Mike Siv/New America Media

Gilbert Aguilar's landlord is a bank

OAKLAND – For 22 days earlier this year, Gilbert Aguilar lived without gas and electricity in his one-bedroom rental apartment here in East Oakland. The building went into foreclosure and the bank that took it over was his new landlord.

“The banks have to be good landlords,” Aguilar, 50, said at a press conference outside his home Thursday. “They have to make sure that properties are safe and habitable.”

Aguilar was among other tenants of foreclosed housing in Oakland and San Francisco at a press conference, organized by community group Causa Justa/ Just Cause (CJJC) and the Alameda County Public Health Department, with the theme “Foreclosures Make Us Sick.”

The group, mostly African Americans and Latinos, stood in the sweltering heat, holding signs in English and Spanish that said, “Protect Tenants Right to Stay,” and “Foreclosure is a Health Issue.”

The foreclosure crisis is affecting tenants and homeowners, according to the public health agency. When banks repossess a home, they seldom bother to maintain it before putting it on the auction block, and the consequences can affect residents’ health, according to a study from Just Cause last summer.

The study looked at how the high rate of foreclosure in select East and West Oakland neighborhoods had affected the health of their residents. A survey of 388 residents concluded that “foreclosures make us sick.”

Between 2006 and 2009, one in four mortgages in Oakland, affecting 14,941 property owners, entered the foreclosure process, according to the report, titled, “Rebuilding Neighborhoods, Restoring Health.”

Health department deputy director Dr. Sandra Witt highlighted the report’s findings.

Among them were:

• Almost one-third of tenants in foreclosed properties said they were living in sub-standard conditions with mold, pests and utility shut-offs.

• Rates of stress, depression and anxiety were twice as high for foreclosed residents as others.

• Nearly 90 percent of foreclosed residents were struggling to make ends meet. Many have to decide whether to pay for food, health care or utility bills.

• The foreclosure rate is twice as high among the unemployed as those working full-time or part-time.

Unfair lending practices by banks, noted Liana Molina, an organizer with California Reinvestment Coalition, an nonprofit advocacy group, are to blame for this. In Oakland, such banks as Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Chase were responsible for more than half of all foreclosures in 2008, she said.

Dr. Anthony Iton, of Healthy Families, a program of The California Endowment, believes that a concerted effort by CJJC, the ACPHD and his organization could bring about changes in policies that affect people like Aguilar and Raymundo. The Endowment funded the study.

As for Aguilar, after trying unsuccessfully for months to get Deutsche Bank to pay for his utilities, as per the rental agreement he had with his former landlord, with CJJC’s help the bank finally agreed. But he said he’s not sure how long it will be before his luck runs out.

“I got a notice from PG&E yesterday that they are going to turn the power off,” he said.