Bearing witness to numerous cases of homelessness brought about by the onslaught of Typhoon Soudelor, Commonwealth Outreach Recovery Efforts leader Mami Ikeda has expressed concern for the housing shortage and rising rental prices on Saipan.<\/p>\n
Ikeda, along with a Kannat Tabla resident who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity, stated that a Chinese investor has been checking out their apartments in the last few months and the deal may have already gone through as they\u2019ve been given notices to move out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like something was going on,\u201d said the Kannat Tabla resident. \u201cMy landlord hasn\u2019t spoken to us about it but I see [representatives of this foreign investor] coming around and my landlord cleaning up the property to make it look nice for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s just a matter of time, she said, but she\u2019s hoping that they don\u2019t get chased out.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are no other places to go and I\u2019m a single mother. Every place already has up to 50 people waiting and the places that are available are either $800 or $900,\u201d the Kannat Tabla resident said. \u201cYou know I see many homeless people who are still looking for a place and they can\u2019t find anything. I don\u2019t know what to do so I\u2019m just hoping.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ikeda herself was told to vacate her apartment in 45 days or before the end of December. \u201cI didn\u2019t even find out first from my landlord. I found out from my coworker who was to move into the vacant unit under the same landlord. She was to move in by end of October but two days before that, she was hearing from my neighbor that [our landlord] was going to be selling the property to a Chinese company.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just days before her coworker was to move in, Ikeda said her coworker was told that only a 45-day contract was available, despite the thousands of dollars they\u2019ve already spent to improve the unit, not including the security deposit that Ikeda\u2019s coworker paid to secure the apartment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey stopped right there and pulled out and this was just two days until the expiration of their other apartment\u2026so they begged their landlord to stay a few more days,\u201d Ikeda said.<\/p>\n
She said her coworker is now planning to take the landlord to court. \u201cThere\u2019s a broker that came just recently because our landlord can\u2019t face us and [the broker] is telling us that [the landlord] will only pay what the [landlord] wants to pay.\u201d<\/p>\n
That same night, the landlord knocked on Ikeda\u2019s door and finally disclosed what she already knew. \u201cI asked her about the terms and conditions and she said I don\u2019t know, it\u2019s not my problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her landlord told her to talk to \u201cthem\u201d but did not reveal who the new landlord was going to be. \u201cShe wouldn\u2019t let me talk to whoever it was. I didn\u2019t even get a chance to look over the terms and conditions. My contract was supposed to be renewed in August but because of Soudelor it was postponed\u2026so my landlord has been trying to negotiate a deal with the Chinese investors for four months and I only get 45 days,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The broker who served as the middleman between the current landlord and the Chinese investor kept trying to convince her to be thankful for getting at least a 45-day notice.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re in an emergency disaster situation right now and you don\u2019t know how many families I\u2019ve seen without a house, without a roof, who have been looking and they still can\u2019t find a house for the last three months. How can I find a house within 45 days if these people can\u2019t even find one in three months?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t have a problem with the new landlord but I haven\u2019t been able to find a house\u2026 The broker tried to convince me to sign the new contract so later I went to the [Attorney General\u2019s] Office to file a complaint. They said the law only requires a 14-day notice to vacate and that they\u2019re sorry there\u2019s nothing they can do,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Ikeda said she knows of many others in the same predicament.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was one girl, right in the middle of the storms that followed Soudelor. She had three dogs with her and she was literally being kicked out or she was going to be homeless. She was asking for my help because [CORE] was also looking for homes for families,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Ikeda laments that her situation may be legal \u201cand my landlord knows that but there\u2019s no assurance for me. There\u2019s no law that protects a tenant.\u201d<\/p>\n
The last time that the government addressed tenant and landlord rights was in 1996, under Public Law 10-67 or the Holdover Tenancy Act, for the purpose of protecting landlord assets and interests.<\/p>\n
Under Section 2 of the Act, \u201cThe outright sale of real property being restricted as a matter of public policy and as a constitutional mandate, the leasehold transaction over real estate has become the most common economic activity that spurs investments from both foreign and local sources. It has been observed, however, that lessors encounter delays in evicting holdover tenants after the termination of the lease or breach of the lease agreement. Currently, an action for eviction of a holdover tenant must be filed as a breach of contract complaint, in which the landlord or lessor incurs court costs and attorney\u2019s fees. This legal remedy can take months and even years, before a tenant is evicted from the leased premises and the landlord or lessor is restored to possession. These prolonged proceedings are an unfair denial of the landlord\u2019s right to possession and result in considerable court costs and legal fees, which are borne by the landlord. The purpose of this act is to provide for a prompt and fair summary procedure for the eviction of a holdover tenant from the leased premises.\u201d<\/p>\n
During a Commonwealth Advocates for Recovery Efforts meeting last Tuesday, workforce recovery chair Matthew Deleon Guerrero said the government is working to address the issue of tenant\/landlord laws.<\/p>\n
Just recently, the government conducted a study called the Analysis of Impediments, initiated by the Northern Marianas Housing Corp., to analyze impediments in finding fair housing in the Commonwealth. It found that there is a lack of fair housing complaint activity and a lack of legal avenues for Commonwealth residents who believe they have experienced housing discrimination.<\/p>\n
This comes only weeks after the Nov. 1 declaration of major disaster and state of significant emergency for the Commonwealth. Despite this, the increased pricing of housing and the price freeze declaration to prevent price gouging only states that prices on such items as food, clothing, generators, and tools are to remain at pre-storm numbers and nothing has been done to address housing rates.<\/p>\n
So far, many local properties aside from the properties of the two individuals in this story have been leased by Chinese investors: Miller Estates, Flametree Terrace, Mango Resort, Vestcor Village, and other locally owned inner village apartment properties to house workers that are being brought in for their projects, leaving existing tenants scrambling to find homes or at the mercy of increased rental rates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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