too good to be true.
That rarely, if ever, happens, and um… is not something that an attorney can ever really guarantee in terms of the outcome of litigation.
another thing they'll do is file kind of a skeleton, or give you the paperwork for what's called a pro se, or self… represented bankruptcy filing.
Really dangerous for people to go into bankruptcy court themselves. There are lots of booby traps, and it's very technical, lots can go wrong.
also, once somebody files for bankruptcy, it limits their ability to do so again in the future.
So unless it's really, you know, a sort of… legitimate bankruptcy attorney who's willing to actually be on the papers and file and work with somebody.
Is involved and is shepherding it through. it is almost certainly going to do more harm than good to somebody.
and the reason, you know, people do file these when there's a foreclosure the next day, because a bankruptcy can stop that.
So, you know, sometimes it's just the Hail Mary thing that somebody does, but… There are a lot of downsides to that, and.
My hope, always, is that somebody is able to get. Real advice and help much earlier in the process, and not sort of be in that position.
Another kind of scam are deed and title scams. so these involve.
convincing a homeowner to basically sign over the property, sign over the deed.
often it comes… these days, what we see is it comes with some kind of promise that the owner will then be allowed to buy the property back.
In a good deal. but then actually that… person who has now has ownership of the house.
Actually evicts them, or… starts charging them exorbitant rent so that they can't actually afford, and just makes it impossible for them to stay in the home.
And it turns out that there's nothing enforceable. That allows the owner to get their title back.
That is happening a lot. A lot. Um… Sometimes the scammers even will forge the homeowner's signature, working with a shady notary.
so one of the things that's advised is, you know how we're always told to.
Check on our credit report, you know, once a year or more, even.
To make sure that nothing funky is showing up there. Similarly, it can be a good practice to check.
The property recording, so… for those of us in Alameda County, so in Alameda.
there is an online, uh. Access to, the county recorder.
And you can see if something has been recorded against the property, and if somebody is trying to take over title or steal your house, basically.
The only effective way for them to do it is to record something. So, it's worth.
Monitoring that, especially if. The owner has come into contact with somebody, who sounds like they were trying to…
Embroil them in some kind of questionable scheme. Betsy.
the DA's, former… the DA. Pamela Price set up.
A trigger warning so that if… okay, maybe you might speak to that. I know you'll get to solutions. I thought it was timely.
No, no, go ahead, go ahead. Yeah.
well… Those of you who worked hard on her campaign or supported her.
You know, fought the recall, might know. That, she set up part… I would like to… gray panthers to take credit, because she came to one of our meetings where we.
Talked about these kinds of. Concerns about frauds and… probate. She set up a…
A flag would go up if a senior… of the home of a senior changed title.
They would at least try to… the DA's office would at least try to call you.
To let you know that happened.
Or the… That's right. Thank you.
Mm-hmm. Or I think they sent out a note at… I don't know if they did written notice there. I know in Emeryville, I think you and I talked about that.
I… I don't know if it's still in place, but during the foreclosure crisis, Emeryville adopted this thing, similar thing, where they were.
The city was sending out, sort of, monitoring for notices of default, for foreclosure.
But also for changes, in the ownership of a property to let people know in case.
You know, they didn't. which is a really useful thing, and it's helpful because then people don't have to.
Do all the monitoring, but it's not… because it's available online, it's… it's pretty doable.
Linda, did you have…? Yeah.
You're muted. You're muted? Nope.
Okay, my second Zoom meeting of the day, the first… Um.
I ran the law office of Jeff D. Hoffman. We sent people to you.
And I've been trying to reach you for quite a while.
Jeff was arrested for domestic violence and elder abuse about 2 years ago. All he's wanted is to get me out of the home that I bought. I've been paying for. Long story short, today, the judge who's never heard a word from me.
Decided, writ of possession goes to Jeff. So, yeah, I've been paying for it for over a year. I can afford my home.
Whew.
He cut me off without any money. I found out when you work with a spouse in California.
One of you're supposed to be paid as an employee. He was billing for my time as a paralegal at $2.50 an hour. I'm not a paralegal, I was running… I was doing everything. Anyway, long story short.
I got a letter from our title company. That someone was trying to do something, and I called and found out.
That it's this… person that Jeff lost about $90,000.
With some boondoggle in Petaluma, this Doug Seiler. So, my title company let me know, but yes, if you can give the connection to.
Whatever Pam Price put on, and thank you, Gray Panthers. I didn't know we were supposed to pay dues.
I'm negative income, but I have savings. And that's all.
No one's required to pay dues, but if you want to vote.
I want to… I'm gonna be 76… On the 29th, I'm not taking a dime with me, I can afford my home, I'm supposed to have gotten spouse support, Jeff is claiming poverty.
Yeah, TMI. Yes.
I'm sorry, Linda. Linda, I'm so glad you could join us and reconnect. I'm gonna put.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I don't need one. I don't…
as Lisa had said, she's not a practicing attorney anymore, but I'm… I'm gonna put… I'm gonna put her email, if that's okay. I'm gonna put it back in chat.
And uh… and then you can follow up later if that's alright, Lisa.
Yeah, and there are other… other resources locally who, you know, may be able to help.
Yes. Yes, I've been in touch.
Yeah. I don't… yeah.
But I'm really sorry to hear that. I remember his name.
It… oh my gosh! Yeah, he's still using the website, but yeah, I don't want it to be about me, I just needed the link.
Yeah, okay.
So.
For the county thingy. That's all.
Oh, well, I will… so what I'm gonna do is, after… we finish here. I am going to share with Betsy this.
Set of slides, and it will have lots of links on it, I have to still add some of them in, but it will include that. Thank you for that reminder.
Um. if… if you have a link, or someone has a link to.
Which part of the DA's office. Please put it in chat, if anyone has that.
I don't… I don't know exactly.
Well, it's… and it's the county recorder that… where you can look yourself, too, so… Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay, great. Thanks. Lisa, where are we in your… where are we in your.
yeah, lots of stuff go on with it.
Presentation. Are we halfway through work? Do we… should we open… Okay.
two-thirds, probably? Maybe a little more? Are we okay on time, or you want me to speed up?
Folks can hold… on questions, I will hold on my comments as well. Thanks.
Okay, I mean, it's fine with me, but I… I want to abide by whatever your timing is, so… the other thing that sometimes, is like a variation of these deed and title scams is that.
The scammer will, tell someone, oh, and this is often to stop a foreclosure, too.
If you sign over the title into this trust, and maybe it's even in the owner's name, but it's some kind of weird, probably not truly legal.
Trust entity, then we'll have the trust file a bank… it's this whole complicated thing.
That, again, doesn't work. There, you know, somebody who comes and says, I have this, like, crazy loophole, complicated thing that I've worked out.
It doesn't work, and… Basically, it's another way to vacuum money from somebody who is in distress, so…
That's… that's just another variation. another category we call hard money loans, and these are basically.
Loans, usually from an individual, sometimes from, like, a family trust or a very small, outfit.
who are just lending their own money, that's kind of what hard money means, as opposed to a bank or other kind of lender that's basically borrowing money to lend out.
these loans, are often something people go to when they cannot qualify for a home equity loan or to refinance, or.
Like today, when interest rates are so high, that it's not actually beneficial to refinance.
they come with very high interest rates, they have lots of fees and costs at the time you take out the loan.
They are usually short-term, so… often there's just one or two years, until it has to be paid off completely.
And time after time, I see people who took out this loan.
Basically with their eyes closed, they were desperate. I understand that, but with no plan or way to be able to pay that off or refinance, or get another loan, and then they lose the house at the end of that one or two years.
they have very strict penalties on missed payments. They generally don't really work with people in loss mitigation to, come up with an affordable or realistic.
Way out to bring a loan current. And because these are smaller entities or individuals.
Who make probably just a handful of loans every year. they're often not subject to all of the legal protections that borrowers actually have under federal and California law.
They get some exemptions for being small, so that means that they can victimize people even more.
and, um… they're just, you know, they're out there, they're kind of loan sharks, basically.
And, I understand, again, why people get to the point where they take those loans out, but they are very, very dangerous.
Julia.
Julia? Hi.
You do.
hi. Do I have my microphone on? Okay, I have to confess, I'm a tenant, and I haven't been listening very closely, so I'm asking a question.
That's fine.
I have seen a number of ads recently. If you… if you watch TV programs for old people, you know, they're reruns, you get all these ads.
Yeah.
Directed at all people, and one of them frequently now has been about.
Losing the title to your home, and I wondered if you've seen those ads, and did you address it, and I just didn't hear you.
I did talk about… like, title theft and deed theft.
I don't know specifically what those ads are. I actually don't watch a lot of TV, so… I get to miss the ads, but I know they're being pushed on radio, on billboards, in churches, you know, I mean, there are all kinds of places where the scammers go.
Yeah.
Well, yeah, basically, yeah, I've seen those, too, you know, just, we'll buy your home, we'll give you cash, you don't have to go through… do any paperwork and all that stuff, which is, you know, real… confounding kind of thing, but this is a… more of a warning to people.
Yeah, yeah.
This kind of, theft is taking place.
Well, you know, I'm a fan of public service announcements that get at this and let people know it's something to watch for.
