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Agenda Item

23. Ordinance Adding Chapter 5.156 to the Sacramento City Code Relating to Tenant Protection and Relief Act [To be published in its entirety per City Charter Section 32(d)] File ID: 2019-01101

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    Barbara Schihl over 5 years ago

    Hello, my name is Barbara Schihl and I am a ROD for California YIMBY as well as a member of House Sacramento, a local group of YIMBY activists that advocate for making it easier to build more dense, transit-oriented infill housing of all kinds in the Sacramento area. I am in SUPPORT of the City of Sacramento's proposed ordinance related to the Tenant Protection and Relief Act. I believe that it is NOT local government’s role to maximize wealth for a subset of residents who own real property. It is instead the responsibility of local government to ensure that housing is affordable and accessible to all residents. This ordinance would give tenants predictability when it comes to rent increases and limit those increases enough to protect against rent-gouging. As Sacramento grows, landlords will see opportunities to seek further income from their properties at the expense of vulnerable tenants. It is the City's responsibility to act to protect these tenants.
    Thank you,
    Barbara

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    Noel Kammermann over 5 years ago

    Mayor Steinberg and City Council Members,
    I am sorry that I am unable to attend today's meeting, but wanted to send a note to urge you to approve this ordinance providing tenant protections and relief. Currently, we continue to see many men, women, and children who are newly experiencing homelessness because of significant increases in the rent (50% increase or more in some cases). Anyone living within 50% of the poverty line is at risk of losing their housing, and we must better protect tenants in this highly competitive rental market. At the same time, I urge that the city housing and code departments meet with their counterparts at the county and state levels to remove various financial barriers that significantly increase the overall cost to build new housing units (multi-family, in particular) so that further growth can occur more rapidly.
    Thank you for understanding tenant protections are critical, and action must be taken.

    Noel Kammermann
    Executive Director of Loaves & Fishes

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    Andrea Arnott over 5 years ago

    You are completely gutting real attempts at rent control and making an obviously fake attempt at appeasing the less aware. We have more and more homeless every year. This is disgusting and how dare you pull the rug out from under our poorest and most desperate neighbors. Please put the original Sacramento Renter Protection and Rent Stabilization Charter Amendment on the ballot and give the people power over their city and their lives. We want REAL RENT CONTROL.

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    Lola Marie Camacho over 5 years ago

    This is not real rent control how could you allow rent to go up every year and still call this rent control people will still be struggling with rent and it is not right MAKE A BETTER PLAN!

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    Jacob Curtis over 5 years ago

    This initiative doesn’t go far enough. And what happens after five years? Will landlords just decide not to take advantage of the vulnerable situations of working folks after this expires? You have to be naive to believe that. Allow the Sacramento Community Stabilization and Fair Rent Charter Amendment to be on the ballot.

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    Natalie Lopez over 5 years ago

    This de-fanged ordinance won't solve the housing crisis! Real lives are at stake here, so stop bending backwards for landlord greed! Endorse the ballot measure for a permanent change. The ballot measure provides more protection and a lower rent cap! AND ITS PERMANENT!

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    Kitty Bolte over 5 years ago

    This initiative does not go far enough in protecting renters - a 6%+CPI rent cap means an effective allowable annual increase of nearly 10%/year. This is the rate at which rents have been rising in Sacramento and it is obviously untenable for many long-time residents of the city. Additionally, many other cities (for example, Mountain View) which implemented rent control/just cause without a democratically elected rent board have ultimately done little to stand up for tenants rights. The citizens of Sacramento have already expressed their support for a meaningful rent control intiative (the one that qualified for the 2020 ballot). If the City Council wants to address the housing crisis, just adopt the charter amendment rather than this half-baked, inadequate plan.

