Last year, local small business owner Raelina Krikston ran for Arcata City Council on a pro-housing, pro-renters’ rights platform. She ended up third out of six candidates running for two open seats, finishing behind an incumbent and a longtime member of the city’s planning commission.

Shortly after the election, Krikston and her partner were evicted from their home in the Westwood Garden Apartments, after leading a fight against the owners of the complex, who had been looking to expand the number of buildings and housing units available on the property. (The City Council had approved the expansion, with a couple of concessions.)

No doubt the experience of being evicted informs Krikston’s current work with Renters United Humboldt, a tenant’s union that’s looking to organize local renters and make sure they’re aware of their rights.

Recently, Krikston took some time to have a Humboldt Conversation with the Outpost’s John Kennedy O’Connor about Renters United Humboldt and the problem with being a renter in Humboldt County. Video above, conversation below.

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JOHN KENNEDY O’CONNOR:

Welcome to another Humboldt Conversation. I’m here today with Raelina Krikston. We’re actually in her beautiful studio. Raelina recently ran for office for the Arcata City Council. During that time she made housing one of her priorities if she was to be elected. And since then, Raelina, or rather at the time, you have actually created a new organisation.

RAELINA KRIKSTON:

I have, yeah, and thank you so much for the opportunity to talk about Renters United Humboldt. So Renters United Humboldt, or RUH, as we’re starting to call it, is an organization of tenants and small landlords that is focused on bringing more equity to the relationship between tenants and landlords, as well as pushing through more tenant protections, as well as protections for landlords as well.

So when you look at the state of affairs in our housing crisis, it’s such a multifaceted issue that we need a lot of tools that aren’t yet available to us. And I’ve heard some pushback to the idea of having a tenant union, that renters have so many rights. But the way that I like to think about it is, yes, there are rights, but if we think of these like objects on a shelf, and it’s a really high shelf, if you’re down, it’s a bit unobtainable to access those rights and reach them. So the place of a tenant’s union is really like a ladder to help tenants not only know about their rights, but also access them as well. So I think that’s a really good point.

O’CONNOR:

How are you attracting people to join the union and how much success have you had so far?

KRIKSTON:

Quite a bit. So it’s been a grassroots movement so far and for better or for worse, my own personal publicity has helped to spread the word a little bit more. We have just a simple website up right now and have been gathering people on a monthly basis. Our first meeting was with LSNC or Legal Services of Northern California. We did a Know Your Rights session and this was a really broad conversation about renters’ rights in general.

So just a brief overview. Because we don’t have specific rights in Arcata, Eureka, and Humboldt in general, our protections are under AB 1482. And so this is a statewide policy that was enacted in 2020, which gives us blanket protections such as your rent can’t be increased more than 10 percent. Other laws around eviction proceedings, as well as some other blanket protections that were being pushed for. But our argument is that it doesn’t go far enough. What we’re seeing right now in Humboldt with the gross expansion of population and with the housing shortage already, is we will be seeing a mass exodus of many of the people who make this place as special as it is.

And so first and foremost, we have to establish protections for those people. And that could look like a number of different ways. But some of the things that we’re most focused on in the beginning is pushing for more protections for evictions. I don’t want to say loopholes, but there’s a lack of protections when it comes to evictions, such as if your landlord wants to make remodels. Well, that’s fine. And I’m sure there’s instances where that’s definitely necessary, especially if you have longstanding tenants. However, there aren’t any checks and balances in place to verify whether or not, OK, does the landlord have permits to do these remodels? Are they actually necessary? And are they done after the tenant has been evicted?

So in many instances, while it’s, let’s say, illegal to evict someone for renovations, not do the renovations and just move someone else in, nobody’s checking that. And even if they were, to hold someone accountable in that aspect really relies on the individual to personally pursue a lawsuit. And so in my own experience, I see a very large gap also in terms of what protections are available, what resources are available, and depending on your income level, how you’re able to access those. Legal Services of Northern California, for instance, is a really excellent tool, but it’s only available for the most vulnerable population. And so there’s this wide gap, which we see time and time again in different instances where you’re too poor to be rich and not, yeah, too rich to be poor, I guess, is the term.

O’CONNOR:

Yes, no, I understand.

KRIKSTON:

Yeah, it’s a big leap to have a budget for a lawyer for just about anyone. And so, yeah, there’s a lot of, like I said, it’s a multifaceted issue, but to bring it back to some of our immediate focuses is creating more accountability for evictions, for instance, limiting the amount of rent that can be increased between tenants. So there’s a protection if you’re a current tenant, but let’s say I move out, you move into what used to be my apartment. Well, you could see a 200% increase the way that things are now, and that’s quote unquote, following the market.

And so our goal is to bring in more of a socially minded, I guess, parameters around housing in general. And for something that is a basic human right, we shouldn’t let the free market decide. So other than limits on increases between tenants, more accountability for evictions, we’d also like to see more progress be made around rent ceilings for landlords with over 20 units. And so this is one of the first steps that we can make to helping as many people as we can, first and foremost, but also targeting landlords that already have economies of scale in their favor to create more equitable housing solutions. Now, these are all questions that we’ve been asking for a long time. And we’ve been asking for a long time. And we’ve been asking for a long time.

O’CONNOR:

These were all things that you advocated when you were running for office for Arcata and I think really, we’ve talked about this before, you’re now seeing that by forming this union, by forming this alliance, you now have a better opportunity to implement these things than perhaps you would have done in an elected capacity. Thanks for that.

KRIKSTON:

Correct. This gives me a more focused outlet. So, I mean, to answer your question from before, we have had an overwhelming response for people interested not only in leadership, but also joining the membership. So over 200 people so far have joined together just in the past couple of months in, I think it was January, where we kind of first put out the call. It was unintentional, an unintentional launch, but I think it was good timing all around. And so I’m really excited to share some of the progress that we’ve made. And I’ll definitely check back in with you guys, but there’s some things I can’t talk about yet. Fair enough. But…

O’CONNOR:

And how do people reach you?

KRIKSTON:

So, rentersunitedhumboldt.com is the best point of contact. That’s our splash page website right now. There’s a form where you can get in touch, get on our mailing list. We’ll be having our next leadership meeting on May 21st. So, if you are interested in leadership in any kind of capacity, whether it’s grant writing, organization, things like that, we do have a grant writer on staff now and we’re coming together. But these are all really good skills and ultimately, you know, if you just want to be part of this movement, that’s, you know, that’s who we’re looking for.

Because ultimately, you know, there’s a majority of renters in Humboldt County. And even if you look at home ownership, the majority of homeowners own more than one home. So, in order to help create a more equitable future, it’s starting with creating more protections and more equality and a better relationship between landlords and tenants. Because at the end of the day, you know, we’re all in the same boat. We’re all human beings and if we can come together to help each other succeed and create a more resilient and sustainable community, we’ll see the benefit of that across the board.

O’CONNOR:

I definitely agree. Well, Raelina, it’s always good to see you. It’s great to hear your passions. Congratulations on starting this organisation. I hope it’s a success for you.

KRIKSTON:

Oh, thank you so much.

O’CONNOR:

Thank you for joining us for a Humboldt Conversation. Thank you for joining us and we’ll join us again soon for another Humboldt Conversation on the Outpost.