Rents could go up in farmworker apartments if the Housing Authority gets federal approval.

Tenants of two farmworker apartment complexes, Tesoros Del Campo in Salinas and Vista Del Valle in Chualar, received a shock in August, when their landlord, the Housing Authority for the County of Monterey, sent out notices of potential rent increases of 400-500 percent, effective Jan. 1, 2024. In one example provided on a notice for Tesoros residents, a two-bedroom apartment going for $650 a month was proposed to cost $2,675 instead. Alarmed, the residents turned to Monterey County Supervisor Luis Alejo for help.

“We have families to provide for and bills to pay during [these] hard times and an increase on the rent is not going to help us,” states a letter to Alejo, signed by 44 residents, who all work in, or are retired from, agriculture. They said many of them work only seasonally and would not be able to afford an increase, adding, “We do not want to lose our home.”

Alejo forwarded their objections to HACM and to the federal agency that will ultimately decide on increases, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s loan and grant division, USDA Rural Development. “This has caused much stress and anxiety for these tenants,” Alejo said in a letter to a federal official on Sept. 8.

While the notice was eye-popping, in reality increases will depend on household incomes, since all tenants of HACM pay no more than 30 percent of their adjusted income. HACM Executive Director Zulieka Boykin told the Authority’s Board of Commissioners on Sept. 25 that it’s possible some tenants will pay only $200 more, depending on income.

HACM has “never charged the 30 percent” at the two complexes, Boykin said. “We have families making $100,000 a year but pay only $600-$700 a month in rent,” she said, adding that it’s created a situation that’s unfair to other tenants and puts a burden on HACM which depends on rents to cover maintenance and repairs.

Another reason HACM is asking for increases is that the state made subsidies available to those complexes – but because the rent is so low that the subsidies have never been used. Because of that, HACM is in danger of losing those subsidies entirely.

Alejo pointed out in his letter to the federal agency that the increases were above what’s allowed under California’s Tenant Protection Act, which dictates possible annual rent increases of 10 percent, or 5 percent plus cost of living, whichever is lower. However, subsidized housing for very low-, low – or moderate-income households by federal standards is exempt under that law.

In addition, Alejo argued that HACM had held no meetings with tenants to explain “why the rents were being proposed to increase so dramatically” and asked that, at a minimum, any decision on an increase be postponed until HACM officials could meet collectively with residents, as well as individually. Boykin says a meeting was held with residents on Sept. 20, and that all tenants were offered one-on-one meetings if they requested one.