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    Erin Rose Ellison over 5 years ago

    Not this watered-down version! I prefer the 'SACRAMENTO RENTER PROTECTION AND COMMUNITY STABILIZATION CHARTER AMENDMENT' because it protects (us) regular working folks from predatory and *corporate* landlords (of which Sacramento has a significantly above national average/proportion). If city council passes this watered-down version of renters protection (i.e., not really protecting tenants), you will sell-out the folks you represent. The original ballot initiative will: place a cap on rent, provide strong just-cause requirements for evictions, and include a democratically elected rent board. This watered-down version will counter a well-supported ballot initiative that will do so much more to protect folks from parasitic corporate interest. More than 40,000 residents signed off on the ballot initiative and qualified to be on the ballot last year. We must ask: who wins and who loses, in this scenario? We say NOT! All Power to the People!

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    Emma Zavez over 5 years ago

    I live in midtown Sacramento and fully support the Tenant Protection and Relief Act. I am very worried about rent going up and up - the topic comes up all of the time in conversation on how the city is becoming unaffordable. I love this place and do not want to be forced out. Please limit rent increases so they are affordable for tenants. Thank you!

    Also, I apologize for not being able to register my support in-person but I am at work until 5:00 PM tomorrow. Please take my position under consideration. Thank you!

    Best wishes,

    Emma Zavez
    2522 N Street, Sacramento

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    Sarah Turner over 5 years ago

    -The proposed rent cap is significantly too high & is not low enough to slow displacement or homelessness.
    -To stem displacement & reduce homelessness WE NEED REAL RENT CONTROL. Every city in the state that has an effective anti-displacement policy on the books caps rents at +/-3% which is high enough to ensure a fair rate of return for landlords & low enough to reduce displacement
    -Not a long term solution: this deal only lasts 5 years
    -No democratically elected rent board; instead mediation will be decided by a hearing examiner appointed by the City Council. City officials have too much financial influence from the rental lobby to fairly mediate tenant issues.
    -Too many loopholes landlords can exploit
    -“Closed Door” Negotiations & not a Fair Democratic Process
    We need your support in Continuing to Fight for Real Rent Control in Sacramento and not this false promise!

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    Candace Keefauver over 5 years ago

    I support the Sacramento Community Stabilization and Fair Rent Charter Amendment and demand that the City do their due diligence by allowing this measure to be on the ballot.
    The measure in question does not do enough for tenants and it expires after only 5 years.

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    Abigail Jackson over 5 years ago

    ATTN: Councilman Steve Hansen. I am voicing this comment as a constituent in the majority-renter neighborhood of Midtown Sacramento. I support this ordinance with amendments to include a democratically elected rent board instead of mediation decided by the City Council. This Ordinance proposal is decent, but needs to go the extra step in protecting our renters. Why wouldn't you choose to protect the bulk of your voters with stronger tenant protections in this Ordinance? Please consider amending the proposal to include improved tenant protections such as: 1) closing the loophole in this Ordinance on tenant evictions (make sure landlords don't evict tenants before the year is up); 2) fix the "renovations" evictions loophole in this Ordinance; and, 3) as I mentioned, a democratically elected rent board. Thank you for listening and please advocate for your constituents.

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    Shea Dlott over 5 years ago

    I think city council needs to be clear that they are proposing tenant protection and relief act to hide from the ballot measure. Their act only “protects” people for 5 years then it ends. No more protections no more rent caps. Landlords get hike up the rent all they want come 2025. The housing crisis isn’t going away in 5 years. Endorse the ballot measure for a permanent change. The ballot measure provides more protection and a lower rent cap! AND ITS PERMANENT!

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    Laura Roberts over 5 years ago

    There is already a Rent Control Ballot Initiative that qualified for the 2020 Election. Sacramento residents want Permanent Rent Control, Full Just Cause for Evictions Protections & A Democratic Elected Rent Board.

