SMRR Tenant HOTLINE 310 394-0848

Behind the Phone Line

By Michael Tarbet, SMRR Organizer

Started in the early 1990s with only one person to answer tenants’ inquiries, the SMRR Hotline now has a part-time tenant attorney coordinating three volunteers.

Actually, "hotline" is a misnomer, because dialing 394-0848 only gets one in touch with a voice mail system. Then, the volunteer on duty (at home or wherever) picks up & returns the call, usually within 24 hours. A triage system is at work here; the people most in danger get the quickest response.

The first volunteer to person the Hotline was Betty Mueller, who had to be replaced when she was elected to serve on the Rent Board in 1998. For years, she answered three to six daily calls, with only occasional vacation-time backup. Before and during her Hotline stint, she remained the most stalwart of SMRR’s electioneering phone bankers.

The three current Hotliners all followed in Betty’s footsteps, as did Pam Vavra, who is on sabbatical in Fargo, South Dakota. They proved their loyalty to the renters’ movement by working tirelessly in at least three election campaigns.

Pam and Annette Del Zoppo participated as full time volunteer coordinators in last fall’s successful local election. Annette is the leader of the current Hotline team, and for good reason. In the last two years, she has gone beyond the call of duty by organizing tenants at three separate properties to save themselves from eviction and harassment.

The number of calls has trebled over the years, starting in 1996 with the phase-in of the statewide Costa-Hawkins vacancy decontrol act. After the last election, we were lucky to recruit Kim Groves, who also helps save lives as an emergency room cardiac-care nurse.

The Hotliners get an introduction to landlord/tenant law, but they don’t practice it. They are trained to pick out the salient points in a tenancy problem and direct the caller to appropriate resources. Occasionally, as I’ve mentioned, circumstances have caused them to take to the streets to create a solution.

We are attempting to get a handle on the degree of tenant harassment in Santa Monica. If you haven’t been able to solve a severe harassment problem, we need to know the circumstances. Call 394-0848

We could use one or two more smart, dedicated, friendly people to serve two-week shifts every month and a half. Call 394-0848 to apply; leave name, numbers, addresses.