Affordable housing nonprofit evicting tenants from two south Sacramento complexes

Mutual Housing California, a large affordable housing nonprofit, is threatening to evict at least two tenants from Sacramento apartments.

Amari Mathews received a phone call on Mother’s Day weekend telling her she and her two small children were being evicted, she said. If she is locked out of her south Sacramento apartment, she says she and her children will be on the street.

“From May 11 through today I can’t even be home and be enjoying my home because I’m worried I’ll have to leave,” Mathews, 26, said from the living room of her apartment at Mutual Housing at Sky Park, where she lives with her children ages 2 and 4. “It keeps me up at night ... If I leave I will be homeless. I am my babies’ sole providers. That’s not an option. I can’t have an eviction on my record.”

Mutual Housing, based in Sacramento with over 1,100 units statewide, on April 24 filed an unlawful detainer case, the first step in the legal process to evict a tenant, against Mathews. She does not have an attorney because she cannot afford one, and Legal Services of Northern California is unable to help her, she said. Tenants without attorneys typically lose eviction cases, making it very difficult to find new housing, experts say.

It’s unclear if the nonprofit will evict Mathews, as it declined to comment on her case specifically. A court document filed by the nonprofit claims Mathews owes $783 in past due rent. Mathews said she has never missed a rent payment, evidenced by money orders she submitted to court, but the landlord raised rent without telling her, then told her she was being evicted.

Evicted over a Jesus statue

Another Mutual Housing tenant of another complex — Mutual Housing at Glen Ellen, also in south Sacramento — says he is also being threatened with eviction for bogus reasons.

The nonprofit served Paul Nickson, 72, with lease violation notices for a broom in the carport, a car cover, and a Jesus statue outside his door, he said.

“I’ve been here 18 years, it feels horrible,” Nickson said. “I was in total shock. I couldn’t believe it.”

After receiving the notice, he moved the Jesus statue inside, near other religious statues he has. He has Bibles and rosaries neatly placed on display throughout his home.

“It means everything to me because that’s my religion,” Nickson said, referring to his desire to place the statue back outside “God is my religion, that’s what I live by.”

Nickson, who suffers from arthritis and stomach ulcers, receives $1,500 a month in disability and Social Security payments, but every time those payments go up, Mutual Housing raises his rent, he said.

“They make it so there’s no way to save and no way to move,” said Nickson, who pays $945 for his one-bedroom apartment. His rent was raised in January to a level that is more than 60% of his income.

“The rent is out of control,” Nickson said.

Nickson and six other Mutual Housing tenants, using an attorney they found through the Sacramento Tenants Union, sued Mutual Housing in Sacramento Superior Court in 2022. The case is still ongoing.

Mutual Housing California declined comment on the specifics of the two tenants’ evictions due to ongoing litigation, CEO Roberto Jiménez said. Over its 35 years, evictions have been “very unusual,” he said.

“Mutual Housing California is committed to providing affordable homes and safe communities,” Jiménez, who earned $212,877 in 2021, said in an email. “We work diligently to ensure that people remain housed. We are in the business of housing people, not creating unhoused situations. For example, we work with our valued residents, whenever possible, to establish resources in reinforcing our eviction prevention measures ... In some unfortunate circumstances we have exhausted all available options and have to proceed to legal action.”

City ordinance doesn’t cover units

Mathews’ complex is near the city border, in the county’s unincorporated area, meaning the city’s Tenant Protection Program does not apply. The program, adopted by the council in 2019, is designed to keep tenants from being evicted from many apartment complexes in the city or being hit with massive rent increases.

But the ordinance also does not apply to Nickson’s complex, even though it’s in the city limits. When the tenants through a tenant activist reached out to the city to be helped by the program, they were told they were not covered.

“The Tenant Protection Program does not regulate or cover government subsidized housing,” said Kelli Trapani, a city spokesman, in an email to The Sacramento Bee. “This property is exempt from the (TPP) because it is regulated by Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency.”

Herman Barahona of the Sacramento Environmental Justice Coalition, who is helping the tenants, urged the city to change the ordinance to cover affordable units.

“It should absolutely cover them,” Barahona said. “These are the most vulnerable people, the people on fixed incomes.”

He also urged the city and county to adopt an anti-harassment policies, as Los Angeles has done. The Los Angeles ordinance prohibits landlords from harassing tenants by removing housing services, withholding repairs or refusing to accept rent payments. Councilwoman Caity Maple proposed such an ordinance, which the council’s Law and Legislation Committee discussed earlier this year, but it’s unclear if City Manager Howard Chan or Mayor Darrell Steinberg will place it on a City Council agenda for consideration.

Mutual Housing is one of the few affordable housing developers in the region, playing a vital role in providing income-restricted housing for below soaring market rents. Another such organization, Sacramento Self-Help Housing, announced it’s closing this year after the county decided it would not renew a contract.