The Berkeley Property Owners Association’s fall mixer is called “Celebrating the End of the Eviction Moratorium.”


A group of Berkeley, California landlords will hold a fun social mixer over cocktails to celebrate their newfound ability to kick people out of their homes for nonpayment of rent, as first reported by Berkeleyside.

The Berkeley Property Owner Association lists a fall mixer on its website on Tuesday, September 12, 530 PM PST. “We will celebrate the end of the Eviction Moratorium and talk about what’s upcoming through the end of the year,” the invitation reads. The event advertises one free drink and “a lovely selection of appetizers,” and encourages attendees to “join us around the fire pits, under the heat lamps and stars, enjoying good food, drink, and friends.”

The venue will ironically be held at a space called “Freehouse”, according to its website. Attendees who want to join in can RSVP on their website for $20.

Berkeley’s eviction moratorium lasted from March 2020 to August 31, 2023, according to the city’s Rent Board, during which time tenants could not be legally removed from their homes for nonpayment of rent. Landlords could still evict tenants if they had “Good Cause” under city and state law, which includes health and safety violations. Landlords can still not collect back rent from March 2020 to April 2023 through an eviction lawsuit, according to the Rent Board.

Berkeleyside spoke to one landlord planning to attend the eviction moratorium party who was frustrated that they could not evict a tenant—except that they could evict the tenant, who was allegedly a danger to his roommates—but the landlord found the process of proving a health and safety violation too tedious and chose not to pursue it.

The Berkeley Property Owner Association is a landlord group that shares leadership with a lobbying group called the Berkeley Rental Housing Coalition which advocated against a law banning source of income discrimination against Section 8 tenants and other tenant protections.

The group insists on not being referred to as landlords, however, which they consider “slander.” According to the website, “We politely decline the label “landlord” with its pejorative connotations.” They also bravely denounce feudalism, an economic system which mostly ended 500 years ago, and say that the current system is quite fair to renters.

“Feudalism was an unfair system in which landlords owned and benefited, and tenant farmers worked and suffered. Our society is entirely different today, and the continued use of the legal term ‘landlord’ is slander against our members and all rental owners.” Instead, they prefer to be called “housing providers.”

While most cities’ eviction moratoria elapsed in 2021 and 2022, a handful of cities in California still barred evictions for non-payment into this year. Alameda County’s eviction moratorium expired in May, Oakland’s expired in July. San Francisco’s moratorium also elapsed at the end of August, but only covered tenants who lost income due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In May, Berkeley’s City Council added $200,000 to the city’s Eviction Defense Funds, money which is paid directly to landlords to pay tenants’ rent arrears, but the city expected those funds to be tapped out by the end of June.


  • @[email protected]
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    42 years ago

    Like it or not this helps to increase housing availability and therefore lower prices for rent

  • Stern
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    432 years ago

    They prefer to be called “Housing Providers”

    Parasites prefer to be called “Sharing friends”

  • masterofn001
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    37
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    2 years ago

    Coming soon: the end of the guillotine moratorium.

    (This is happening worldwide.

    In Canada the average rent for a 1bdrm is now over $2k

    5 years ago I paid 800 for a 2 bdrm.

    You’re lucky to rent a room for that now.

    That’s why.)

    • Melllvar
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      142 years ago

      the end of the guillotine moratorium

      Aside from the fact that you’re advocating mass murder, it’s worth pointing out that the guillotine’s association with executing wealthy nobles is largely fictional.

      • masterofn001
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        132 years ago

        Observing and stating what is an obviously exaggerated result is hardly advocating.

        But, yes, I do believe the likes of people who put profit over lives deserve the worst.

        Not advocating. I wouldn’t be sad if it happened. But, definitely not advocating.

      • @[email protected]
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        212 years ago

        One could say that by making housing unaffordable, by making groceries unaffordable, and by privatizing healthcare, mass murder is already being committed.

      • @[email protected]
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        202 years ago

        the guillotine’s association with executing wealthy nobles is largely fictional.

        that can change

        • Melllvar
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          52 years ago

          A much more likely scenario is just a repeat of the aptly-named Reign of Terror.

          • @[email protected]
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            192 years ago

            Wealthy elites are running a reign of terror right now, have been for centuries, If we can’t reason with them (which has been tried, and failed) then there’s only one option left.

            • Melllvar
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              2 years ago

              The “Reign of Terror” is so called because the revolutionary government literally adopted “terror” (as in murdering people who disagreed with them) as an official government policy.

    • @[email protected]
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      82 years ago

      Respectfully, the average rent for all new leases is over $2000, not explicitly 1 bdrm, which should on average be lower than $2000.

    • @[email protected]
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      72 years ago

      You hear but I worry about the future.

      Not for them, I wouldn’t cry if something happened to them. But it would likely cause a lot of extra traffic from the ambulances, and that would be bad on a lot of people

      • @[email protected]
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        22 years ago

        Star Trek predicted that The Bell Riots would start in 2024… In Sanctuary Cities, though that term means a whole other thing in that timeline

    • Fr❄stb☃️te
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      2 years ago

      Oh no! I seemed to have misplaced my cyanide pills that dissolve in cocktails and leave no sign of visible contamination! Wait why are there a large amount of land- er, I mean “house providers” slumped over the tables and ground and showing no pulse?

