Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in California

I live in Orange County / Yorba Linda, CA, I am on SSI, and i rent a room from my Uncle currently, i pay him around 425 dollars (cash) a month for the room (unfortunately no contract), I am the only person living in the room, but my uncle has no concept of privacy, i come home from appointments to find that my desk drawers have been gone through, trash taken out of them, but nothing missing, the room vacuumed and cleaned, as well as boxes and clothes rearranged. Now, i have talked to him before about coming into the room at all without permission, especially while im gone, but he claims that it's his place, even though i have brought to his attention that i pay him money for the room just like he pays money to his landlord for the apartment, and its expected that there be a level of privacy. He doesn't own anything in the room except for the mattress, so every thing he is going through is mine, whether he has good intentions of cleaning the room or not, the room is kept up fairly well and does not require anyone else to clean it. He also tells me that i cannot change the lock on the door because he doesn't want to change what the apartment complex already has installed, which is not a keyed entry lock, its a lock the requires a coin to unlock.

When i bring these problems to his attention, he gets mad for an hour or 2 and tells me that he can always give me the money back that i gave him and tell me to hit the street, or threatens to call the Sheriff out to handle it; after said hour or 2, he comes to me apologizing, and telling me that he is starting to realize what he is doing wrong, but then it happens again and again.

I just need some advice on how to handle the situation, i don't really know what else to do, im currently working on getting my own place through housing, but its going to be a while.

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