Core Spaces tenant association: from mass eviction to mass mobilization

On March 15, 2023, multi-billion dollar Chicago-based private equity firm Core Spaces announced ownership of CBC & The Sweeps in Isla Vista. On March 16, they sent out 60 day notices to vacate to every single unit — roughly 260 in total — telling around 1,000 tenants they would have to move so Core Spaces could work on “substantial remodeling” of all those units. Tenants were devastated. Vacancy rates in Santa Barbara tend toward less than 1% and rent has doubled due to landlord price gouging over the course of the pandemic, so there is nowhere for most tenants to go.

With the help of SBTU organizers, tenants rapidly formed the largest tenant association in SBTU’s 3 year history, called the Core Spaces Tenants Association (CSTA):

CSTA did two outstanding things almost simultaneously. The first was coming together as a unified group of tenants. In this unification came the development of a strategy to get the county board of supervisors to change the law. Another aspect of strategy included sustaining morale for the fight to come, which meant keeping tenants educated, unified, and empowered to tell their stories to the world so their struggles wouldn’t be in vain.

The second amazing thing they did was mass mobilize themselves, SBTU membership and community allies to demand the county change a law to stop the eviction.

On April 4, CSTA members poured into county chambers at 9am on Tuesday morning — and extremely inconvenient time for working people, but this is when county supervisor meetings are. Tenants told about how they can’t find affordable housing anywhere close by, that the mass eviction is causing extreme stress on their mental and physical health, and that they believe the county should do something to stop Core Spaces and landlords like them. 

The county was overwhelmed with public pressure and immediately directed county staff to draft an urgency ordinance that would make renovictions much more difficult for landlords to execute. One day after CSTA and SBTU’s mass mobilization effort, on Wednesday, the county announced an emergency special meeting for Thursday – April 6, 2023. In this meeting, it would be decided whether or not the county would protect the tenants from Core Spaces bad faith mass eviction, with the intention of displacing approximately 1,000 tenants for profit.

SBTU and CSTA membership once again threw themselves at county politicians demanding that any urgency ordinance passed would have to apply to unlawful detainers. There are typically three phases of an eviction: notices, lawsuit (unlawful detainer), and sheriffs. Core Spaces had only initiated the first phase: notices. If the county passed a law only addressing the ‘notice’ phase of the eviction, it would not protect tenants since the ordinance would not be retroactive. But due to community pressure and help from solidarity attorneys within SBTU membership and broader coalitions, tenants successfully got the county to clarify that the ordinance would apply to both notices and unlawful detainers for substantial remodel evictions after the date of the ordinance. This provided definitive, guaranteed protection for tenants if Core Spaces were to attempt to initiate lawsuits (unlawful detainers) against tenants for not vacating by the end of the dates of their notices. 

At first the win was purely celebratory. Core Spaces would now be required to do a great number of things in order to be able to lawfully “renovict” the nearly 1,000 tenants in CBC & The Sweeps. The new law required landlords to first acquire permits from the county, include those permits in termination notices, explain to tenants the type and scope of work that would be done — and more.
CSTA members blended two kinds of meetings over the next couple of weekends. One kind of meeting was informational: solidarity attorneys from Legal Aid would explain to everyone the meaning of the new law, and everyone would get on the same page to understand their rights. Next, there would be a big potluck celebration so everyone could enjoy their success and take a break from the exhaustion of mass mobilization.
  But just when celebration was fresh, the multi-billion dollar Core Spaces company ramped up its retaliation. Already, security guards had been monitoring, following, harassing CSTA organizers. But now management began telling tenants that the county law passed on 4/6/23 did not apply to them, and they were going to lose eviction lawsuits if they didn’t move out soon. 

-news articles / screenshots
-announcement letter above somewhere
-letters from thyne llp lawyers
-chicago solidarity video
-mobilization for moratorium