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    Charlene Jones over 5 years ago

    I urge all City Council Members to support the Tenant Protection & Relief Act. We have watched the skyrocketing cost of rental units in the metropolitan area over recent years, and witnessed diminished availability of anything considered affordable as wages stagnate and costs of living, especially education and healthcare, only grow. With our loss of Sacramento's (and the county's) model inclusionary housing ordinances several years ago, the problem has, as forewarned by advocates, burgeoned. This Act is a significant first step. However, our city and county must marshal political partnerships to assure funding and construction of more affordable units. As a volunteer with a Sacramento program that successfully serves families who are homeless, I know that unless more permanent housing options materialize with rent stabilization and tenant protections, the many who work arduously to assist Sacramentans secure permanent housing will not be successful for very much longer. Charlene Jones

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    Andrea Rosen over 5 years ago

    I support rent increase caps. I do NOT support the limited JUST CAUSE. I have been a landlord since 1978. Only non-renewed a lease once. Tenant was crazy. Tenant came with unit when I purchased. I did not do screening. Permit sellers to vacate tenants upon sale of unit so new owner can conduct tenant selection. Don't adopt until you absolutely know the cost of this new bureaucracy. TENANTS will pay for the cost of this program so make sure you know how much you will be adding to their rent by adopting this program. Adopt the rent cap now, get the cost of the program from staff and postpone the so-called just cause. Exempt owners of fewer than 10 units that would be subject to this rule unless there is evidence they are the source of the problem.

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    Colleen Whalen over 5 years ago

    I live downtown and my city councilperson is Steve Hansen. I want him to vote YES to support this measure because in 2017, my rent went from $775 to $1300 a month and I wound up without a place to live. It took me 8 months of bouncing around when I was displaced through gentrification. The ironic part is that the landlord jacked up the rent to a ridiculous price and my former apt was empty without a tenant for FIVE MONTHS. Eventually, the landlord lowered the rent down to $1100, which was true market value. There is a massive shortage of reasonably priced housing in Sacramento and it exacerbates our out of control homelessness problems.

    I actually think this measure is fairly weak and does not do enough to protect renters - but a little bit of something, is better than a whole lot of nothing. Last December I moved into a new apartment and signed a one year lease. The landlord just raised my rent by $50 although I have only lived here for 8 months.

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    Kevin Sabo over 5 years ago

    City leaders must adopt this measure. Without just cause protections, landlords are free to act on their prejudice without real consequences. It happens all the time. Is refusing to rent to a prospective tenant because they're a person of color technically illegal? Yes. But how could that tenant ever prove it in court if the landlord is allowed to reject them without being required to even make up an excuse? How do we ensure landlords aren't refusing to rent to service members who may have to break their lease early to be deployed without just cause? Sacramentans also desperately need relief from rent gouging. Landlords are free to raise rent by hundreds of dollars without tenants ever seeing that revenue reinvested in aging and decrepit housing. Reasonable caps on rent increases provides much-needed stability for families and decreases the chances of being evicted and thereby sentenced to a perpetual cycle of homelessness and poverty. Every Sacramentan deserves a place to call home.

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    Nicole Restmeyer over 5 years ago

    This is an important measure that deserves approval, and I want to urge my councilmember, Larry Carr, to support it. We have seen average rent increases in the city and the metropolitan area spike in the past few years, and folks will continue to be displaced from the Bay Area into places like Sacramento and the Central Valley due to an extreme lack of housing capacity. We continue to lose affordable housing faster than we can build. While the rent provisions of this ordinance are very important, even more critical are the just cause eviction protections -- otherwise, landlords have the ability to evict without cause in order to raise the rent of a unit, or jack up the rent of existing tenants as a form of indirect eviction. The two policies must be linked together to be effective.

    At the same time, the city needs to continue approving more multifamily/ADU units, and particularly affordable units, in resource-rich areas near transit. That's how we will ultimately resolve this crisis.

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    Katrina Clarke over 5 years ago

    "I am a Sacramentan and I support passage of these tenant protections today!"