OAKLAND — When the foreclosure crisis hit hard in 2007, sending property values plunging in flatland neighborhoods, outside investors swooped in and bought homes at fire sale prices. Steve Kalmbach was one of them.

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Editorial: Wei, Fruen would help chart a new course for Cupertino According to Alameda County property records, Kalmbach bought seven single-family homes in deep East Oakland in 2008 and 2009 — four of them owned by banks. Kalmbach, a division president at Pulte Homes Inc., kept rents basically the same. But then a month ago, the landlord notified the tenants that he was doubling their rents — a $1,300 hike for six families, $1,200 for the seventh.

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Effective Nov. 1, according to the notices, the tenants must pay the new rent or move. They say the landlord is trying to force them out so he can either charge higher rents or sell the homes for a profit, while the landlord notes that he’s following all applicable laws in an effort to bring the rents closer to current market rates.

But with such little notice, the tenants said they can’t find suitable housing. They have organized in an effort to get more modest increases so they can stay.

“We started looking for another place but they want first and last month’s rent; a deposit,” said Jorge Rojas, who rents a two-bedroom home on 76th Avenue with his wife, two children, a pit bull and a chihuahua. “I looked at one place, they wanted $30 a month for pet rent. If the dog was over 30 pounds, $1 more per pound.”

Rojas, who works a 5 p.m. to midnight shift as a busser at a restaurant in San Francisco, fears he’ll have to send his pit bull to an animal shelter where there’s a good chance it will be put down.

“It’s a hard, stressful situation for all of us,” he said. “I understand that he owns the house but we need more time.”

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Single-family homes aren’t covered by rent control because they are exempt under Costa-Hawkins, a state law passed in 1995 that limits local rent control efforts.

On Wednesday, Kalmbach released a statement through his attorney Daniel Bornstein.

“The tenants who protested are occupying rental properties wherein I prepared rent increases after having not done so for many years,” the statement read. “The increases were proper, consistent with prevailing market rates (if not lower) and drafted in absolute compliance with local and state law. I continue to engage in meaningful communications with the tenants and their representatives and expect that a compromise will be reached that will be beneficial for all. I am optimistic that all parties will be satisfied with the anticipated resolution to this dispute.”

Even though the homes aren’t covered by rent control, the tenants want Kalmbach to agree to 5 percent increases — the maximum that the city of Oakland allows owners of rent control properties who hadn’t instituted increases in the past. One recent Saturday, a group of tenants and housing advocates went to the landlord’s house in Piedmont, rang his doorbell and asked for a meeting.

“It’s a tale of two cities,” said Justin Tombolesi, lead organizer for Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, which has been negotiating with the landlord on behalf of the tenants. “You go to his house in Piedmont and there’s a Tesla and a BMW and then you come here.”

“Here” refers to a low-income neighborhood in the flatlands of deep East Oakland, where many residents are immigrants from Mexico and Central America.

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Norma Sanchez, a housekeeper, logs 12-hour work days commuting to Mountain View because the pay is better. Her husband Ambrocio Carrera works at a Togo’s sandwich shop. They’ve lived in their two-bedroom place on Hillside Street for eight years. The youngest of their three sons was born there.

The couple said their initial rent of $1,100 has increased by just $100 since they’ve lived there. But then a month ago, a notice came saying that the new rent would be $2,400 on Nov. 1.

“We can understand that he would want to raise the rent, but not to such an extent,” Sanchez said. “We’re barely making it as it is.”

She said her 6-year-old son Luis attends a special needs program.

“It’s difficult to move him and I don’t know if I can find the same services,” Sanchez said.

Her neighbor Laura Chavira also got a notice that that her rent was going from $1,200 to $2,400.

She and her husband Blanco, a welder, and their four kids have lived in the two-bedroom home for seven years. Though the rents have remained steady, she said the house is also in disrepair. When it rains, water comes into the living room because the roof leaks. She said her husband makes repairs.

“That night when we got the notice I couldn’t sleep, I thought what are we going to do?” Chavira said. “My husband is selling his tools, we’re selling a truck and some of the kids’ toys. Anything we can do to raise money.”

If worst comes to worst, she said, they may have to squeeze in with family in Richmond.

“I think it’s appalling if that’s what’s happening,” said Oakland Councilwoman Desley Brooks, who represents that district. Brooks urged those in a similar situation to come forward. “These properties aren’t covered by our just cause protections and therein lies the problem with Costa-Hawkins.”

Yet Andrew Zacks, a property rights attorney, said the real issue is a lack of affordable housing. He said wholesale repeal of Costa-Hawkins would harm small “mom and pop” owners, though policy-makers could consider changes to prevent abuses by larger landlords who are buying up single family homes as investments.

“I do understand that that presents a different circumstance and a legislative change might address that,” he said.

Like many Oaklanders, the tenants are victims of economic forces beyond their control. A two-bedroom house in their neighborhood that sold for $80,000 in 2009 could command upwards of $385,000 in today’s market, according to longtime Oakland realtor Howard Kees, Jr. Advertised rents in the neighborhood range from $1,800 to $2,400, Kees said.

“Now that the market is up, people are looking to capitalize on their investment,” Kees said. “Due to the influx of people moving onto this side of the bay, it’s a landlords market right now.”

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So where does that leave people like Sonia Raymundo, her husband Manuel Valdez, and their two children who can’t afford the 100 percent increase for their two-bedroom house on Ritchie Street?

“We don’t have any defense,” Valdez said. “We’re small people. I’m a landscaper. My wife is housecleaner.”