Inspiration for tenant protections dies at 93
Paul Mayer, the longtime San Jose resident whose eviction from his apartment inspired the city’s historic tenant protections, died Thursday morning. He was 93.
In his final days, his daughter reminded him of the many lives he touched. “I told him how many people’s lives he affected and how much people loved him,” said Anne Sherman.
Mayer’s housing odyssey began last year when his landlord told him he had to leave the studio apartment in west San Jose
where he’d lived for 44 years so she could renovate the building. Mayer, who had been paying just $525 for the studio, wasn’t sure where to go and attempts by his family to convince the landlord to allow him to stay fell flat.
At the time, unlike other major cities such as San Francisco, San Jose didn’t have a “just- cause ordinance,” which mandates that landlords offer a compelling reason to not renew a lease. That meant people like Mayer could be forced out and into a housing market with sky-high prices.
But his story garnered widespread attention, and in April of last year the San Jose City Council passed new tenant protections, including a “just cause” policy. The policy does say that substantial renovation qualifies as a reasonable cause to terminate a lease. But the law would have required Mayer’s landlord to give him more advance notice, the option to return after the renovations and assistance to relocate.
“We are elated,” Mayer’s son Robert told the Mercury News at the time. “I believe my dad’s story was a catalyst to the change because it really brought to light that this really needed to be addressed. This decision has been years in the making. People can sleep at night not in fear of waking up in the morning to an eviction notice.”
But it was too late for Mayer, who moved last June into an apartment in Santa Clara. The move, Sherman said, was jarring for her father.
“I believe his eviction was so traumatic for him that he was never able to recover from it,” Sherman said Thursday.
Sherman said Mayer was so “tortured” by his eviction that he stopped taking medication for congestive heart failure last November. He also suffered from skin cancer. Under hospice care and surrounded by family in recent days, Mayer died at his new apartment after becoming unresponsive Monday.
“This is what eviction does to the elderly,” Sherman said. “They cannot handle these kinds of life changes at their age.”
Mayer leaves behind six children — Chuck, Jon, Robert, Anne, Paula and Michael — and a host of grandchildren and greatgrandchildren.
“Every time he saw us he expressed his appreciation and love for us,” Sher- man said. “He understood not everybody has family.”
A World War II veteran, Mayer “was kind and he was compassionate, he was fair and he led his life with grace and dignity,” Sherman said. It was evident in a list of resolutions he lived by, she said. They included sayings like, “Resolve to be cheerful and helpful. People will repay you in kind” and “No one ever learns anything by talking.”
Because of his advanced age, he had become less active in recent years. But one thing that stayed with Mayer until the end was his sense of humor.
“Anybody who was around my dad got that sense of humor,” Sherman said. “It was unique and it was quick and it’s something we’ll all miss so much.”
The family is still working out details for a memorial service.