State Agency Squabble Victimizes Caltrans Renters, says Attorney

[Updated Thursday, March 30, 2017 | 10:07 a.m.] An “inter-agency fight” between the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and the California Housing Finance Agency (Cal FHA) has resulted in a recent spate of evictions of local renters along the 710 Corridor and, according to Pasadena attorney Christopher Sutton, the agency is “targeting” single elderly women with what are known as “no fault, no stated basis” evictions.

While one eviction case was dismissed Wednesday, at least four more are currently active, said Sutton.

“Caltrans is trying to game the system,” Sutton told Pasadena Now Wednesday.

“They are stealing money from the California Housing Finance Agency, and they are stealing purchase opportunities from these tenants,” Sutton alleged.

According to Sutton, the agency squabble derives from two recent pieces of state legislation passed which were authored by State Senator Carol Liu — SB 416 and SB 560. Together, the bills mandate that when an affordable housing tenant buys the property where they are living from Caltrans — at a price based upon their income — the net difference between the reduced sale price and the market value is a lien that is owned by the California Housing Finance Agency.

“By evicting low-income tenants,” says Sutton, “Caltrans gets to sell the properties as empty, at market value, and does not have to share the proceeds with Cal FHA. So, its an inter-agency fight, in which the Caltrans tenants are pawns.”

Caltrans renter Bridgit Bergman, who spoke before the Pasadena City Council Monday evening, asked the City to intercede on her behalf, had her eviction case not been dismissed Wednesday afternoon, because the agency continued to collect rent from her after a 60-day notice. According to Sutton, Caltrans then immediately served her with a new 60-day notice and said they planned to file a new lawsuit to evict her.

As Bergman, 77, told the City Council Monday, she has lived in her Wigmore Avenue home for 50 years.

In addition, Pasadena resident Mercedes Blackehart told the Council that she and her mother were sent a letter from Caltrans terminating their longtime rental agreement after being told they would have an opportunity to purchase their rental property.

“We have lived in our house on South Pasadena Avenue for 20 years,” Blackehart said in an email.

According to Sutton, Tia Boatman Patterson, executive director of Cal FHA, was until this past Monday completely unaware of the evictions, until he notified her in a phone call. She told Sutton that she would immediately begin looking into the situation, he said.

Sutton contends that Caltrans, instead of serving eviction notices on tenants, should instead direct those actions against Cal FHA. And, according to Sutton, the goal of the State Transportation agency is to sell homes to tenants.

“The Caltrans office in Los Angeles is insubordinate,” said Sutton. “They are a rogue agency. They are going against the wishes of the state leadership in Sacramento, because they are shifting money away from Cal FHA into Caltrans coffers by making the tenants move out. And, it’s not in the state of California’s interest to evict these tenants. They’re going to stop receiving rent for the next two or three years, and those properties are going to be potential liabilities and a danger to their neighborhoods, and the state housing fun will receive less money.”

“Caltrans should at least state a reason for these evictions,” said Sutton, “and not use the 60 day “no fault” cause, if they really believe that these tenants are somehow bad people, and need to go.”

Representatives from Caltrans were unavailable at press time. Pasadena Now will publish additional stories on this developing situation in coming days.