From: Marina Palma
Sent: Monday, April 15, 2024 4:53 PM
To: Distrib- City Clerk <[email protected]> Subject: translation of questions that will be asked today at City Council Good afternoon,
I know I am submitting this e mail late. but wanted to share with you the questions at tonight's meeting that The 400 Canal Tenant's Union will be asking.
These questions will be asked in Spanish, just wanted to ensure you have my English version of it.
Thank you so much for your consideration,
In community and Trust,
Marina Palma
400 Canal Tenants Union
Please excuse my grammar, I hope you get the idea of the questions.
Temporary Anti-Displacement Urgency Ordinance
and Temporary relocation Assistance
We really appreciate all the hard work and time you have put into placing this temporary Ordinance.
We, the 400 Canal Tenants Union have this question:
1- Will the Whole Staff Report and Ordinance be translated in Spanish, and when will that happen? As we believe is important that tenants know about the details on this ordinance. Please let us know by contacting any of us or Marina Palma.
On behalf of our tenants and community, we thank you for coming to our rescue; we know that housing has been a challenge for so many years in San Rafael; but about three years ago it just got worst; at the 400 Canal we have been suffering more ever since the new owners took over; the ongoing support visits from our now City Manager Cristine Allilovich and City Council Maika Llorens Gulati, meant a lot to us; They have witnessed in various occasions the trauma that our families have gone thru. Thank you for being there for us.
We, the 400 Canal Tenants Union have this question:
2-Why is this Ordinance Temporary? What would happen after 12.31.2026? Unfortunately, we learned about each other because of our housing situation in the Canal Community, but It is a good thing, As we are in the process of learning and networking, we understand that coming in front of the City Council could make a difference in our community;
We, on behalf of our 400 Canal tenants Union and neighbors, would like to express our sincere gratitude for being able to support us by placing ordinances that will keep us living with our families in our community; This is a hope for us that we could remain living in San Rafael and keep our children attending our wonderful public schools. We know that for now, this ordinance is temporary but as you know our owners are in the process of renovating all the apartments at the 400 Canal, and other owners might be doing the same thing in our community and San Rafael.
We, the 400 Canal Tenants Union have this question for you:
3-Would you please address in the Ordinance what will happen if tenants get notice that they have to move out from their apartment/unit and tenants choose to move to a renovated unit, meanwhile theirs gets renovated, can they return to their original unit paying the same amount of rent or less then prices posted for renovated units? We feel like words aren’t enough to express our gratitude for your votes to present and hopefully approve this temporary ordinance.
We thank the organizations that have been working on creating, placing, and implementing this ordinance for a long time, (Community Action of Marin, Canal Alliance, Legal Aid of Marin), my apologies if I didn’t mention other organizations involved; they also believe in the pain that our families go through when eviction notices are presented to them. We understand what any San Rafael Tenant might or have gone through for the same reason.
4-We are grateful for this ordinance, rescuing the Opportunity zone tenants, but why does it only apply to the opportunity zone, thinking of other fellow tenants in San Rafael that might be going through similar housing traumas, why not seek that this ordinance protects all San Rafael tenants? We hope each one of the City Council representing their respective Districts will agree with our question and make the right choice of protecting us all.
I would like to thank you for the initiative to protect us, tenants. We feel blessed that this ordinance is happening; We know that this ordinance is the hard work of many people involved and for that we are grateful for.
I would like to ask you on behalf of the 400 Canal Tenants Union, to please take under consideration the following question:
5-Would you please address in the new ordinance the need that those tenants who initially signed their contract in English, will have the option to receive the eviction notice in Spanish or another language.
To us this is a historic meeting, as not only you are addressing one of our housing issues, but also transportation, the homeless and to have a wonderful mural in our community Center Albert J. Boro from The Canal Arts. We are very happy and thankful with everyone involved in the creation of this temporary AntiDisplacement Urgency Ordinance and Temporary relocation Assistance For the Canal Opportunity zone.
On behalf of the 400 Canal Tenants Union I have the following question:
6- How are you planning to inform all residents of the Opportunity zone about this blessed Ordinance? and all San Rafael residents; I think everybody should know.