After buying the home, Working Dirt raised the Fetu’us’ rent steadily over the years, the family says. Their payments hit $4,374 in June — more than Fetu’u’s monthly mortgage when he owned the home.
The payments were difficult for the Fetu’u family, but they aren’t much higher than what other tenants are paying for similar properties in the city. A recent search on real estate website Zillow found three, three-bedroom, single-family homes available to rent in East Palo Alto, ranging in price from $3,200 to $4,100.
Fetu’u’s wife, 39-year-old Malina Fetu’u, got a job as a caregiver for disabled adults to help pay the bills. But the family continued to struggle.
“Sometimes at the end of the month, I only have 10 bucks in my account. And sometimes it’s minus,” said Malina Fetu’u, who the family calls Lina, as she wiped away tears.
East Palo Alto is one of a handful of Bay Area cities with strong rent-control rules that protect tenants from massive rent hikes. When the city’s rent-control ordinance went into effect in 1984, it applied to landlords who owned apartment buildings, as well as to landlords who owned five or more single-family homes, said Mayor Ruben Abrica. Nine years later the state enacted the Costa Hawkins Rental Housing Act, prohibiting cities from imposing rent control on single-family homes, and forcing East Palo Alto to roll back those protections.
Article source: http://extras.mercurynews.com/housingsaga/