Here are testimonial from 5 of the current tenants at 1921 Walnut St:

1. Thanks for taking a moment to read about my housing. I've lived at 1921 Walnut St. in Berkeley for 27 years. I moved in at a time when housing in this neighborhood was not popular, and I could immediately see the charm in this building. I've always paid rent on time, and my wife and I have been good tenants. We are disappointed by the U.C. regents plan to evict us. Originally the plan was to build around our apartment. At the eleventh hour our original landlord Waterbury Properties (or F.E. Forbes though it's all the same family) decided to offer a private sale to the U.C. to offload the building. The announcement came during April of 2020, which was the beginning of Covid; needless to say a disconcerting time to receive a letter with a vague message threatening future eviction. Since then we've received one offer to date, which is paltry to the cost of living in the Bay Area. The U.C. regents have not shown any serious interest in promoting stability for displacing long-term rent-controlled Berkeley tenants. 

Even more infuriating that really leads me to write to you today is having viewed a recent regents meeting on May 12th called Finance and Capital Strategies Committee that I recommend watching at the 24 minute mark which is viewable on youtube.  https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/meetings/videos/may2021/may2021.html#fin. In this video Chancellor Christ and Mark Fisher make some interesting statements (before getting stopped by their own council) that we the residents of 1921 have had negotiations with the U.C. No agreement exists as of writing this when only one offer has been made to us. They were boasting to the other regents how great it was that one of the tenants had moved to another state and bought a house. I find it extremely distasteful that Mr. Fisher implies that the U.C. helped our neighbor by a new house when the relocation benefits provided forced him out of California. This is fantasy. I'm shocked at their flippant attitude toward this eviction and the housing crisis in the Bay Area; the lack of affordable housing is the cruel result.

 To get personal, as a long-term Bay Area resident, I look back at my past. I am here in Berkeley because of my grandfather Walter Robinson, who attended the University of Berkeley during the depression. To finance his education, he would wake up at four in the morning every day and heat up all furnaces across campus. And many decades before that, my third great grandfather, Thomas Starr King (who has a school named after him a few blocks from campus over on the Northside) helped save California and the West from leaving our union during the civil war. He established many institutions here in the Bay Area, such as bringing the Unitarian church out west and establishing the American Sanitary Commission, which is today known as the American Red Cross. I applaud the values that my family, neighbors, and strangers have brought to my city. I wish that that the University would give us the respect that we deserve as long-term Berkeley residents; respect that they are clearly not interested in giving us. May 24, 2021 Theo

2.  I have lived in Berkeley at 1921 Walnut St. for fourteen years. I love Berkeley and have always said I could see myself growing old here. This is my home, this is my city. I am settled here, and I have built a life here. For the past 15 years I’ve had the same job, a job I love that is based here in the Bay Area. I don’t have the option to just pick up and move to another city or state. The UC Regents claim to have offered “generous” relocation plans, but it’s less than generous if you consider the cost of living in Berkeley and the Bay Area. What happens after the relocation benefits expire and we find ourselves in an unaffordable housing situation? My husband and I considered putting the money toward a down payment, but the housing market in the Bay Area is ridiculously expensive, so the relocation benefits are paltry when put into that context. The UC is setting us for failure and the fact that they are allowed to get away with this with no accountability is reprehensible. May 23, 2021 Kim 

3. “I have lived at 1921 Walnut St. for 11 years. If I’m evicted, I fear I will be displaced from not only Berkeley but from the entire Bay Area or possibly California and I will loose my community, my work and everything I’ve built for the past 11 years. Berkeley is my home and 1921 Walnut St. has provided me safe, affordable and stable housing. We are not against UC building Anchor House or other student housing, we just don’t want them to destroy our homes to do it. They can build around us and that was the original plan (it used to be called the Gateway House). Throughout the pandemic, UC has refused to meet with us tenants or to even listen to our concerns. With the UC students, we asked for a community listening session and UC flatly refused. It’s insulting to hear UCB claim that they have “robust community engagement” when they literally just ignore all community concerns about their plans to demolish our homes, permanently destroy affordable housing and displace us long-term tenants. It has been terrifying and dehumanizing. I asked UCB administration many times for information and clarification of their plans and timeline. UCB refused to clarify or give requested information and told me to file California Public Record Act Requests to get information. When I did file 2 CRPA for information, UC still didn’t give me information and after 10 months of waiting, I filed a lawsuit against UC. Why do I have file a lawsuit against UC to get accurate information? The public objects to displacing and there is a very public outcry against our eviction. But UC ignores us all and refuses to give us information. It’s exhausting, stressful and dehumanizing. We are the human cost of their plans, but UC doesn’t care about what our community wants or says. It’s just so upsetting because UC does not have to do this, they have so many other options. ” May 30, 2021 Natalie  

4.  “My name is Stefanie and I have lived at 1921 Walnut Street since August 2012. As a transfer student from the College of Alameda, I was ecstatic to be given the opportunity to achieve my dream of receiving a UC Berkeley education. No one in my family had ever accomplished this and my mother a political refugee from El Salvador and father were so incredibly proud of this accomplishment. My apartment was a saving grace. It allowed me the possibility of living close to school while also developing my independence. As a low income student I could never have been able to afford dorm living or the meal plans that go along with them. I was a barista at Yali’s across the street and attended classes in between. Being a transfer student is a very different experience and 1921 was my safe space. Even as I continued into my career, 1921 has continued to be my home and allowed me to stay in Bay Area. 