Okay.
okay, so I think this is probably the… second-to-last category of scams I'm going to talk about, but these are.
home improvement schemes. these are a big, big part of.
How people are getting in trouble, and uh… getting on the verge of losing, or actually losing their homes.
Will be when there's a door-to-door salesman, or a cold call.
to sell some kind of home improvement, and often these days, it's been, like, some sort of green energy efficiency improvement.
Which, I have nothing against, those are great, but… they sort of act as if, because they're doing good for the environment, anything else goes.
So, the contractor will be… Selling someone on, you know, getting solar panels, getting water filters.
Home hardening, because. Fire and stuff, tree trimming, window upgrades.
Something called Cool Coat Paint, which I still don't understand if it is a true thing or not, that's supposed to, you know, reflect heat away.
many things. and… it may be an improvement that the person.
Isn't, you know, hasn't really thought about needing, doesn't really need.
But whether they need or want it, they often really can't afford it.
and the way it's set up is that the contractor, who's the one who's gonna.
Get the money, is involved in soliciting you for the financing, too.
So, you know, maybe kind of selling you a loan to pay, you know, him or herself to do this work.
and sometimes the financing is secured by the property, so there's a lien on the property, you know, a mortgage, a home equity line of credit.
Sometimes it's something called a PACE loan. I don't know if folks here are familiar with these, but those are specifically for.
Kind of green energy efficiency products, and… they end up, um… they get repaid through your property taxes, so…
You still have to repay them, it's just now the property taxes go way up.
sometimes they are unsecured, so, you know, very much like a credit card, and don't really threaten, you know, your ownership of the home.
But, even unsecured debt at a certain point, can get people, you know, in a lot of trouble financially, and make it hard for them to afford.
The mortgage, or the rent, or whatever it may be. and… the secured financing in particular does create that risk of foreclosure. So here, somebody went to.
You know, upgrade their windows. And now they're losing the whole house because of that.
These are very difficult to unwind, these transactions. even when a contractor has done nothing, or as often happens, has actually caused damage instead of fixing or improving anything.
and even when we've been able to show that there was forgery on the financing documents by the contractor, they just wanted to get that money.
even then, it can be really, really difficult to unwind these, so… I give a special, call-out to be incredibly careful in choosing contractors, in shopping around.
In probably not going with the folks who come door-to-door or do the cold calling, you want to do your own homework and find.
people who, you know, come with. Actual, you know, reviews or testimonials or recommendations, if possible.
And as for the financing, it's best to. Deal with that separately from a contractor to.
Figure out how you're going to pay for this. Without the contractor involved at all, because…
That just creates a conflict of interest. finally, some other miscellaneous kinds of transactions that can be risky.
one is the We Buy Homes. I think someone mentioned that earlier.
Where, you know, you'll see a lot of ads for this, but usually what it is, is somebody making some kind of quick cash offer.
Way below the market price. So, essentially, they're… stealing somebody's equity, right? They have a house that's worth…
700,000, and, they offer 520 or something. You know, get out quickly, and… people either aren't aware of the value or are, you know, in distress and need the cash, and so take it, but they're really taking advantage of.
People, in those situations. If somebody wants to buy a home, wants to get the equity out and actually move that way.
There are realtors, even if the home is worth less than, is owed on it, there are ways to do something called a short sale.
So, always worth doing the homework to. Find more reputable, professionals to help with that transaction, and hopefully.
Maximize what you're going to get if you're selling. the other thing that's a more recent development are, that we keep getting letters about here.
Are… we call them home equity investments, sometimes they're called shared appreciation products.
There's a company called Unison, in particular, that sells these, but there are others.
And they basically offer people… they kind of target people, usually they can tell from filings with the county.
If somebody's, you know, kind of in financial distress or delinquent on the mortgage.
and they will come to them and say, hey, we'll give you… $75,000, $40,000, whatever amount of cash.
And you sign this huge stack of papers. And later down the road, when you sell your house, or if you refinance, or, you know, when you, the borrower, pass away.
We will get some percentage of your home value, or some percentage of the appreciation of your home value. So if it's gone up $150,000.
Will get 70,000 of that, and it's huge amounts that they take. They take huge bites of people's equity.
For really, you know, what can seem at the time like a really useful amount of money, but compared to what they are going to take at the back end.
really, it's not… not a good value proposition, and really basically steals.
the equity from the home. They're very slick, they look really…
Impressive, and to have all this stuff about, you know, you don't need… good credit, and you don't need that, you just need a lot of equity in your home.
And what that means is they're not focused on your financial situation, they're focused on the fact that you are sitting on this big nest egg, and they want to take some of it.
That's… that's what these are designed to do. reverse mortgages, Betsy talked about.
people may be familiar with these, but these are a product where you can, again.
Basically get cash out of your home and stop having… mortgage payments, if you still owe on the home, you can refinance into a reverse mortgage, or you can.
If you own the house outright, get a reverse mortgage to take some of that cash out.
And, um… We're seeing that there are some in the private market, there are some of these being sold even to people… usually they're for people 62 or older, but there are some products.
For 55 and older now. That are of dubious… legality. Um…
We're still learning about those. A reverse mortgage can be appropriate in some circumstances.
But it really should be seen as a last resort, because they're quite expensive.
They cost a lot in terms of fees and interest and ongoing administrative fees.
it limits somebody's ability to pass the House on. Were to pass on the equity, because.
Every month, unlike a… forward or regular mortgage, where you're paying down the amount you owe.
With a reverse mortgage. You owe interest, it's just that it keeps getting added to your balance, so your principal, if you borrowed.
You know, $250,000 can go up to $600,000 over time, or more.
because they keep just basically deferring everything that you owe and adding it to the debt.
the other thing to know about these is that borrowers have to keep up with the property charges, with the taxes, with the insurance.
and if they don't, they can still get foreclosed. I think there's often.
A belief that with a reverse mortgage, you lock in being able to stay in the house until you pass away, and that is generally the idea.
But there are things that can happen that can still cause people to lose the house along the way.
and if somebody, um. Isn't going to be able to keep up with property charges.
Probably getting a reverse mortgage, and then losing the house in not too long.
Isn't going to be a great solution to their issues. the other thing we've seen recently.
Is what I call extended exclusive listing agreements. There was this company called MV Realty.
That was signing people up, they would give them maybe $5,000 or something, and sign them up to a 40-year.
Realtor exclusive listing agreement, so anytime you sold your house in the next 40 years, or your heirs tried to sell it.
That, realtor would be entitled to either. List it, you know, handle the sale, or if you sold it, because, you know, 30 years later you forgot you ever even signed this.
they could then come in and basically collect what the commission would have been.
we were able to get a law passed in California that limits.
Listing agreements to 24 months. I would have liked it to be 12 or 6, but that's what we got.
and I think they can be renewed. not automatically, but in writing for another 12 months, but…
This isn't allowed in California anymore, so if anyone's coming to.
You or someone you know offering. some cash up front for this kind of long-term listing agreement.
That's illegal, and should run the other way. another kind of scams, I mean, they're endless, but the one I'll end on is post-disaster scams. So…
Every time there's some kind of natural disaster, fire, flood. We see people posing as, you know, FEMA staff.
People, you know, contractors coming in and, price gouging, or… a lot of people coming in and, you know.
Giving very low offers for all cash on, let's say, the lot, if the house burned down, and really.
kind of… when people are in a really, really difficult situation and very vulnerable.
In various ways, cheating them out of… if not the home, then money.
or some of the equity in the home. those look a lot of ways we could talk about them all day, so I'm not gonna go deeply into them, but it's… it's definitely… there are lots of warnings on, some of the government websites about all the different versions of them, and.
It's worth, educating ourselves about those two. finally.
this is what I will populate with links, but… These are… the basic resources, there are lots, and there may be some in Berkeley that I don't know about, I've never heard of Berkeley, the city, having a way to report this. I mean, I know the DA we could, but…
but these are the agencies at the federal and state level that are involved in these kind of issues, and would be where.
someone would go to report. I'll add the Attorney General, actually, on the state. I should have put that.
And then in terms of where people can get help. there are kind of two categories. So one are non-legal housing counselors.
Who can especially help with issues relating to mortgages and foreclosure.
they are free, there's no, income qualification, up or down.
and they are currently at least, funded by and certified by, the Federal Housing and Urban Development Department, HUD.
and there's a way to locate the ones who are certified in your area. I'll add those links.
And then, legal help, as you said, Betsy, I mean, there are some complicated issues with divorces and family law.
an inheritance and things that arise that legal aid. Basic legal aid offices.
May not be equipped to deal with, or somebody may be over income who has, you know, who has a home.
so I will give some legal aid, options, but also.
A link to a directory for private attorneys who may have more specialized.
knowledge and abilities.
That's… that's great. Thank you, Lisa. I'm gonna, let's, uh… switch off your… screamed.
Yeah.
And if people want to use Gallery view to see everybody, or hold Lisa, you know, in the middle, you can choose that view option.
I was hoping we would get into solutions. Besides hiring lawyers.
Since not everyone has that kind of. Resources, um.
Just laughed. Oh, thank you.
