REDWOOD CITY, CA - A new ordinance filed in Redwood City would create one of the most expansive rent control policies in the county, as well as include anti-harassment provisions meant to close what advocates say are loopholes in the state’s tenant protection laws.

If passed, a new rent stabilization program would be created to set the allowable rent increases for applicable properties, not to exceed 5% each year. Landlords would pay a monthly $7 to $10 fee to fund the program, which would also oversee other tenant protection-related issues. 

“Local advocates have been trying to get the council to pass the same policies, so it’s now been years and years of asking for the same policies that exist in so many other Bay Area communities and asking them to adopt them in Redwood City,” ACCE Institute Legal Director Leah Simon-Weisberg said. 

BAY AREA, CA - Tenant advocates are pushing to put rent control measures on the ballot in at least four Bay Area cities this November, the latest effort to expand such protections across the region as tens of thousands continue struggling with sky-high housing costs.

Advocacy groups this month plan to file proposed rent control ordinances with Redwood City, San Pablo, Pittsburg and Larkspur, the first step toward gathering the thousands of signatures needed to bring the measures before voters . . .

Campaign organizers, including the influential Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, contend there are few other options after cities resisted years-long efforts to adopt adequate tenant safeguards.

“They’ve been trying and trying and trying at the local level to go before their local officials,” said Leah Simon-Weisberg, legal director for the alliance. “These are all cities that have an affordability crisis in their communities.”

BAY AREA - In a coordinated effort, tenants in four Bay Area cities have submitted the initial filings to place local rent control and tenant protection measures on the November 2024 ballot.

The measures that could come before voters in Larkspur, Pittsburg, San Pablo and Redwood City would limit annual rent increases (5% or 3%, depending on the city), prohibit “renovictions,” and limit owner move-in evictions, among other protections. Advocates have also proposed a similar ballot initiative in the Kern County city of Delano.

Trinidad Villagomez, a 22-year resident of Redwood City, said the proposed city ordinances would help stabilize renters amid continually rising housing prices. The average rent for a 1-bedroom apartment in Redwood City is $2,500, according to Zillow, and ranges from more than $2,800 per month in Larkspur to nearly $1,700 in San Pablo.

“This law will help stabilize families, particularly low-income families,” Villagomez said.

BAY AREA, CA - When California lawmakers passed a rent cap four years ago to protect tenants from large and frequent rent hikes, they exempted hundreds of thousands of units reserved for some of the state’s poorest renters.

Low-income housing, after all, is usually built with public subsidies that already impose rent ceilings on developers and property owners. Some are already managed or overseen by local public housing agencies.

But California also has more than 350,000 privately owned low-income housing units — built with the help of federal tax credits — exempted from the state’s rent cap. Residents of some of those units have seen their rents soar despite being the exact demographic the law sought to protect.

AREA DE LA BAHIA, CA - Cuando los legisladores de California aprobaron un tope de pago alquiler hace cuatro años para proteger a los inquilinos de aumentos grandes y frecuentes, eximieron a cientos de miles de unidades reservadas para algunos de los inquilinos más pobres del estado.

Después de todo, las viviendas para personas de bajos ingresos generalmente se construyen con subsidios públicos que ya imponen límites máximos de alquiler a los promotores y propietarios. Algunas ya están administradas o supervisadas por agencias locales de vivienda pública.

Pero California también tiene más de 350,000 unidades de vivienda de propiedad privada para personas de bajos ingresos (construidas con la ayuda de créditos fiscales federales) exentas del límite de alquiler estatal. Los residentes de algunas de esas unidades han visto dispararse sus alquileres a pesar de ser exactamente el grupo demográfico que la ley buscaba proteger.

STATEWIDE - On November 14, 2023, Liz Ruvalcaba was served with a summons and complaint notifying her that a lawsuit had been filed by her landlord to evict her from her home. It didn’t come as a shock.

One week earlier, Ruvalcaba had returned home to find her rent checks for September and October rolled up and wedged under her doorknob, still in the envelopes in which she had delivered them to her property manager. “You could see [the manager] had opened the envelopes and then just put the checks back inside,” Ruvalcaba told Jacobin. “Of course, I knew that if they’re refusing to accept the rent, they’re getting ready to do something. And sure enough, a week went by and I received the documents from the court.” The summons and complaint specified that she was being evicted for nonpayment of rent.

En marzo de 2021, la industria cinematográfica de Los Ángeles apenas comenzaba a recuperar la vida después de una prolongada caída inducida por el COVID, pero Michael Addis, un cineasta independiente, todavía estaba en lo más profundo del agujero. Durante más de un año había estado acumulando pagarés para su arrendador y la cuenta ascendía a 43,792 dólares.

Entonces Addis recurrió a un programa estatal de emergencia diseñado para ayudar a personas como él a pagar la deuda de alquiler acumulada durante la pandemia. 

Más tarde, en el verano de 2021, el propio gobernador Gavin Newsom promocionó el programa Housing Is Key como el más grande de su tipo en el país. “Estamos muy concentrados en hacer llegar esta asistencia lo más rápido posible “, dijo en ese momento.

Addis recibió respuesta 20 meses después de presentar su solicitud.  

El 5 de junio de 2023, cuando cumplió 61 años, recibió un correo electrónico, que compartió con CalMatters, notificándole que se había aprobado un pago en su totalidad. 

Pero para entonces ya era demasiado tarde.

In March 2021, the Los Angeles film industry was just beginning to roar back to life after a prolonged COVID-induced slump, but Michael Addis, a freelance filmmaker, was still deep in the hole. For more than a year he’d been racking up IOUs to his landlord and the tab stood at $43,792.

So Addis turned to an emergency state program designed to help people like him pay down rental debt accumulated during the pandemic. 

Later, in the summer of 2021, Gov. Gavin Newsom himself had touted the program, Housing Is Key, as the largest of its kind in the nation. “We’re laser-focused on getting this assistance out the door as quickly as possible,” he said at the time.

Addis heard back 20 months after he applied.  

On June 5, 2023 — his 61st birthday — he received an email, which he shared with CalMatters, notifying him that a payment had been approved in full. 

But by then it was too late.