Fresno City Council
April 27, 2022

Fresno Historical rentals letter-R9.docx
April 8, 2022 To: Fresno Mayor and City Council CC: Historical Preservation Commission From: Janice and Jay Schaefer Subject: Exemption of Historical Housing Rentals We have been involved in “Here to Stay” discussions. It is hard to hear housing providers categorized as greedy and ill-intentioned. We are “mom and pop” housing providers and have always treated tenants with respect and dignity; giving them months to catch up rent, maintaining a quality home, returning as much security deposit as we can when tenants leave and agonizing over rent increases that help cover expenses as we know some tenants barely make ends meet. Ten years ago we purchased the historically registered Long-Black Home. Maintaining this 115+ year old historical asset is a considerable challenge, as expenses always exceed income. The house provides eight median priced residential units for the Fresno community. Over the past ten years 100% of the income associated with this property has gone into monthly costs, unit repairs, deferred and ongoing capital maintenance, with us needing to regularly add personal monies. We do as much work as possible ourselves to keep costs down. In addition, to keep residents safe, we have spent over $55,000 for security provisions, such as cameras, trash enclosures and historically pertinent perimeter fencing to protect the property and residents from vandalism, theft, verbal threats and physical altercations from increasing numbers of vagrants, mentally disturbed individuals and unhoused people attempting to set up camp on porches and stairwells. During the time we have owned the property escalating statutes have been imposed by the state and city; rent control, restricted ability for proper due diligence of potential tenants, costly inspections and registration of residential units. There is currently a bill in the State Legislature calling for a yearly $500 surtax on all rental units. Now, “Here to Stay” calls for additional mandates; local rent control, city held and managed security deposits, pressure on housing providers to sell to community groups rather than the open market, in addition to other restrictrive measures. We too would like to stay in Fresno. We need your support to continue to maintain this special historical property and offer median-priced quality housing for the benefit of the people of Fresno. We implore you to exempt historically registered residential buildings from any additional encumbrances. Thank you for your consideration of this matter. Jay and Janice Schaefer 1727 L Street Fresno, California 93721 510-945-8018