In August 2020, my sister Karol and her 6 year-old son Adam moved in with me. As a single mother Karol had little opportunities to afford Bay Area rent prices for a one bedroom apartment, let alone rent close to her work in Oakland. Having this apartment has allowed her more time with her son and less of a commute. We are both hard working Latina women who have been doing everything we can to maintain. I was lucky enough to find this treasure and in turn also help my family. In retrospect it’s crazy how UC gave me the opportunity of a lifetime which never seemed possible as a child growing up, but now I am simultaneously at risk of losing the one place I have been able to call home for almost a decade because of the university system. It is truly unbelievable how full circle this example of give and take has been for my family and I. To boot, my father recently passed away from COVID complications and the amount of stress in losing the patriarch of the family and then to be faced with the stark reality of no longer having my home, its been a tremendous battle. 

Lastly, watching the Finance and Capital Strategies Committee meeting from May 12th was incredibly disturbing. More so due to Chancellor Christ comments as she is so obviously detached from the strife caused by this project on  Walnut Street residents. It was made blatantly clear that Chancellor Christ has not been paying any attention as she assumed only two people are living at 1921 currently. This is absolutely not true. The fact that she was selling the transfer housing project as and “extraordinary project she is so excited about” using buzzwords to push all the positives about the project, while simultaneously avoiding the negative implications on a community of people and dehumanizing those living on the corner of Walnut and Berkeley Way all in the name of 71 extra beds is disheartening. I am ashamed to be associated with a system whose ethics and principles of community are so questionable. The housing dilemma is an issue throughout the entire city of Berkeley and the Bay Area. It is not just an issue for the student population, but everyone else trying to survive here as well. As a former transfer student I agree it is important to develop when possible, but be mindful of the established residency of the people who have called Walnut Street home for decades, we have roots here.” -May 26, 2021 Stephanie

 5.  I moved to my home in October 2015 and found it an honor to move to the City of Berkeley, where I believed that this incredible institution of UC Berkeley was the pillar of the community. Coupled with my admiration of UC, I grew to love my home, its proximity to transportation; downtown; all the services; the Bay; and easy access to the surrounding amenities that the entire Bay area has to offer. A rent-controlled apartment was very important to me, as I approach retiring age, a time when our income earning years are coming to a close, or at least diminishing … for the majority of the population. During my time here at 1921 Walnut, I have included myself in quite a supportive community, engaging with neighbors and fellow tenants, like family. It has been wonderful, and so good for the soul. Conversely, in my earlier years here, I watched as my ‘pillar of the community’, UC Berkeley, developed the former parking lot bound by Shattuck, Berkeley Way and Hearst Street. The 8-storey building that they constructed, which occupies more than half the City block - kitty corner to my home, doesn’t provide one single parking spot! Directly opposite my home is the UC Bio-Sciences building – again a huge 7-storey building occupying about a third of a City block, and not one single parking spot is provided for the occupants of this building! During the construction of the newest building, the UC contractors worked day and night, weekend work was at a whim, and UC thumbed its noses at the City noise ordinances and other regulations. I could see how the privileges afforded to UC by its status were being abused, while ‘others’ are compromised and taken advantage of. This was my initial eye-opening to the ‘abuse of privilege’ by UC.

The deepest cut of all, is that UC has now purchased the building in which I live, my home. They did it during the height of the pandemic and sent all tenants notices during the ‘stay-at-home’ orders, a time when you would think that your home is a ‘safe place’. They now plan to evict me and my fellow tenants, tear down our homes – to build student housing! UC’s plan is to evict long-term Berkeley residents, from their rent-controlled homes, to make way for short-term student housing? The pillar of the community is doing this? And what does the City of Berkeley and the community have to say? The Mayor of Berkeley has written to UC expressing his objection. The City Council has written to UC expressing their objection. The Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board has written to UC expressing their objection. Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association has written to UC expressing their objection. The Sierra Club has written to the UC expressing their objection. The ASUC, the student body, has written to UC expressing their objection… and on and on. The tenants formed an association and have reached out individually and collectively to UC on numerous occasions, they have been ignored. The ASUC reached out on behalf of the tenants and were rejected. Multiple requests for a ‘listening session’ have been rejected. I have called in to give public comment at Regents meetings and have written public comment for the Regents meetings, but I believe that the voices of the tenants and the City of Berkeley are falling on deaf ears, or ears that have been manipulated and lied to. At the recent Board of Regents meeting, I believe that Chancellor Christ and her colleague blatantly lied to the Regents about the situation. Furthermore, if any ‘regular’, or ‘private party’ developer wanted to eliminate rent-controlled housing in the City of Berkeley, my fellow tenants and I could not be forced to permanently relocate. There are rules against this. The attempted strong-arming by UC, urging me to accept a temporary fix: 42 months of rent subsidy is an outrage. What happens after that? In my golden years, being straddled with the insecurity of retirement income on one side of the balance sheet, and unsustainable rents on the other side, cannot work? This short-term fix for UC is a long-term problem for me. I will be forced from the City of Berkeley, and most likely from the state of California. 

 There are options. UC could prioritize people over profit. Look at the ‘human’ impact of what you are doing. Some alternate suggestions are: 1. UC could leave the building at 1921 Walnut Street intact and add an additional floor to the project you had envisioned prior to purchasing 1921 Walnut. 2. UC could move the 1921 Walnut Street building to another site, preserving the building, its history, and the rent-controlled housing stock. 3. UC could build your housing elsewhere, after all, UC has many sites available which would be suitable for its housing project. 4. UC could build fewer units at this site, leave 1921 Walnut Street intact, and build more units elsewhere. June 2 2021 Paul