- Caspar Turner | Staff
- Feb 24, 2025 (DailyCal.org)
Tenants at 1332 Shattuck Ave., an apartment complex in North Berkeley, announced Friday that they had formed Berkeley’s first tenant association under Measure BB, which voters approved last November.
The announcement was made at a press conference in front of the building with speeches from District 7 Councilmember Cecilia Lunaparra and former Councilmember Kate Harrison as well as Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board Commissioners Xavier Johnson and Alfred Twu.
Among other rights, Measure BB, allows tenants to form organized associations for collective bargaining. The measure applies to buildings that have 10 or more units or are managed by a “property management company.” A tenant association can be formed if a majority of tenants agree to join the association.
Tenants Iris Haik and Nikolas De Bremaeker, who helped to start the tenants association along with De Bremaeker’s partner, spoke on how they worked together to reach this 50% mark.
“I brought the measure to Niko,” Haik said. “I talked to Niko and their partner, Alex, about what was going on in the building, and then Alex took it away.”
De Bremaeker added that Alex “talked with all the neighbors” in order to start the association, and that out of the 18 units in 1332 Shattuck Ave., 10 tenants signed the petition necessary to create the association.
The specific issues that prompted tenants to take advantage of Measure BB’s provisions for tenant organization, according to Haik, included the need for the services of a plumber and a heating, ventilation and air conditioning technician, as well as leaks on one side of the building and laundry room issues.
“Everybody I know in the building has had plumbing issues,” Haik alleged. “Everybody I know in the building has had issues with our radiators.”
Avery Arbaugh, who is on the Steering Committee of the Berkeley Tenants Union, or BTU, as well as Lunaparra’s Berkeley Tenant Organizing Task Force, said that the establishment of the 1332 Shattuck Tenants Association wouldn’t have been as significant without Measure BB.
“The unions that CC would’ve created wouldn’t have been legally enforceable in the same way that BB’s unions are,” Arbaugh said with reference to the alternative housing proposition that Berkeley voters rejected in 2024. “If you can create a tenant’s union and have it be legally recognized, that doesn’t mean much if it doesn’t pair with the ability to use that power for a rent reduction when your landlord refuses to bargain in good faith.”
The 1332 Shattuck Tenants Association works closely with BTU, and, as the first association of its kind, will be known as BTU Local 1.