      EDIT: /s

      • @[email protected]
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        42 years ago

        …And then large corporations buy up all of their housing when it goes to probate, leaving you even more fucked.

        Man, no one here thinks at all

  • @[email protected]
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    342 years ago

    Listen up everybody, they prefer being called “housing providers” instead of landlords now.

    If I lived nearby I’d organize a bunch of people to buy tickets to their event and ruin it.

    • @[email protected]
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      72 years ago

      I was thinking the same thing. Or organize an event adjacent to it for tenants and play obnoxious music loudly enough to ruin their refined evening, but not so loudly as to violate noise ordinances. Perhaps if the landleeches… I’m sorry, that is pejorative… Property goblins saw all of their income slaves gathering in the same place they would understand that they are far outnumbered. And hell, make a city-wide tenants union while at the party. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenants_union

  • falinter
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    22 years ago

    Housing Providers should provide houses to the Unhoused.

  • @[email protected]
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    412 years ago

    The party is overall shitty I agree with that. I also don’t think people should be able to own more than one home just to get rental income and have someone else pay their mortgage. This depletes the housing supply and takes away wealth building opportunities for families trying to build their own wealth.

    That being said, this could have been handled better. If tenants could pause rent then the banks should have paused payments on mortgages that qualify as well, or just all mortgages.

    • @[email protected]
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      242 years ago

      My view is that unless you have a heartbeat you can’t buy residential property. I’m not entirely against landlords because people want to rent, imagine having to buy everytime you went to a new city or place. But it should be diminishing returns from progressive tax policies that disincentivise multiple properties.

      • @[email protected]
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        32 years ago

        Good point. Do you think there should be any restrictions on who can own and rent these homes? Say only people from the community or state? It seems like there are a lot of foreign investors that buy a ton of homes. Then that rental money just leaves the community.

        • @[email protected]
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          22 years ago

          Foreign investors wouldn’t see much returns in buying if this was the case. They’d have drastically less profits and with each property they’d have a higher percentage tax to pay. So by the time they’d get to being a big investment firm that bought up properties on a large scale they’d be paying 80+% of their income in taxes which isn’t viable, by design, and the money would be invested elsewhere.

          But strictly speaking absolutely no foreign investment funds should be buying up housing stock.

    • @[email protected]
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      82 years ago

      I don’t even want a home to build wealth I just want a fucking place to live in that I can build on and work on my hobbies. I couldn’t give less of a shit if the value never goes up.

      • @[email protected]
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        42 years ago

        Housing prices don’t need to change to build wealth. You are just keeping your money in your house instead of giving it away to a landlord. Then if you need to move you have all you’ve accumulated instead of nothing.

      • @[email protected]
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        12 years ago

        Housing value on your primary residence going up is actually a bad thing for most owner-occupied properties in most localities. Higher value = higher taxes.

        Not in California as much though thanks to prop 13 (which should only apply to owner-occupied properties but doesn’t… So there’s good and bad).

    • @[email protected]
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      2 years ago

      If tenants could pause rent then the banks should have paused payments on mortgages that qualify as well, or just all mortgages.

      While it definitely could’ve been handled better, in the US at least you could pause your mortgage payments for a time. That doesn’t stop the property taxes though.

      When I signed my mortgage I had to promise not to use those programs, I don’t know how legally binding that actually was though.

      • @[email protected]
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        2 years ago

        True but they should have been the same duration in my opinion. The property tax would have been ideal to pause too but wouldn’t that cause more problems for the local community instead of just the big banks?

        AFAIK (NAL) any law supersedes a contract. So that doesn’t seem enforceable to me. They may be able to break the contract in that situation, saying you violated it. Then it would need to be handled in court with the bank likely having better lawyers.

        Say it is written into the lease that the landlord only has to give one weeks notice for a tenant to move out. Both parties can sign it but the law says 30 days. The police would be called at the end of the week and say the tenant still has 2 weeks.

        Yet you can give away certain rights like the right to sue so that may be a bad example.

        • @[email protected]
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          22 years ago

          Yeah I mean I agree that they should’ve been available for the same time, but I’m betting most landlords weren’t really in dire straits enough to use them in the first place.

          I think that’s why they’re easily forgettable as available programs: most people that own never needed to use them.

  • @[email protected]
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    552 years ago

    Completely unrelated question but where can I buy termites, and where can I buy a slingshot, and how many Gees can you subject a termite to without killing it?

  • @[email protected]
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    112 years ago

    There is a way to get rid of landlord’s insane unearned income without a violent revolution, while also making our cities more lovely places to love.

    A 100% tax on the value of land, redistributed as UBI and government services. Basically the people become the landlords.

  • @[email protected]
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    92 years ago

    Pro tip, when moving out, cut up some tofu into cubes and stick them behind the electrical sockets and in light fixtures where they won’t be seen. It’s a lovely way to thank your landlord who kicked you out, by creating a fragrance he’ll never be able to forget!

  • JokeDeity
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    182 years ago

    Imagine a meteor landing on this party at peak attendance.

  • @[email protected]
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    312 years ago

    Landlords are leeches on society. Play the stockmarket if you want to make money, don’t (continue to) make housing a source of gross profit.

      • Franzia
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        12 years ago

        The government provides rental housing in dozens of other countries, yea. It’s not ideal, ideally renters could buy into a cooperatively owned share of housing and then there isn’t any inefficiently wasted value. But there is a successful model of states providing housing, yeah.