Yeah, so what I… I do see your hand, Carol. And I just wanted to say to people, um.
A couple things. I thought we would get into ideas for solutions, because what.
Partly stimulated this topic. Is people, during the recent Berkeley upzoning.
With the missing middle, which allows homes that are a single-family home, depending on lot size.
Could end up with 8. Or even 8 units subdivide, you know, there's all this…
And there's an incentive to enable homeowners to add. More capacity, you know, for housing.
and people expressed to me the fear that they would get a bunch of harassing phone calls.
Because homeowners are getting harassing phone calls, or cold calls, or visits.
Sometimes with the scam, and sometimes it's a real estate agent, or a realtor who's.
Just wants to help you sell. Well, you know, they want to help you sell. We have a very mature, realistic.
Who could be a scammer, too. Yeah. Yeah.
Realtor, community here in Berkeley. and I just wanted to add that another inspiration was Gray Panthers.
In Ann Arbor. In Ypsilanti, actually.
in Washtenaw County. The Jan Bendor, the gray panther longtime chair and a.
Very big activists there. told me that their… county treasurer, or property assessor's office, I'm not…
Surewitch, had actually put social workers on staff. To be available as that kind of counselor.
And caution, you know, able to somewhat help people who had questions.
generally.
I'm… and that's… I'm hoping Pam White might speak about. This, that I'm looking… I'm looking to collaborate with other folks.
Pam Price, Pam Price? Oh. Oh.
on… on exploring some of those protective options. Um… Pam White. Pam White, one of our members. So, here…
Sure. I… And I would just add, Betsy, sorry to interrupt, but that the housing counselors.
And I've been… yeah.
Are not… not lawyers and are free. And they are people who are trained.
Both in, sort of, pre-purchase, helping people, counseling them before they get a house, but also.
Yeah, yeah. Okay.
In holding onto the house, including, you know, seeing through this kind of scam. So.
That is a good resource. Yeah.
So if you have those names and resources, the only folks I know is NACA, which is a national.
Non-profit that helps people buy homes if they're low-income. I did not know they do help.
So, yeah.
They're… they're good for some financing stuff, but I wouldn't… I wouldn't pick them as the housing counselor, but there are other resources in the area.
See, yes, you see. So I think… I want to say I also invited.
all the city council members and the mayor, who is a member.
and I got an email back from, uh. Cecilia Lunapara's, aide.
Josh, Jonah, and he said they're looking forward to hear what we recommend the city do.
Could do, you know? So… I see us as having follow-up steps, you know, and uh… and I think.
We're gonna, um… I'm gonna ask you to take questions. If people have a question, they can put in chat to keep it short. That's great.
Sure.
I'm gonna ask that we move our programs, so we now have 10 minutes.
and that means we'll move on to our other announcements.
I mean, maybe we can push it back even further than 305 or 310.
depending on how many questions. Okay, Carol, do you have a question or a short comment?
Well, first, Lisa, it would be helpful to have the contact information for the resources you just listed, and those.
Resources do not cost people money to contact the state. Also, perhaps for some individuals to have a short statement.
Has, on the resources expressly what they do. I mean, I under… Yeah, I know.
Yeah, I'm gonna beef up those slides, I just didn't get the links, yeah.
She's… she's gonna add them, Carol, she… She's gonna add the links to her presentation, and he'll try to get it back to people, so…
So, I… So, Lisa, it's, it's good to hear you. I brought you to the Commission on the status of women a couple years ago.
To do a presentation there, and has a result of your, um.
Your present… I did write a quite…
Maybe that.
Involved. Recommendation to Council that we passed at the Commission on the Stairs of Women in terms of them developing materials, particularly for those persons subject to.
most vulnerable to exploitation, which tends to be older people, particularly women and minorities.
and, it actually just went nowhere for a year. It's sort of interesting to hear that.
Councilmember Luna Para's. Office has stated that they were interested in what we were doing, because actually Council just ended up… I…
I stated at the Health Life Enrichment Committee that the current Commission on the Status of Women, which I'm no longer on, doesn't seem to have an interest in this issue, so they reverted to the Commission on Aging, which I don't believe they've done anything with it. And so, I was wondering if I can work with you and possibly developing some materials.
I am going to recommend to Betsy that we… that this, recording be distributed, to the council members, but this has been brought.
To their… their attention, and I would hope. That you're available to maybe collaborate on some sample materials, of which this, presentation could be part of that, because we were hoping from the Commission that there be much more expansive outreach to persons who are particularly vulnerable.
including places like not only senior centers, because not everybody goes there, but doctor's offices, faith-based communities, etc.
Yeah, no, I remember, I like… I like that update a lot. Yeah, I'm… I'm happy to help collaborate.
Thank you. Yeah.
I sometimes need a little bit of, you know, lead time, just.
Because of other obligations, but I also probably would pull in, maybe some staff attorneys at, a local, direct services.
Group, that… that often does workshops and stuff for homeowners, because they might be able to get involved as well.
The other thing I was wondering… you meant… please let me ask this question.
A disabled hard.
Carol? Carol, I'm sorry, why don't you add it in the chat, because we've got some other hands.
And I want to… let's come back to you if there's some other questions. We're not… we're not taking extended comments.
Well, I was just going to ask for. Okay.
But, but… That's great.
I was gonna ask for clarification on Emeryville. That's all.
Do you want to answer that, Lisa? A quick clarification about Emeryville?
I'm not sure what their current rule is, I'd have to look it up, so I can do that.
Okay.
Yeah.
Okay, thank you. Only because our city manager…
We're losing you, Carol. I'm gonna move over to Helen. And when your signal's struggle, Carol.
Yes, but…
I'm hoping you can hear me. this is Helen, and Lisa, your presentation has been very eye-opening for me, so thank you.
Is that happen…
I think somebody is… can somebody mute? The…
Thanks, dear.
Okay.
Is there a way to, can you hear me? Okay. Um…
Yes. Much better now.
I just wanted to say I'm… I appreciate your presentation. I was very… unaware of a lot of this.
I, in particular, work, you know, as an advocate in the disability and senior communities, and I didn't know if you had any specific resources, because I have heard that.
Homeowners with disabilities have run into issues, especially, like, having to build a ramp or things like that, that they're borrowing money and then something happens.
I'm wondering if you have any also specific resources, or when.
We populate something, I'd be also into getting… helping get this information.
Out so that, and make it accessible to. because I think it's really important, for our community to know how to help themselves, and know there's a community out here of support. So thank you again.
for pointing us to these resources, and I can't wait to check some of them out myself.
So, thank you.
Thanks. yeah, again, I mean, I'm happy to continue the conversation. I don't, in answer to.
I just, uh…
The question about specific resources. I mean, there are lots of warnings and alerts and notifications on various.
You know, on FTC and DFPI and Bureau of Real Estate, Department of Real Estate, and all of those.
But those only go so far, because they're kind of, like, here, be aware of this.
but I think… you know, something could be pulled together that both gives the alert and gives information about, you know, where you can go to.
Complain or get advice and guidance, that would be a good, good thing.
Yeah, because we've got blind community members, so I'm all about making it accessible for those folks, so, again, in total appreciation here, and being on the board of the Great Panthers, anything I can do to help.
Definitely.
as we work together on this, more than happy to add my skill sets in.
And for those who don't have visuals, uh. that was Helen Walsh.
So I'm just going to ask people to say their name at the beginning.
Not… so, in respect for that. Topic that Helen brought up. Okay.
Are there other questions? I see…
Oh, you did?
This is… this is Helen. I am low vision, and I did announce my name so people would know, but there was a problem, technically, I think, and that could be why people didn't hear. And, again, if you miss my name, it's… it's Helen Walsh.
One of our esteemed board members. Yeah, um… Someone put their hand up, but now I'm… oh, Norma! Norma, do you have a question?
Norma.
Or are you wanting to make a comment, a short comment?
No. I think that the information that I'm going to insist, or try to insist to include.
Is that I was just reading a headline. That China… has 90% of the people own.
Their own place to live. yeah, China, yeah, yeah, that's the point, is nobody gets it.
China.
About how we've been robbed of our thinking. About how things work.
90% own, and goods also… and the rents are dropping. And so are things that people need to buy.
Are dropping in price. In China. Now.
And the other thing is, the reason that people. Are told to hate Cuba.
Is that they, too. Own their own places to live.
This is very frightening to the owning class. Who can't stand the idea of communism, and has been making war against the Russian Revolution.
For over a hundred years. So, I… I need us all.
At least to understand how we've been ripped off and lied to and… This is from the nursery school on.
That we are taught these terrible, terrible ideas. And thanks, thanks for all that magnificent presentation.
Thanks.
Thank you, Norma. Yeah. Can… can we give whatever effects, hearts, claps, or turn…
Unmute and just say thank you, Lisa. Those of you who know how to do…
You know what I mean?
Reactions. It's a good time to unleash them. We see hearts from Nancy Stevens, applause from Arlene Hipp.
Hearts from Helen Walsh, Robert McGarion, and Cheryl. We're not… we're not all shouting, but uh…
Thank you, Lisa.
Dorma!
Thank you. Well, I appreciate your having me. I'm gonna take off if you're moving on in your agenda, but, you know how to reach me, and Betsy, I will get you, um.
