HomeMy WebLinkAbout5/26/2026 Item 5a, Price
dona hare price <dhareprice@gmail.com>
Sent:Sunday, May 24,
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:Council Meeting 5/26/26
Abu Bakr, a Sufi poet, taught, “Our life is but a loan, our breaths are numbered.”
I wonder how we square the truth that all our breaths are numbered with allowing our neighbors, who are
tenants, to inhale black mold?
Months ago, we stood on a narrow, rutted walkway, speaking Spanish to folks in an apartment complex. A
young woman chatted with us. She was a Dreamer. Her neighbors hurried into their apartments, heads down,
avoiding eye contact. Fear made their breath fast and shallow. Next to one apartment’s door was a barrel filled
with ghoulish green water. The green water was dripping from the building. The landlord’s solution was to
put a container there to catch it. The noxious odor of the green water made me dizzy, my breath short.
These experiences force us to consider: Do we truly value the breath of our immigrant neighbors? Can we
commit to keeping them safely housed?
What do those of us with power and privilege do when we see and know this? Do we act and find the money
and effort to protect them? Or deep down do we believe our breath is more valuable than that of our
neighbors?
Maybe we rationalize that those folks just need to work more and harder to deserve habitable
conditions. Certainly, capitalist systems are built on the idea that habitability has to be earned and is deserved
if you work harder. Possibly, when we move from being a renter to a home owner, or from unhoused to stable
housing, we forget the fear of landlord retaliation. We forget how removal from home steals our neighbors'
breath, fear narrowing their vision.
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So, we must ask: Can we be the city that prevents children from being exposed to cigarette smoke and mold in
their homes?
Maybe the air in SLO is rarified, so we don’t want to track and name the top code violators so renters can make
decisions with data. Certainly, it is easier to pretend the tenants have choice, agency, and affordable
options. Blaming the most vulnerable for their circumstances means we never need to see how tenuous life is.
All our breaths are numbered. We can use them effectively to create change and protect others. This may mean
breathing deeply and finding the courage to stand up and support our tenants quickly and meaningfully.
I urge council and staff to take a deep breath and act boldly with your power to create lasting change for all—
not just for the noisy, privileged few.
So, before you direct staff to take an action, take a breather and consider this:
· Hire additional code enforcement (CE) personnel and permanently assign a full-time CE Officer to the
Safe Housing Program.
· Until a comprehensive rental registry comes online, the City can still improve transparency by tracking and
reporting more and better enforcement data.
· In cases where the remedy requires that a tenant move out, the City should require that tenants receive
adequate compensation for moving expenses and have the right to return to their home at the same rent when
the remedy is completed.
· The public can’t really assess how effective the current City policy is without data. A functioning rental
registry is a way to get that information. Until that tool is in place, the City can still improve transparency by
tracking and reporting more and better enforcement data.
· For any health and safety policy to be effective, there must be both education, information, and meaningful
accountability. For years, we’ve offered developers, landlords, and property managers, carrot after carrot after
carrot, and yet conditions have only gotten worse while rents continue to skyrocket. We’ve looked the other
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way as they’ve violated our Municipal Code, done major construction without permits or inspections, and
flaunted the Tenant Protection Act. Please enact maximum fines.
Thank you.
Dona Hare Price
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