Santa Cruz Rent Control
Santa Cruz City Council to weigh compulsory rental registry (Santa Cruz Sentinel)
New housing-data collection strategy to be considered Tuesday
Original article: https://www.santacruzsentinel.com/2020/02/23/santa-cruz-city-council-to-weigh-compulsory-rental-registry
FEBRUARY 25, 2020, SANTA CRUZ, CA >>> Seeking an accounting of the community’s rising residential rental rates, tenant turnover and challenges between renters and landlords, city leaders are set to consider a new housing data collection strategy Tuesday. In addressing a delicate and heavily contentious subject, the Santa Cruz City Council will consider authorizing creation of a new compulsory citywide residential rental registry and supporting fee, a move last discussed in August as a voluntary pilot program. To support such a program, a city council ad hoc committee is recommending the council authorize the hiring of a vendor to create a new electronic tracking and monitoring software system — with an initial $77,000 investment and subsequent annual $42,000 subscription fee — to collect community input on the type, frequency and detail of rental housing statistics that will be made available to the public.
The council meets at 11:45 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. Tuesday 2/24/20 at City Hall, 809 Center St.
Since the council’s last rental housing registry discussion, state legislation dubbed the Tenant Protection Act of 2019 was passed. The law limits rent increases for many housing units to no more than 5% per year plus inflation, and requires that landlords document their causes for evictions from those covered units. Housing built within the last 15 years and single-family homes, including condominiums and townhouses which are owned by individuals, are exempt from the requirements.
“Staff and the subcommittee are hopeful that the Tenant Protection Act of 2019 has removed some of the local pressure around rent regulation and that landlords, tenants and advocates will be able to work together and with the city within the framework of the state law,” a report to the council reads. The agenda report is recommending setting a June deadline for the council to receive a formal ordinance to approve.
Last year, the council discussed making the program a reality by expanding its existing Residential Rental Inspection Service. While some changes to the city rental inspection program will be under consideration Tuesday, the database’s coopting for a general rental registry will not be among them. The council, however, will consider some measures to ease restraints on granny-flat rental owners, including the potential legalization of at least 400 of the 441 unpermitted rental units under city investigation, due to recent state legislative changes. City staff also will create two new informational brochures pointing tenants to various city and external resources and rental information.
Full Article: https://www.santacruzsentinel.com/2020/02/23/santa-cruz-city-council-to-weigh-compulsory-rental-registry
Santa Cruz County enacts moratorium on no-fault evictions (Sentinel)
Ordinance aims to protect tenants until new state rules take effect Jan. 1
Original article: https://www.santacruzsentinel.com/2019/11/05/santa-cruz-county-enacts-moratorium-on-no-fault-evictions
NOVEMBER 5, 2019, SANTA CRUZ, CA >>> Santa Cruz County became the latest jurisdiction to enact a moratorium on no-fault evictions Tuesday amid concerns that new protections for California tenants are leading to a wave of evictions before the rules take effect Jan. 1.
Under an urgency ordinance unanimously approved by county supervisors, thousands of tenants in the unincorporated county are protected from eviction without just cause through Dec. 31 — so long as they have rented an applicable home for at least a year.
Tenants who have already received an eviction notice, but have not yet moved out, can contest their eviction under the temporary moratorium. “We’re going to keep people in their homes that deserve to be in their homes,” said 2nd District Supervisor Zach Friend, who proposed the ordinance with 3rd District Supervisor Ryan Coonerty. “Sending people out onto the street in this kind of housing market is not a solution for addressing anything that’s in the interest of the county,” Friend added.
The ordinance follows similar stop-gap measures approved Oct. 26 by the Santa Cruz City Council and a week earlier by the Los Angeles City Council. The rush to pass some form of eviction moratorium comes in response to Assembly Bill 1482, signed into law Oct. 8 by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Called the Tenant Protection Act of 2019, the law caps annual rent increases at 5% plus inflation and requires just cause to evict tenants until it sunsets in 2030.
Just cause for eviction includes violating a lease, failing to pay rent, or causing a nuisance — definitions mirrored in Santa Cruz County’s moratorium.
Also mirroring AB 1482, the county ordinance mostly applies to apartments older than 15 years. Single-family homes, apartments built within the past 15 years, and accessory dwelling units and duplexes where the owner lives on the property are exempt.
Eviction notices
Because AB 1482 doesn’t take effect until Jan. 1, tenant advocates claim some landlords are scrambling to evict tenants by the end of the year.
“We have people coming in who’ve lived in their units for 24 years, 19 years — people with disabilities, people with kids, people with high-risk pregnancies — where their entire complex, everyone in their complex, is being evicted so that the landlord can raise the rent in January,” said Gretchen Regenhardt, an attorney with nonprofit California Rural Legal Assistance.
Cynthia Berger, who runs the Santa Cruz Tenants Association Hotline, said she has seen an uptick in calls from tenants in the process of an eviction after the passage of AB 1482. “This is what always happens when you have a public discussion on rent control,” Berger said. “The hammer comes down and it’s like tenants are like mice to be squashed.”
Aptos resident Virginia Voinea, 63, is among those who have reached out to the Santa Cruz area hotline following an eviction notice.
Voinea said she has lived in her Seacliff apartment complex for 13 years with her adult disabled son. On Sept. 23 — soon after AB 1482 passed the state Legislature — she said she received a 60-day eviction notice.
The notice cites plans to remodel her unit, according to Voinea, but she said she has reason to be skeptical. “I don’t have any options,” Voinea said. “I may end up on the street with a boy that’s never been on the street in his life.” Voinea briefly shared her story with supervisors prior to the vote on the tenant protections Tuesday. Her eviction was referenced by Friend, the 2nd District supervisor, prior to the vote on the moratorium.
“This is happening right here in our community right now,” Friend said.
Tenants at a Capitola apartment complex, who are not protected by the county’s moratorium, have raised similar concerns about recent eviction notices that similarly cite remodeling plans.
The Capitola City Council is scheduled to consider a no-fault eviction moratorium at a special meeting 6 p.m. Wednesday.
Coast Line: Santa Cruz City Council sets temporary rental eviction rules
By Coast Line
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/article/NE/20180214/NEWS/180219827
FEBRUARY 14, 2018, SANTA CRUZ >> The Santa Cruz City Council voted Tuesday to establish short-term just-cause eviction rules for landlords citywide.
The stop-gap measure was timed to prevent tenant evictions ahead of a proposed November ballot measure on the same issue, paired with rent control measures. Landlords who own one or fewer rental properties are exempt from the just-cause eviction limitations.
Mayor David Terrazas and Councilwoman Cynthia Mathews voted against the emergency ordinance, saying they would prefer to take more time refining the ordinance’s language.
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