The, uh… PowerPoint with links and resources by the end of the week.
Okay, and I'm gonna delegate to RAINS, to get the recording.
Transcript and slide packet with your links up on the website. But technically, we're on vacation. I hope we'll do it before we get back.
Great. Okay.
What's a vacation? Wait, wait, what's…
I don't know. Yeah, I know. I had a moment today where I said, oh.
Bye.
This is kind of a vacation, because I was sitting by a pool.
Happy vacation!
anyway, thank you so much. Yeah. Carol, Carol Morasovic, also, thank you for connecting us up, and…
Bring in this resource here, so… I will… not unmute, um…
So, our next, uh. Phase of our… work, our program is to, uh.
maybe, maybe we could just say, as a discussion. it… that at another meet… we could talk about next steps, so email me, call, Carol.
Crooks, you know, when you have a chance to talk to her, maybe let's gather ideas. I think we've had some ideas here on follow-up.
and… and maybe more talks of… the Pam White and Candia.
Gandhi, who's the chair of the League of Women Voters.
Also, Willie Phillips from. Naacp expressed some interest in, like, follow-up.
Talks or informational… sharing. I did not see…
Winston here today, or Willie, but um… They were all invited, so we'll follow up.
With those two groups as well. Thanks! Okay, I need a short pause, and then we'll do, uh…
Reports, and updates, and I'm hoping Cheryl… uh… Pam…
I'm looking at names. Carol… anyone who's, Arlene, anyone who's a liaison to some of our coalition.
Partners and campaigns. please, please come back in a couple minutes, or at least.
Please start your report. You could start your report now, but I have to take a bio break.
Helen, I'm hoping you'll tell us a little about Barrow. And we'll, um… Yeah.
While I have this minute and a half. I ask you to change your voter registration.
To Peace and Freedom Party. It is a party-building socialism. The past 56, 57 years.
Registering Peace and Freedom Party allows you not to have to register in our owner's.
Parties, the bourgeois parties. Where the Democrats and the Republicans.
The Democrats have no recourse. For us.
They can do a little thingy here and there, but… It's just cover.
I have, uh… I will bring voter registration forms to the next Wednesday meeting at Alessio's.
if you want. And, help you if you want.
You could get… you can get one of those off the internet, of course.
Green Party is not socialist, it's… it's near… It's like DSA, Democratic…
Socialists of America. It's near socialism.
I thought you were going to the toilet, Betsy.
I did. I'm very fast. Linda, it's… I… I don't… I think this is a special announcement you want to make about a book?
I wanted to… Oh, hold on.
But I do need to get to our reports, and then we can have announcements spontaneous from the floor.
If that's alright. Okay, thanks. you're muted, you're muted, though, Linda, so we'll get back to you, we'll get back to you shortly.
Thank you to Norma! For real.
Okay, yes.
I got a machine smuggled into… into Cuba during the embargo.
Cuba, America, Friendship Society. We should not be afraid. Of the things you're saying. Thank you, Norma. And I have to go to Kaiser.
Thank you all. Thank you.
Okay. And you're recommending the book Final Draft? Which… first draft.
Yeah, don't… I got to edit this book.
Communists! He's amazing.
Okay. Murray Korngold, okay.
Sam.
All right. Thank you, Linda, for coming back.
okay, so… I see that Cheryl…
White… is she still… are you still here, Cheryl? Okay, um…
Is… had to go. but she is our liaison to…
long-term supports and services for all coalition. Which is actually working with Kara.
And, maybe Robert or Julia can, uh… so… backing up. So that LTSS for all coalition is something we've been on for…
I don't know, 4 years working to support. better wages for home healthcare workers working on an insurance benefit in the state.
Of California, so that… People can have… who are not actually.
Medicaid… on… qualified for Medicaid can still get a benefit to help.
With long-term home-based supports and services. uh… And, and Cheryl…
Put several links. Into the chat earlier that I'm repeating now, so if we had chat.
Chat, um… you can look at the state legislative targets.
That this LTSS for all grassroots Coalition. Has, and it's now, you know, working with.
With Kara, so… Oops.
Wow. I… I think that's the DC Police, if they haven't handed over.
Wow. Pause for a moment.
I'm gonna check on that, but I… it's just one motorcycle… every 50 feet or yards, and I've…
I hope… okay, it's dying down. I hope it's not the president's motorcade.
anyway, um… So, were there any reports back about Kara?
Or LTSS for all…
What were you just referencing in DC?
Well, you know, our president has ordered National Guard troops, now with weapons, to basically patrol.
Dc's streets and, uh. for illegal immigrants or, you know, undocumented immigrants, but also.
He's personally worried about the crime. even though it's at a 25-year low.
And he's, he's just doing a bunch of shenanigans to, you know.
Mess with the DC, which has no… congressional representatives that can vote.
So, DC has this special status. They do have a mayor and a city council, and a police department, and they're pretty pissed off about this.
So, I'm hoping to actually… Well, we're only here for one more night, but there's protests going on.
And the department… so, I heard that the president wanted to ride with the police.
And I just don't know what these motorcycle. Police were doing. I don't think the National Guard gets on motorcycles, so…
I'll tell you more later. Offline. You know, we have… we do informal discussion at 3.30.
Usually after we adjourn, so thank you, Carol. Morosovic. So…
I'm not seeing… Helen Walsh. You know, you are our… you are one of our liaisons to Barrow, along with Carol Crooks. Would…
Is it possible you might make a, catch us up on.
Berkeleyans for accessible right-of-ways, a group that we endorsed and signed on to.
Work on recently.
yeah, sure, happy to do that. Our group has been rather busy. We're working on letters right now, and letters on response to.
The new Berkeley Bike Plan, in particular, there was a workshop a couple of weeks ago that we attended, and now we're having conversations in the group to.
Pull out concerns and comments, having to do with accessibility and rights-of-way access for, seniors and persons with disabilities and families.
what I'm gonna do in the chat, comments. Are still opened. I'm gonna put some information in the chat of where you can find and review.
The new bike plan draft, which was put out August 2025, City of Berkeley, the Transportation Department.
And the date, and the email, so you know who you can email your comments to.
and if you also have any questions, um. Gosh, we just… we just created a, Barrow, email.
I don't have it on hand right now, but I'll try to get that into the chat for folks.
If you want to send in an email to Barrow, and then one of the individuals or groups that might have a certain expertise in the area might be able to help you.
if you needed help drafting anything. So, let me go about doing that now for everybody.
Um… That's…
So, is there a website with the latest communications?
Okay, yeah.
We're starting to put up a website, we're just starting to build one. What we did do is, we put out information to the community. I'm gonna go.
off, and then grab that. On, which… I'll cut, copy, and paste for folks.
it's on my Facebook, but it gives you an overview of what Barrow is.
and also an email contact, address. So I'll be in chat, shortly.
Here we go.
With a summary of that, I'm gonna summarize it with a very short, with the contact information for folks, um.
Yeah. So I… I see your… your… chat link. Do you want to read that for those who don't have… can't see chat?
What would… what… what…
Yeah, in the chat right now, and you can also email me.
directly. because I don't have the Barrow email offhand. that's what I was trying to do, Betsy, is go get that information and then return back. But I… we can go this way.
Okay. Well… I'll… you…
with what's in the chat, it's the transportation, Infrastructure Commission.
New draft plan for the bicycle. Plan. and it's a direct link, so the link brings you direct to the PDF that is in the chat.
thing. If you want that information and cannot see it, I am also low vision, too. It's no hesitation to ask.
Which is why I was trying to grab an email. I'm gonna give you my personal email, I'm gonna go ahead and put that in the chat, and anybody here can just email me, and I will send that information.
And also the information about the barrel, okay? So my name is Helen Walsh, H… E-L-E-N-W-A-L-S-H.
Yeah.
You can email me for that information, and the email is B, as in Bumblebee.
R as in radio. A as in apple.
N, as in Nancy. A as in apple.
C as in cat. H as in my first name, Helen.
Sign, Comcast. Dot net.
Put in subjects. cycle… the transportation information.
on the draft bike plan. So just put a draft bike plan.
And then I'll be able to find it easily.
Thank you, Helen. Uh…
And then what I will do is I'll send you the same information, and I can also give you the information about Barrow.
And that, so you have that direct email address. Thank you for your time.
Just, quick update is that this concerns especially the fact that bicycle planning.
In Berkeley and many gray panthers. Do bicycle, but that bicycle planning has not.
Coincided with conversations. And input, robust input from.
the disabilities community, to the extent it could and should, especially around conflict.
Points for, people in wheelchairs or, with blindness. Conditions. And I know there's a lot more nuance that I'm missing, Helen, but just for some of the newcomers today.
No, there is… there is a lot… there is a lot more…
It's very particular to Berkeley, but it could be applied in Oakland as well.
Oakland and other areas. So, um… Yeah, uh…
So… so I've… yeah, so… I want to move on, Helen, unless…
Yeah.
Yeah, I was just saying, I appreciate your attempt to help with accessibility, but, in the future, don't cut me off when I'm using a screen reader.
And I'm trying to get to my stuff, okay? I can help people, or people can make a request.
