John Jimenez on Blogger: Solving the Rising Rent Cost in California

Saturday, October 12, 2019

Solving the Rising Rent Cost in California

Room for Rent
Photo by Alex Block on Unsplash

For more than 20 years, Father John Jimenez has served the Archdiocese of San Francisco as priest, chaplain, and teacher. In a letter published in the San Francisco Chronicle, Father John Jimenez expressed his support for Proposition 10, a measure that would give local renters some ability to protect themselves.

Proposition 10 was a ballot initiative whose purpose was to give leverage to cities and counties across California to expand rent control law. However, in November 2018, about two-thirds of voters voted against this measure. As a result, lawmakers are now proposing several bills that will protect renters across California.

Assembly Bill 1482 - David Chiu (D-San Francisco). This bill applies to units that have not been covered by local ordinances. Listed as CPI+__%, AB 1482 has yet to determine the allowable rent percentage every year.

Assembly Bill 36 - Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica). This bill attempts to loosen the Costa Hawkins state law. Under this bill, cities could place rent controls on single-family homes, condos, and apartment buildings aged 10 years or older, except for landlords who rent out only one or two units.

Assembly Bill 1481 - Rob Bonta (D-Oakland). This bill aims to expand the rent control regulations by requiring landlords to provide a reason why a tenant is subject for eviction through a policy called “Just Cause for Evictions.”

Assembly Bill 724 - Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland). This bill seeks to provide lawmakers and the public with crucial information regarding rental units, such as eviction rates and rent increases, by creating a statewide rental registry.

About Father John Jimenez

Father John Jimenez has served San Francisco’s Roman Catholic faithful in several capacities since 1998 and the community as a whole since 1985. After educating students across San Francisco for many years, Father John Jimenez has recently assumed teaching and chaplain roles at Archbishop Riordan High School.

Fr. Jimenez has fulfilled pastoral and mathematical teaching roles in several of the city’s church schools, most recently St. Charles on South Van Ness Avenue. Before then he led worship at St. Peter’s and Our Lady of the Visitation churches. Complementing these vocations was a chaplaincy at San Francisco General Hospital in the surgical and psychiatric units.

Fr. Jimenez has also taught in secular settings, specializing in algebra and geometry at the East Oakland School of the Arts, science at Havenscourt Middle School, and multiculturalism at Balboa High School.

Addressing public concerns, Fr. Jimenez has spoken out on the dehumanization of individuals by materialism and self-seeking behavior. At the international level, he has worked alongside poverty-stricken Africans as a missionary in Torit, Sudan.

Fr. Jimenez received his priestly training at St. Patrick Seminary in Menlo Park, California. He earned his teaching credentials at San Francisco State University (where he also earned a BA in social work) and City College of San Francisco.