Billionaires are raking in money off of elderly, poor, and working class people in the valley. Sam Zell, chairman and founder of the Chicago based Equity International, which is part of a global conglomerate, (in which Equity Life Styles Properties is a part), that owns mobile home parks across the country, including those operating in the Northern San Joaquin Valley. These properties include Colony Park in Ceres, Coralwood in Modesto and Quail Meadows in Riverbank; parks where rent has risen dramatically in recent months, driving up the cost in some cases by hundreds of dollars.

Some residents in Ceres refused to except this, and in February started to lead rent strikes, in which residents collectively acted and withheld money from the landlords. Residents of the park also rejected moves made by city elites, (the Ceres Mayor), to reach a compromise with ELS Properties and the strikers. According to the Modesto Bee, “The new offer would have limited rent hikes until 2012, but [strikers] said the deal…would have allowed Equity Life Styles Properties to adjust rents to market rates on individual lots whenever someone moved out of the park.” It is also largely impossible for mobile home renters to move, being that the cost of moving their homes may be from between $5,000-10,000. Even if mobile home renters can move, many of the other local parks will only except newer model mobile homes, (2000 and up), on their lots, and are also owned by Equity Life Styles Properties.

This system which creates class divisions, forces us to choose between starvation and wage slavery, also forces us to choose between rent and homelessness. Seniors and those with severe medical problems are the most at risk. Many people are using up what little money they receive in medical assistance just to pay for their rent, and if costs continue to rise they will be forced out in the street.

There is power in refusal, and we can fight back collectively and as individuals. There will always be more of us than them, but we have to make sure our resistance will always be stronger than all of the property laws, police, and city councils combined. This means that we have to be clear in our goals of stopping this wave or rent increases, showing solidarity with rent strikers, (and especially elderly and sick who are the most at risk), against compromising with city elites who will sell us out, and recognizing that this struggle is part of a larger one against the realities of a profit driven economy. As one renter once stated in the local newspaper, "They justify it as rent comparable for the area, and for shareholders. Fuck the shareholders. They are taking grandparents out. They will have to drag me out by the hair."

For all those on rent strike, and all those that resist the robbery of rent.

Print This out in Flyer Form!: www.geocities.com/anarcho209/rentstrike.jpg

Some rent strikers are holding a demonstration in front of Modesto's City Hall, Jan. 2, and 3rd. Both demos start at 8:30 AM. For more info call: (209) 499 - 8907.

Interview with Rent Striker: www.indybay.org/olduploads/brad-w-colony-park-rent-strikers-12m-80kbs-.mp3

Some of Those Responsible:
Equity International, and it's public companies: www.equityinternational.com/eip.aspx
Equity International's Contact Information: www.equityinternational.com/eip3.aspx
Equity Life Styles Company Office Locations (who owns the mobile home parks): www.mhchomes.com/DBMHC/MHCMain.nsf/vwPages/AboutMHCOfficesWDPZAA-4PZP4M

Compiled by Modesto Anarcho Crew
More info: www.geocities.com/anarcho209