Okay. Great. Thank you.
Thank you, Helen. I am… I… as some of you may remember, we're working with several different.
Homeless solidarity, and uh… working groups, around homelessness, and Measure W is a billion dollars.
That the county is allocating, and our member, Arlene Hipp.
Might have a few words to say. Do you… from any of the groups you're part of, Arlene?
I want to give us an update? Also, Arlene, you're…
You and Carol are related to the poor… involved with the Poor People's Campaign, so… If you could start with Measure W, maybe you could also speak to the Poor People's Campaign.
If you wish. I didn't mean to just surprise you.
Um…
Yeah, you did.
Oh, okay. I tried to email, but it was very, very… recent.
Yeah, I was out and about. Anyway, Measure W is picking up steam, but one of the biggest things, one of the things that I really appreciate.
Is the, uh… the conversation that, Nikki Fortunato was very strict, strict about.
Setting county policy on service providers. And not only… Um…
County policy, but now this is an opportunity for grievance and compliance and enforcement to come into play. So I'm looking forward to seeing.
What is going to become of that? Also, the second thing is the Oversight Committee.
Now, we're already 5 years in. This sunsets at… in 2030, I believe it is.
And, we're already 5 years in from being back and forward in court.
And we don't want to wait. Here in Oakland, we had Measure A1, which… the oocyte… they took 4 years to get an oversight committee established.
We already 5 years in, we don't have time to wait for 4 years.
On Measure W in it.
And I measured up… yeah, I'm only talking about Measure W right now. And so… One of the really interesting things, when I went to look at the oversight committee.
The Taxpayers Association was on the, oversight committee, and that was the one of the groups that had us in court.
To hole up the distribution, receipt and distribution of. Measure W. I really think that.
we have to pay attention to the oversight committee and what their responsibilities are, and how account… how we have to make them more accountable.
How we have to, um… reporting out, so we don't wait a year, two years before something is done.
If there's an issue. I think that's, like, imperative. Going to the meeting, what I found out was about, um.
I know that they are… part of the funding is to also get additional, um.
Purchase, I think, small, like, hotels, right? And, they have, like, a restriction on the size of the hotel. I think it's supposed to be, like, 48.
but there's some that's, like, 24 rooms, and I think that they're trying to work out.
The possibility of buying those as well, so I'm looking forward to.
Hearing about that. Well, one of the big things that's really, um… being on a working group, I would really like to see.
then look at vacant buildings. Look at vacant buildings in the communities where the people are… have encampments, instead of taking them out of their community, leaving them in their community.
Utilizing the properties that's. There. So, that's just a few of the, concepts. I know one of the groups have become, uh.
One of the encampment groups have become a 5013C. And so, I'm looking forward to talking to them about how this is going to roll out. They got wonderful.
Wonderful people that they're actually attorneys and various people, architects, that are actually working with them. So, it's going to be exciting to see.
Those who are directly impacted actually designing something and rolling it out.
Wood Street Commons. Our long time, yeah.
So, I… yeah, and so, you know. Yeah, and I just finished talking to John just a couple of minutes ago, so I'm excited to see, um…
Thank you.
How this is going to play out. We don't want… we can't do with the same thing that we've been doing.
Because it's broken. It's just broken.
No. Do you want to say… yeah, do you want to say a few words about the teach-in at Laney College?
That's open to everyone. Okay, that's great.
Okay, yeah, I just opened up the flyer. I'm ready.
on September the 25th. This is a save the date.
On September the 25th, from 11 to 2… 11 a.m. To 2 p.m.
Uh… The Laney Poor People campaign is having their full teach-in.
the subject matter is they steal our survival and our say, unite against cuts, cages, and control.
And, like I said, this is a save the date because the location is to be determined. They're working it out now.
Along with whoever the speakers are gonna be. It's gonna be a smaller panel this time, which I'm really… glad about, because, it gives an opportunity for more discussion.
After the presentation, it gives an opportunity for more in-depth discussion. So, anyway, be on the lookout, put it on your calendar. September the 25th, from 11 a.m.
To 2PM. it's gonna be, uh. Hybrid. So, if you can't be there in person, um…
You can also catch it online, and I will shoot the information to Betsy.
Thank you.
All right, thank you. I see… I see your hand, Carol. I'm gonna pause, though, because…
I want to make a short update. About, our membership in the statewide coalition Housing Now.
Housing now, exclamation point, which kind of goes hand-in-hand with tenants together. So, what's exciting to me.
Is to see, um… tenant-oriented legislation.
Proposed and lobbying training going on. If anyone's interested in knowing more about it. We… we are part of CARA.
We are part of EBHO. Those are, associations that give us lobby training.
But they have not tackled. Residents' rights… tenants' rights.
And, I just want to say that there is a steering committee meeting, which… if anyone would like to sit in on, there's, you know, usually I'm representing us.
but I'm excited, and I did want to mention that they have… are asking for.
Coordinated, you know. For support on several bills having to do.
With tenant rights, like lowering the cap on rent increases. And it's a long haul. Another is to get rid of these algorithms, this computer software that landlords can use.
To basically. Figure out how much they should raise the rent.
and in a sense, this… some of the algorithms amount to collusion, because they're… talking to each other and giving input and deciding.
you know, making sure no one's gonna lose money, or doesn't… There's more to it. So, some of the bills to look out for, I do have a cheat sheet, but I'll keep this short.
AB… 749.
Ab64. Ab20 and AB45, and I will…
Try to… if anyone's interested, let me know. I will try to send some information sheets or post them in some way.
but if you're interested in joining the statewide coordinating committee for Housing Now.
you can go to Housing Now. Org, or California Housing Now, Google that.
And, sign up to receive, um. Notices and announcements.
And, one of the issues they are doing is organizing mobile home park residents.
Against, corporate buyouts, or even just… selling out from under people who have very limited incomes.
And the new owners expect to be able to raise rents. Currently.
Mobile home parks are considered an affordable housing option. But, in fact, their real… prime real estate.
Targets right now to… Because people, uh… You can make so much money.
And there's definitely an effort to get, uh. Tenants organized so they can make a bid on the property, or work with.
An organization. in the state that helps.
Mobile home park tenants become cooperatives, resident-owned and covered. Okay, so… Those… those are, uh…
The other, um… And, I will… I will now pause, with, on our…
Standing coalition partnerships and liaisons, and I see Nancy. You had your hand up.
and… and then, someone else who hasn't spoken, why don't, Nancy, why don't you go, and then Carol, you can… you can please… speak. Nancy, there…
Hi, everybody! Thanks, Betsy. I just wanted to ask, I'm doing something kind of on the down-low.
I'm trying to find… Or get in touch with residents, in nursing homes.
Through the Resident Council President. because… I am considering a key ten, against corporations, in the nursing home industry that are… they've been threatening to shut down right now because they're not getting the funding that they want.
in order to siphon the money out. and so, our corporation here.
I discovered that every Friday that… well, they've been doing it for a very long time, but now there's a huge uptick.
In the numbers of people that they're billing. Who should not have a shared cost. They give them hand-done bills.
With loads and loads of errors on it, so in case someone tries to take them to court for it, or claim that it's.
you know, fraud or abuse of an elder. financial fraud, they can say, this is what our bill looks like, that person is trying to extort us, that is a fake bill.
And so, they'll change little things like the city name in their address. they'll make the total incorrect.
and double bill on the bill, and just all kinds of things, but there's red flags, and so I go around every Friday, I make room visits in the entire building of.
99 rooms I usually get into about, I would say 80% of them, um.
But there's a huge uptick. this past Friday, I found, 12 people.
Got bills, fake bills. we called their insurance companies, and so I just want to make that quick announcement. Even if you're not able to connect with me.
if someone gets a fake bill, just please, spread the word. If you get a bill and you're not sure, does it make sense?
Just call your insurance companies if you've got MediMedi, call both.
to find out what your share of cost is, and get an itemized, detailed bill.
That's all. Thank you.
Thank you, Nancy. I want to call attention.
To the chat, hopefully people can… Pursue that, but um… G? No, I'm not saying it right. You gave me the proper pronunciation, but, G. Ariel…
Ox, asked about, what about redistricting and gerrymandering? So, uh… why don't we pick that up.
After Carol. I'm not making a report about the National Council, but I'll do that later.
The National Grey Panthers Council. Has… often takes larger.
Issues, but we haven't, as a chapter. Taken up the governor's… redistricting campaign, so…
Carol Morasovic?
Yes, I want to address Measure W. County Measure W, but, I wasn't clear where Nancy is from.
Nancy lives… oh, Nancy, you want to tell people how to… how they can reach you?
And where you are?
Yes, absolutely. I am a… long-term care skilled nursing home.
reform advocate. and…
An aging and disability advocate. you can reach me at 760…
3, 1, 4… 5170.
I do prefer text or email so that we can schedule a time. I've got about a dozen meetings or more each day, so, Mondays and Tuesdays, I usually leave a few hours open.
So, are we talking about California nursing home providers?
for appointments. The entire state of California, yes. So, my…
Nursing homes Corporation owns 33, just under this particular nursing home company, but it's a very, very large.
Conglomerate, right up there with. Shlomo Rosnik.
