Gonzalez-Soto is a Pacific Beach tenant and member of Californians Alliance for Community Empowerment.
I never thought I would become homeless after having a child. When my daughter was born, I was pregnant and working full time at a minimum wage job. Denied paid parental leave at work, I was forced to stay home to care for my young child as a single parent without the income to pay for expensive child care. This has destroyed my income and ability to pay rent.
Within a few months, my landlord called the sheriff and threatened to evict me. His daughters and I became homeless. We didn't even have a car to sleep in. I stayed with a friend for several months until I found a women's emergency shelter.
A year later, when the women's shelter told me I needed to leave to make room for another family, I was thrown back into the nightmare of finding affordable housing. Between the deposit and the first and last month's rent, we were asked to come up with nearly $10,000 to find a home. As a single parent working minimum wage, I don't have the luxury of saving that much.
Miraculously, we finally found an apartment. Although it has been difficult financially, my daughters and I have been stable for the past seven years. Finally, there is no more shelter. No more couchsurfing.
But things have changed in 2021. Organizers from the California Residents Alliance for Community Empowerment knocked on my door to let me know that our building had been acquired by Blackstone. Not only our building, but also about 6,000 other homes in the area. Shortly thereafter, new fees and water overages began to accrue, and the rent increased by $300 a month.
We are barely making ends meet. Will the rent be raised significantly again? If that happens, my family will be homeless again.
Across the state, there are millions of renters like me living on the brink of becoming homeless if they receive one rent increase or eviction. Many of us are women with children, especially women of color. In fact, the presence of children is the biggest predictor of whether someone will face eviction.
Homelessness is increasing by double digits across the state as large corporate landlords like Blackstone buy up more homes in the state and affordable housing options are rapidly diminishing.
This is why we need a constitutional human right to housing. When we guarantee every Californian a legal right to housing, we owe it to our government to make that value a reality, not just talk.
If passed, the impact could be significant. California's constitutional right to housing obligates state and local governments to respect, protect, and enforce this right of its citizens. That means the state's need to dramatically increase housing affordability becomes not only a goal, but a constitutional requirement. It would encourage the government to take tenant protection seriously. As Blackstone taught me, it protects families from large rent increases and ensures they have safe and stable housing options if they lose their home, as I did in 2016. This is to make it possible.
I have worked hard all my life to support myself and my children. But now housing is treated as a privilege only for those who can afford California's exorbitant housing costs. That's why I joined the California Residents Alliance for Community Empowerment and the Blackstone Tenants Union. I joined because I saw the futility of fighting alone to stay in my home against the world's largest landowner. And I'm here because there is a solution to this housing crisis, and it's a matter of political will.
I want to live in a world where I don't have to worry about whether my baby will have a place to live. A place where you can dream about your future without worrying about where you will sleep at night. I think everyone deserves it. I believe we can make that dream a reality by amending the California Constitution to assert a legal right to housing.
