Sneaky Landlord Agreed Not To Permanently Displace Tenants As Condition For Scoring $16 Million In City Rehab Loans, Then Tried To Boot Over 30 Families Anyway; Protest Thwarts Mass Eviction Attempt

In Austin, Texas, The Austin Chronicle reports:

• [T]he owners of the Cross Creek Apartments retracted more than 30 notices to vacate that had been served on their current tenants. The move comes less than a week after some of the residents – organizing as the Cross Creek Tenant Association – led a march through the Rundberg-area complex to protest the eviction.
  
  The owners recently received $16 million in private activity loans approved by the Austin Housing Finance Corporation [AHFC] to renovate the complex, but the notices to vacate, delivered to more than 30 families living at Cross Creek, violated the AHFC rules and regulations that the owners had agreed to follow.
  
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  [T]he tenant association will continue organizing to put pressure on both the city and the owners to follow through on their commitments. Residents have been supported since the end of May by Building and Strengthening Tenant Action (BASTA), a Texas RioGrande Legal Aid program funded by the city. Shoshana Krieger, the program's director, said that her team originally got involved because of [a] hot water issue, but that they have increased their efforts after the notices to vacate were distributed. "If the owner wants to use city money, then he should honor his commitment not to displace his tenants," she said.
  
  In 2014, the Austin Housing Finance Cor­poration awarded the owners $2 million in general obligation bonds, and then in April of this year they approved $16 million in financing, provided that no tenant was permanently displaced as a result of redevelopment. While the city has taken action in regards to the hot water issue and code violations, it did not take a position on the notices to vacate. "The question should not be whether or not the buildings are up to code, but whether or not they are up to code for the people living there," Krieger said.

For more, see Cross Creek Evictions Retracted (Tenants' efforts to organize prove successful).