So you're… you actually are part of the nursing home industry, not an advocate?
no, no, no, I am an advocate for nursing home reform. I'm not part of… I'm actually a resident in a nursing home.
I've been here for just, 2 months shy of 7 years.
Okay, because what you're, uh… identifying certainly seems like something that should be litigated if this is going on.
You got it. Mm-hmm. I do. His name is Sean O'Neill, and he is with.
Masks, so do you have an attorney?
Okay, good.
Stalwart Legal Group. he has California's, in the history of California, the largest settlement suits for.
This type of thing, as well as MedMouse stuff, so thank you.
Good. Good, good. Because if you hadn't, I was going to recommend Catherine Stabner.
So, addressing Measure W, I just want to say it doesn't appear that Berkeley is going to get the money.
Well. But…
That it needs in terms of how the monies are being apportioned. It's not get a substantial amount of money. I have to grasp the exact breakdown, but based on… I'm… again, I did this off the top of my head, maybe it was 26, $27 million that the city manager's office brought to city council that we'll need. Some of this is to sustain our current, uh.
Motel conversions, as well as it included housing retention monies and the small sites, etc. But certain things that we need in… just to sustain, but the amount of money that's being apportioned to, as you said, Berkeley, Albany, Amoryville, or Berkeley, Alameda, Emeryville? I'm not sure what's considered North.
Yeah. Carol, you're… you're… we're losing your…
Okay, so, can you hear me now?
Integrity, so I think you should wrap… I think you've made your… Make one sentence, say it as clearly and slowly as you can.
Augusta will not… we will not receive as much money. Under County Measure W in Berkeley, as was requested.
By the city manager and council. We will be receiving what was requested. We have.
Proportionately. Yeah.
So, Carol? Carol? Oh. My understanding, and maybe, uh…
Uh… Arlene might… might recollect, but my understanding is the count… The Board of Supervisors was not funding cities.
Their funding proposals. From agencies.
And so, perhaps I'm… maybe… maybe Arlene could speak to that.
No, no. Okay, so it's a… it's a… It's a… it's a portioned by areas, geographic areas.
Okay, and we have about a third… yeah, Arlene, thank you.
It's by geographic areas, and supposedly by the point of count. And so.
But not by cities itself. In other words, the city doesn't request.
Specific money, the amount… Okay.
Well, the city has collected data on this information, so naturally it goes to follow, you know, they might put it… do it like the continuum.
And put all of the things under one resource, so they know the amount that they actually need.
Instead of just going individually. So, service providers are individuals.
What you need the number collectively under the city in order to request the money.
There is a geographic breakdown as to far… as to how much will be abortioned.
Yeah, it is. Yeah, it's 14… it is… it is by city.
Thank you, Eric.
Oh, well, what I meant was… Okay, I misunderstood. I did not think cities were putting in their wish lists.
And Alec… and they're given their wish list, I thought it was agencies.
Allocated funds, but I may misunderstand that.
The City of Berkeley did submit it. It was approved through Council.
And that was back in… I've tried to remember now. It was… it was before the vote was taken.
Before the recess.
Okay, it's, maybe you could put a link. I think you were gonna email us to… that request list, or email me, but I never received it.
Okay.
So… I think Arlene and I… yeah, might want to…
I think a lot of cities are not going to get what they… what they, uh… actually applied for Carol.
I just… I just don't think that they are. I think we have high hopes, but it's just not going to happen.
Yeah.
Especially with a portion of the, you know, the allocation. First of all, money in reserve, and then, you know, 20% of it is for essential services, and… you know, et cetera, et cetera. We only have a small window anyway.
And, it's basically for sustainability. It's not really for a digital, so…
Yeah.
Correct. Correct. And most of our stuff we asked for was sustainable. It also included some money needed for another Horizon-type model. We're just not gonna get the money, and I can tell you, as far as.
From one money. That's already been committed, so it's not good.
But let's… let's just…
Well, for… Wolford. Well, from what I understand, depending on the model.
It's not good.
The size of it, because the previous Board of Supervisors meeting, they were talking about rates.
Right? And so they were also talking about sides of facilities. And so, depending on the size of the facility, they might not fund it if it's not in compliance with what they're requesting.
And so if it's a smaller facility. That's part of the window. It's like, all of these criterias that they really mentioned, and also they ask for increases in the, um…
per bed unit, of which I don't necessarily believe they're getting. I think it might be a small percentage, but really not that much.
And that's pretty much to cover everything, you know what I'm saying, Carol. Staffing and all things that encompasses.
producing this particular service.
Mm-hmm.
okay, I'd like to close out… Even though… I think we need to have a meeting with a much shorter speaker, even as important as it was, so that we can catch up on.
These campaigns and what liaisons are rec- what. Liaisons are recommending.
Any action, just so if… if… If we're okay with that, I would like to just wrap up the meeting with a.
Reframing of, the agenda by. Announcing that our next board meeting.
Is, September 3rd, Wednesday, 1.30. Carol and I, will be calling that, and if you… we would like to be interviewing candidates.
for the board, if you haven't had a chance to do that.
but other members, can be… can, you know, be invited to the board meeting.
it's… it's currently on Zoom. I don't… I don't know exactly. Then there's a social… that, Carol…
Crooks often organizes and… that would be the… September 10th.
Also, Wednesday, and she'll… get the word out.
our board member, uh. Christy Martin has offered her rooftop.
Her new apartment… new studio. On the rooftop of, on Telegraph Avenue area, so I think she and.
Carol Crooks will decide if that's feasible. and then our next speaker meeting in September is.
The 24th of September, so stay posted. Check out.
Please con… please consider the parking when you choose a new… I moved in here, because two-hour parking just doesn't work.
Yeah, that is one of the drawbacks. Oh, and I… yeah.
And almost every place in Berkeley is 2-hour parking.
Yeah, that is one of the advantages to Parker Street, where hell I see us is.
so anyway, thank you, Julia. are there any short… technically, we should adjourn, but are there any short.
Very short headline announcements that. Members want to make right now.
I mean, anyone who's here needs to make. Okay. Dalton?
This is… this is our lane. I put it in the chat, we were talking about in-home support services.
Yeah, Arlene.
Yep.
And I put a link for National Domestic Workers Alliance, which encompasses federal, you know, nationally.
they're trying to roll back, wages, which, you know, each state has its own autonomy, so it's above the minimum wage, but they're trying to stop their overtime, and I think we need… we really need to think about supporting them, because they're already stressed enough.
Especially with Medi-Cal and Medicaid, and Medicare under attack. Thank you.
Okay, they are part of our… the domestic workers hand-in-hand and the Domestic Workers Union is part of our LTSS for All.
Coalition, and thank you for updating. That aspect of the… work. Domestic workers, um…
Work.
September 25th is likely to be the day of the Health Life Enrichment Committee meeting. They have it scheduled now.
If they place on their agenda the item that was referred to them on Monday, this is regarding, the, clearing of the.
The RVs off Dwight. Which are actually really… well kept up compared to some of the other encampments.
Heidi. Oh my gosh.
So that was, brought on the agenda, but that's because the neighbors in that area have been complaining for several years that they want all those RVs cleared.
Out. So, I'm not giving you the item in detail, but it was referred by the agenda Committee instead of going to Council, it was referred to the Health Life Enrichment Committee to discuss which currently their meeting will be on Thursday, September 24th. I mean, 25th, but that's… subject somewhat to change, but that might be a meeting that people want to engage in. So, the city, as I said, has not.
Gotten everything in what I thought was an excellent request put on Measure County Measure W. I just want to say they are continuing to apply for other types of homeless services grants, one through this county.
How about mental health? I know that was a big gap.
One through the state. You know, and…
What…
Are they applying separately for mental health assistance, or…?
Okay, all right. Okay.
I'm just saying in terms of, motel conversions, mental health is a whole other… Issue… mental health is… still under the settlement agreement.
If they… If they do it under CalAIM, if they do it under CalAIM, it might be, uh…
A partial grant under CalAIM, because I think, what is it, Carol, 6 months, that they will pay for.
housing through CalAIM. if it's associated with mental health, so…
Yeah, exactly.
So.
Which is all subject to change, too. I mean, from the federal agreement, but… and there's also… Disability Rights California Litigation Settlement that was entered into a settlement now, is it almost 2 years ago now, that's on a 5-year.
Agreement to implement county mobile crisis and. Peer respites, which to me isn't progressing very much, but…
Okay.
That might be an interesting speaker to get. To gray panthers also to talk about how that's panning out. It's got a court monitor, every… the county is supposed to fully implement it in 5 years. That's based on people being sent.
To Santa Rita and John George. Thank you, thank you. Too much.
Carol? Carol? Carol? I'm sorry, I'm going to adjourn the meeting for all members. We're down to 13 people.
Thank you. Okay. Okay.
And if people want to have that conversation. About the details on what's going on with, homeless…
Issues on that team. Stay on, or introduce other topics of conversation. So, meeting adjourned.
We'll gather again, in September 24th. Thanks.
Mental health. Okay, thanks. Okay. Thank you.
Thanks, Betsy. Thanks, Carol.
Thanks, everybody.
