r/BurbankTenantsUnion

📣 YOUR NEIGHBORS NEED TRANSLATORS!

We urgently need volunteer translators to help reach and support even more members of our Burbank community.

If you speak another language and are able to help, please reach out to us via email with the subject line “Translator Volunteer Inquiry”.

Do you know someone who wants to help their neighbors? Share this post with them!!

The more languages we can communicate in, the more tenants we can reach, organize, and support. We’re stronger together 🏠✊🏽

Hello Neighbors! My name is Chris Yoosefi and I am running for Burbank City Council.

I know it can be difficult to reach a large group at one time to get ideas out and discuss, so I thought this would be a great venue to share and provide an open forum. To preface, I am a business minded individual. This does NOT mean republican NOR does it mean democrat. It means I look at problems through a problem-solving lens and offer creative and out of the box ideas to solve issues. I have a few successful businesses and during my time at Harvard, as a business major, I was introduced and collaborated with incredible founders and owners which helped me fine tune my business prowess and find effective solutions in unforgiving seas. This is my secret weapon and I am happy to share it with you in service to our community.

As a member of City Council I can promise you the following: No status quo, no endless meetings and belabored studies (boy do I have thoughts on this) and no pandering to a base (hmmm... who in our current council does this). Real solutions for real people. THIS is what I bring to the campaign and the City of Burbank. Let's dive in!

AFFORDABLE HOUSING

I know the arena of Renters vs. Landlords (LL) is a hot button issue and affects a large chunk of our community. I have a plan to help with this and it's a three prong approach:

1. Within my first 100 days in office I will commission a study (short term and with available union workers) on cost for LL for upkeep to their properties. I will recommend a city wide vote on a mandatory new fund, paid for by LL, to help combat/offset upkeep costs. This fee, TBD but reasonable/nominal, will sit in an account held by the city at which time a LL can apply for funding to repair their property (not insurance claims and not necessarily cosmetic - think safety which is quite costly). The security of this mandatory fund comes with a rent cap of X%. - Now, why does this work? LL are business owners at the end of the day and the purpose of a business is to make money, hence raising rents year after year. Unfortunately, businesses need upkeep and sometimes that upkeep is quite expensive i.e., roof at a minimum of 25k with costs only rising. If a LL has a 4-plex and makes 1k per unit profit (which is generous) at the end of the year they have 48k, which sounds like a fair amount of money, BUT what about the mortgage, upkeep costs, taxes (property/income), major repairs, damage after a renter leaves etc.. That 48k goes down pretty quickly and what may seem like a "small repair" like a water heater ends up putting the LL in the red which is why they want to raise rents in the first place. This fund solves a major problem of revenue deficit and increasing rents to have that cushion. - Why is this good for the renter? Simple, capped rents. Additionally, the LL needs to keep their units rented to generate revenue. Being competitive in the market solves that issue. For renter this opens up affordable housing and provides more locations to rent without the fear of a major increase after a lease is up.
2. Within my first 100 days in office I will recommend a city wide vote to limit the number of homes purchased by corporations per zip code. Additionally, I will work with the City Planner or equivalent to keep corporations out of certain bids for housing. When businesses are bidding, their competition is equal... another corporation, not an individual. - Why does this work? Homes are for people, not corporations to swallow. Limiting large corporations from buying up and "owning" our city puts the power back in the hands of the people and lowers the barrier of entry for home ownership. Individuals are not bidding against a large company with deep pockets. This opens the market for first-time buyers that want the fixer-upper to have a chance at actually winning at a reasonable rate. - Does this hurt home owners as sellers? Not necessarily its not like every single sell goes to a large corporation. It levels the playing field and allows for more offers, so in essence it may even help sellers.
3. Within my first 100 days I will recommend an increase to the affordable housing minimum of 15%. Currently, Burbank only requires 15% of new construction, zoned commercially, to be affordable. This is a ridiculously low number and needs to be bumped 2x to make any meaningful impact for folks wanting to lay roots in our city. I would request this effect is retro for any vacant units (and there are plenty). Additionally, I will recommend a fee for unoccupied housing; meaning if a commercial LL has X units and half are rented, they would have to pay a fee for those unoccupied units after X time. This forces the LL to be aggressive with marketing and pricing to bring people into those units. - Why is this good for the renter? Lowers the barrier of entry. Keeps costs stable. Solves the issues of unaffordable housing. Forces LL to rent units. - Why is this good for LL? Three words - Word of Mouth. People talk and if your building is offering aggressive rents, the people will find out and rent. Revenue is made, and the affordable "hit" can be spread across the other units at a nominal increase worked into the rent. If a LL is charging 6k for a rental unit, which, crazy enough we have in Burbank, a renter willing to pay that rate likely won't notice an additional $50 or so if it's there at the beginning.

YES, there is nuance to these efforts and no this is not a final proposal ready for a vote. Community input is welcomed. This is just one idea of many we can discuss, My goal here is to present this out-of-the-box thinking I will bring to these types of polarizing issues. Chime in and lets fight side by side for OUR Burbank. Together we can Dream Burbank!

** If you like this plan and want to learn more please go to www.yoosefiserves.com. Donations to the campaign in volunteering and/or financially are graciously welcomed. **

Join the Burbank Tenants Union meeting tonight at 7:30pm! High rent increases? No repairs? What do you want to do about it?

Urgent request‼️ If you speak Armenian and can volunteer your time with translations, we are currently in desperate need of a volunteer who can help translate for tenants dealing with poor conditions and bad landlords. Reach out via private message on here or attend our meeting tonight.

See you there, neighbor!