Thanks, thanks, Lianzo. Great to… You want to come on for one minute?
Thank you. It was just because mental health was great.
Leon, so we can see your face. If it's still the same face.
Oh, okay. I… it's probably different.
It's up to you. Yeah. Really great to see you. I see, you know.
There I am.
Great to see you, Leo. Great to see everybody.
All right. All right, and… and Robert.
Okay, savior, Arlene. Thank you.
any announcements from our treasurer?
Okay.
Yeah, not really, I…
We got $500 from the Ecology Center. For our participation.
Yeah.
In the disaster relief, I saw that, and also thank you everyone who's.
Renewed their dues. We even have a few new members. Sorry, Robert, I'm jumping on your.
Okay. Thank you.
Bandwagon. We'll let you know.
I don't even know when I'm supposed to renew.
That's the same for me!
Yesterday. Yesterday, Arlene… yesterday!
Right.
Oh, okay, 10 lashes with a wet noodle for me.
I do know that everyone here, I think, has renewed their dues recently, and thank you, thank you, Julia, Helen, Norma.
That's right! Forgot.
You even were early. but it's always… I think so, we'll… Carol, I hope… who has left us?
I see as… and… Ms. Cecilia are supposed to be.
Kind of managing our membership rosters, but it's been… we've had some slowdowns on my side.
Katie Gluck. Oh! She came and went.
Came and went. Well, I know, but she needs…
Well, she's been… she's been at all kind of meetings, so… Cecilia's been at all kinds of meetings, so…
She doesn't do emails, so… Yeah. All right.
Yeah.
And pen and paper!
What? What is that? What?
Oh, God.
And tomorrow's… I know, right? Pen and paper. Put pen to paper, put pen to paper, right.
She's sweet. Yeah. She's sweet, though, I love her.
This sweet woman. Yeah.
She makes phone calls, so… How's… how's…
And tomorrow is the Faith and Justice, breakfast. in Walnut Creek, so I… I don't generally go, but I kept getting questions about.
So, I'm gonna go. But she's probably gonna be there.
Are you going home?
Oh, good. my… My church was looking for somebody to go. I might hone in on that, I just need to figure out how to get there, so if I do, if they still need somebody and I volunteer.
look out for you, Arlene and Cecilia, if she goes.
It's a yes in Walnut Creek, so they made the arrangements, they even got a ride for me.
Wow.
To bring, you know, bring me in and take me out, you know. When you start getting older, becoming elder, they treat you nicely.
Well, that's good. Well, I'm glad you're gonna be there. Yeah. Oh, cool!
Well, this is my first time ever going, so, you know… Yeah, this is my first time ever going… you know, I don't know if… I don't do well so much with all of the, um…
Listen to hear.
Sometimes with all of the socializing and, you know. Politicking, as I call it, you know?
Yes. No, I get you. I'm similar to the same. I just like to have conversations with people and exchange information, not do the rest of it.
Yeah, and you know, like, kind of get things going. That's, you know, that's my whole point.
I hear ya. Right, yeah.
Get the community.
It's like, how can we get things going? You know, all of this talking around about stuff, you know? I'm like, I'm freaking talked out. Come on, people.
Yeah.
You know what I'm saying? And you know what? The thing about it is, everybody has all of these, you know, $64,000 words, and they use this lingo, and you know what? We're going down, you know.
Swirling around the toilet, so…
How about… how about… How about that? How about that 90% of the people in China.
Live in their own house, in their houses that they own. Is that difficult to understand?
What's difficult to understand is whether it's in the city or whether it's in the outskirts. Look how many people are in China, because I don't know.
90% of the people in China. Wherever they are, that's 90%.
And we're talking about them owning their house. They don't pay rent.
Or mortgage, to live there. Where…
I would love… Pardon me, Norma.
That's okay, that's okay. No, I… I'm always…
When you're done. I'd like to know more. I think… not here, not now, but it's worth.
I…
Investigating how they've structured.
There's the headline, you can look up a headline by saying 90% of the people in China.
Own their own homes, and you will get back information on the internet.
Details.
It says… it says. 87% in urban areas and 90%… 96%.
In rural areas. I'm looking it up as we're talking.
Good for you, thank you.
Yeah, yeah, it's not hard for me to get stuff, you know what I mean?
Um…
Right, right. Well, I'm saying, if you want to ask me anything, I just get the headlines, and I… blasted out. Hooray! Because I'm such a backer of communism!
Well.
And so is Putin, and people don't get that that's what's driving Putin.
Putin got into the KGB. Because he backed the Russian Revolution so hard, the morality of the Russian Revolution was so appealing to him that he wanted to get in and advance it.
And that's where he comes from. And so now he's trying to work it out.
In the face of being slapped down by so many institutions in the world.
And they may… they… the propaganda, you get the propaganda, you gotta hate him, you gotta hate.
The system and all that. And we're on the wrong sign.
Of that issue, the wrong side.
Listen to this, Betsy. The government now provides. Affordable housing by subsidized commercial housing purchases or by offering low rent.
Public social housing to middle- and low-income families. At the same time, it relies on the private commercial housing market to meet the needs of higher-income groups. That seems to be the way that they do it. Now, the interesting thing to me when I hear about China, when I hear about Barcelona, when I hear about other European or other countries within the Pacific Rim.
One of the things that I really recognize is. Their government have designed themselves to do this. Our government.
No.
Has not. I'm not saying that we didn't.
No, we did have social housing one time. I'm just saying. No, I know, I'm just saying that it was…
It was gorgeous. It was very crowded and all of that. There was a bunch of Jews living with 47 people in an apartment.
And committing communism. Yeah, because the Jewish migration ended up in transit.
It's through the New York social housing and all that.
Are from New York.
The biggest co-ops in… the earliest. Co-ops… yeah. But the fin… the Finns created the first… they're a tiny blip.
Yeah.
Right, right.
Definitely, the socialists… And several unions, I…
Well, they train… they transported their ideas and their way of living, to, to, to, here in Turtle Island, for lack of a better way to say it.
I'm gonna skip it.
Like, I grew up in Brooklyn, right? And so I came up in Williamsburg, and where I came up from the other side of it was the Sephardic Jews, right? And Hasidic Jews, right? And so, they transplanted their way of life.
To where they are, where they live at. Their schools. Everything that they did.
Did they build cooperative apartment buildings?
Yep, they actually did.
No, I'm just wondering…
No, no, they got assistance from the government, but they did… but they did have some buildings and… Mm-hmm.
No, no, they didn't build them, did they? I don't think so. They put a… I'm just saying they… they… they utilize a system that was in place.
Yeah.
And they live very cooperatively, and I know that because.
It's very Jewish. That's what the problem is, is that the revolution is so Jewish.
Well…
Well, there's… there's definitely more than, uh. The tiny percent of the… national population that's Jewish, but.
Absolutely stall, you know, part of this social housing, the history.
Well.
Comes back to that kind of solidarity, but I… I'll just say, I was really relieved to read that the Black Panthers 10-point program.
Is still supported, and number four. If you go to the second sentence, it's about housing cooperatives. Like, owning collectively, which is a little different.
Now, this is…
Absolutely.
Than other kinds of home ownership, you know? But, I was proud that they… you know, I was glad to know.
Well. The interest… the interesting thing with that is… is…
They supported that.
first of all, we were very siloed. Everybody… we all have to collectively.
We all need the same things, right? But we're not working together for the same things, and that's part of the problem.
Some of the things that…
Well, well, you know, the Reverend comes along and says it's a moral issue. It's not a moral issue.
We could all be going around being very nice and still be fucked in the… Because the system does it to us.
So, the idea that to call it a moral… You know, and God and all of them guys…
I love that they, when they talk about the fairy in the sky, yeah…
Well, you know what? Me, I'm gonna tell you, I'm disrespectful of.
Well, what…
Whomever. I, you know, I agree to disagree. I'll put it to you that way.
Yeah, I know.
I respect… I respect each person's opinion. And I do not… I do not…
You know, poo-poo on it, for lack of a better way to say it. I just really try to be respectful of people.
And I try to be respectful of the opinion. Whether I agree with it or not. And I mean, that's just part of being civil.
The trouble is it diverts people's ability to do the work about it.
If they're gonna go to church and pray about it instead of get out in the streets with everybody.
Well, this is one of the things that I find with, with, and I was just at a meeting, which was interesting, where Indivisible are mobilized in the various groups like that, and one of the things that I brought up is that.
I was not a community organizer, I… a community activist. I was a corporate girl.
For many decades. And when I came to California and. A life change. I became something different.
And so, with that being said, what I find is that there's a lack of compassion and empathy.
Among just humanity… wait a minute, let me… let me… let me finish… let me finish speaking, Norma.
They don't get the opportunity!
That won my… one mic.
Let me finish speaking, Norma. I'm not talking about the movement. I'm just talking about people, because we don't know what condition people are in.
And we're yelling at them to do this, that, or the other, but we don't know if they have the capability.
To do the very thing that we requested. So my thing, that's what I talk about, just being civil with people, because we do need to have more compassion and empathy. Just because someone might not be able to do exactly what it is.
Someone feels that they need to do.
I would be a melted puddle if I had any more compassion. The things that are going on now.
But you're you, and you have your own history, and you have your own makeup, so you're… Okay.
I would… I know. I think every… I think everybody is like that. They need the opportunity to be compassionate.
And they don't get it. They get diverted by things like, go pray in the church for one.
Or… or whatever it is. I mean, yeah, there's a lot of people that are not behaving well.
But they need the opportunity to behave well. For… for every… to help everybody.
And once again, you're making this statement based on a privilege that you… you have, that other people might not have.
And that's what I'm talking about compassion and empathy, uh. Norma. I'm not talking about whether they pray, whether they're an atheist, agnostic, or anything else.
What I'm saying is that some people have the privilege and the opportunity to participate that way. Not everyone does.
And they may think you don't, for example, keep with that.
And… and so with that, I'm just saying we need a little compassion, we need a little bit more compassion.
My…
And we need a little bit more empathy for those who might not have access. That's all I'm saying.
I love her too.
All right, she's blowing you kisses, Arlene. It's 702, somehow we have to have room for these kinds of debates and discussions and…
Yeah, thank you.
Not debates, you know, but back and forth, so we can be stronger together.
Hey!
I backed off of a group because they were… they were just pushing me too much.
I'll leave it at that. Which… which one?
Oh, okay, okay, got it, got it. Yeah.
Not knowing… and I'm not mentioning any names, but what I'm saying is, is that I had to step back, because I have my old thing that I'm going through.
But…
And they… because they see I have a skill set. And I always try to bring whatever skills that I have. St. Helen mentioned it, you know, utilizing her skill sets to do the work, right? But if you're going through something, and your plate is full, you might not have the capacity. But somebody on the outside doesn't necessarily know that.
And so, I just had to… I had to put up, wait a minute, I had to put up boundaries.
Right.
What are you going through? Can…
In order to protect myself and get my own self better. I'm going through something as we speak, and that's why I had to step back.
Can… can we help you at all?
Actually, I wish you could… I wish you could.
Oh, Arlene.
I wish you could. I'm going through something, and it's… kind of depressing me a little bit. It's stressful.
I got love, and, you know, um… But it is what it is. Sometimes we have to just walk alone, you know what I'm saying?
Would you… would you… would… would you tell Betsy what it is? I know you're not gonna tell just me.
Yeah, yeah.
And I'm… I'm…
What… Kelsey. Tell us if there's…
I'm not telling Betsy either. I love Betsy. I love all of you guys, and you know what? I thank you so much, but I'm gonna tell you, when you're going through health issues, there's nothing nobody can do for you. You just have to go through the health issues.
I want to know what they are, because I've got a lot of stuff on that.
Right. Sending you… sending you love there, Arlene.
You know what I'm saying? Thank you so much, Helen.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, appreciate it.
I appreciate you. But what I'm saying is there's so much going on, we're swirling around, there's so many things we need to be doing, but if you have the capacity to do it, then that's all well and good. But if you don't have the capacity, you know what?
I believe in just giving somebody some grace. That's all.
Right on.
Did… remember when I told the group. Then I went to the doctor at one point where she looked up at me and said.
What have you been doing? She was looking at my figures, the numbers from the blood, whatever test.
Mm-hmm.
What have you been doing? And I said. Well, I did start taking Coumadin.
She says, I wrote a paper on that, she said. About how Coumadin can help. The cancer was down.
Mr.
Was… was recessing whatever. On its own, because… and I… that was the only other thing I was doing, different. So I'm just… I have a lot of health stuff, so you… if that's…
I believe in… I'm a believer in holistics, and you know.
Non-traditional, what they call non-traditional medicine. I'm a believer because I've been bringing my numbers down and working toward getting healthy, so thank you so much, Norma.
Well, if I can… if we can talk and you want me to think about stuff, you could do that. I've been doing that.
Health thing for 50 years, ever since right before I had my daughter.
Thank you so much for the offer. I appreciate the love I'm getting.
So… Yeah, you're…
But you know, I do. But you know what? I really just had to take a time out. I was supposed to be going to DC September. I don't know if I'm gonna be going. I'm supposed to be going to, I don't know if it's Palm Springs or somewhere in LA in October. I don't know if I'm gonna be able to go, but, you know.
We'll see what… we'll see what happens, because, you know, there's work to be done.
Because what Christ is terrible.
There's work to be… there's a lot of work to be done.
Yep.
Thank you. Thank you, Arlene. Thank you, Marty.
What did I say? I didn't say it.
And it… yeah, there's a lot of work. And I love, uh…
It's not Coumadin, it's something. It's not Coumadin, it's… Turmeric. Turmeric.
Okay? Okay.
Oh, I have that in my cabinet. And that has brought my numbers down, by the way.
I better quintuple my doses. I eat it regularly. Oh.
Well, be careful, too. You gotta watch liberal with too much. There you go.
Yeah, you can't do too much.
You need… you need… You need… You need as much as there is in a pill.
I made that mistake, one time. Ooh!
And a little bit of ground black pepper.
Black pepper, there you go. We're… yeah.
Oh my gosh, you guys! All right, maybe we'll have a health exchange, but…
We should!
We might be fighting about that. Well, I'll just…
Well, the thing about it, when you start aging, and because of the way our country is run, a lot of our bodies are poisoned by the community that we live in. That's just a reality. Genetically modified food, you know, we're not eating from the original.
That is… too true, too true.
Not mine.
We're not… we're not eating from original seeds, they're, like, stored somewhere in Antarctica or wherever they got it stored at. So we're eating all those genetically modified so that they can produce more and more and more longer shelf life. So, we have an illness that we didn't have before.
You gotta watch, you gotta watch late night… Late night TV, they do something that's not Afropop.
It's other stuff. People have been going into Africa and doing little things. They've been making.
A usable threads out of garbage, plastic. All kinds of developments that a bunch of white people, totally dedicated.
To changing the… the paradigm. Have gone into areas, and they're retrieving land and, animals and all…
And resources, and all manner of things, yeah. All manner of things, and, you know… But this is the thing. Here we are, we are an elder group.
We're… we are youth! We have some younger members, aspiring elders, but yeah.
And we talk about the things that impact us, but. Yeah. Yeah, we do, but for the… but for the most part, it's the Grey Panthers.
We all have… yeah.
Okay, so all I'm saying is this. As I age, what I found is that I had to learn more about taking care of myself.
Yeah.
But I find when you're older, and you're doing all of this work outside in your community, you expend a tremendous amount of physical and mental.
Time and energy. And so, sometimes we're not taking the best care of our own selves, because we're expending so much.
Yeah. Liver and kidneys. Yeah.
Doing stuff outside. I never hear anybody talk about, okay, a lot of us got all kind of issues, either diabetes, high blood pressure, they're taking lipid… they're taking, like, all this medication, they want to check your kidney every two years because the medication they're giving you is actually, you know… deteriorating your body, and so, you know, but we… I think it's important, like.
You know, I don't call it self-care, but I think we need… me, uh… I'm thinking about taking better care.
and I speak to a lot of people that I know in my age group, because they got, like.
Their whole shelf is filled up with, you know, kind of drugs and medication, but everybody's driving, so they're driving through fast food. I don't eat fast food.
So, yeah.
And they're driving through fast food. Right? And, you know, they don't walk. They don't move.
And that impacts us. The older we get, we slow down.
Yeah.
And so, like, to me, that's a conversation. And I understand the world is the world. What's going on is not gonna stop.
Today. It's going to keep going. It's been going on. You know?
I told you I'm 90, right? I told you I'm 90.
Yes, ma'am.
Kaiser evidently is taking the right care of me. And that's a richness that not everybody can enjoy.
Exactly, and you know, I say I'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it.
Mm-hmm.
You know what I mean?
No. Um… Friends, I'm… I'm gonna thank you so much for getting, you know, into the heart.
And you're on vacation, you need to be getting back out there by the pool, honey.
of us, both… both…
Hey! Garden's good! Yeah, enjoy that pool!
I'm… well, it's 7 o'clock, and the fog has rolled into Washington, D.C, which is unheard of.
Uh…
but I have… I'm gonna… I'm… I… I… I'm gonna leave. Do you want me to leave the Zoom room open? I'll leave the Zoom room open.
Climate change, climate change, climate change. Environmental justice.
I'm not… anyway, let me stop.
But I have to go. But my heart, thank you each and every one for being…
Have a good one. Love y'all!
Who are, and what you're doing.
Bye, my darling. Enjoy your trip! Enjoy your trip!
Yeah. Jump in the pool in the fog! Just make it happy.
I… I… it's just starting. Uh-oh! Tomorrow! Tomorrow, I get to… I get to lounge around it again.
yeah, go ahead on Betsy, go ahead on. We're gonna let you go.
Yeah, thanks. Thanks. We'll have updates. All right, I'm gonna…
Bye! Oh, wait…
Cold. Okay, I'm leaving.
Bye-bye.
Everyone's gone dark, but they haven't left. So… Okay, then I'm gonna turn everyone else off once… once we're agreed, nobody's gonna be talking more, so…
OkayRains is

• FYI: Gray Panthers founder, Maggie Kuhn, was believed to started Shared Housing between older and younger people. Here's an article about that history.