Consider Adopting an Urgency Ordinance to Remove Certain Grounds for Just Cause Evictions by Amending Ordinance No. 3140, an Urgency Ordinance of the City of Alameda Imposing within the City of Alameda a Temporary (65-Day) Moratorium on Certain Residential Rent Increases and on Evictions from all Residential Rental Units Except for Just Cause Evictions.  [Requires four affirmative votes] (City Manager 2110)
Consider adopting an emergency ordinance to remove certain grounds for just cause evictions by amending Ordinance 3140 an urgency ordinance of the city amount of to imposing within the city. A temporary 65 day moratorium on certain residential rent increases and on evictions from all residential rental units except for just cause evictions. And if you want to speak on this item, if you could please turn in your your slip. So we have all the slips. And how many slips do we have? So at this point, we have ten speaker slips. And then is this the order that they returned in? And I'll be reading them in the order. And we're going to start with stealth presentation. Thanks. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, and members of the City Council. My name is Debbie Potter, and I'm the city's community development director. I'm going to be providing a brief staff report this evening. And then myself, along with the city attorney, are prepared to answer any questions. On November 5th, the City Council adopted an urgency ordinance that limits rent increases to no more than 7.99% over a 12 month period for multifamily rental units built before 1995. The moratorium ordinance also limits the basis on which property owners can serve termination notice termination of tenancy notices to enumerated reasons of just cause for a 65 day period. The urgency ordinance terminates on January 9th, 2016 or when legislation is adopted that replaces the urgency ordinance, whichever comes first. One of the primary reasons that the urgency ordinance was adopted was to provide stability in the rental market, while staff drafted legislation requested by the City Council to provide additional renter protections, including mediation, rent stabilization, relocation benefits and eviction protections. Several council members at the time the ordinance was adopted expressed their desire to maintain the status quo regarding tenancy and current rents. As noted, the ordinance currently provides 12 reasons that a property owner can serve a notice to terminate a tenancy ranging from 90 I'm sorry, ranging from nonpayment of rent to going out of the rental business. And those 12 enumerated reasons for eviction are included in Exhibit A of the ordinance. There is a there is a there is one of the one of the reasons that our is currently allowed for providing a notice of termination is to undertake substantial rehabilitation. That is number ten and exhibit A in the listing of the reasons for which you can serve a notice of termination of tenancy and that that Section ten and erm is going to call it up here on the Power Point. Section ten provides that a housing provider can serve a notice if the provider is proposing to do work on the unit that is valued at eight times the rent. Times the number of units for which the work is being proposed. And that the work will take more than 30 days to complete. And therefore the tenant needs to be terminated. So on on kind of reflection on this language, staff really feels and the council expressed concern about the fact that this language there's not a lot of process that's included in in this reason for notice of termination. There is there is no discussion about who determines that the value of the work is eight times the monthly rent, that the work will take at least 30 days to be completed, that whether or not building permits should be pulled before termination notices are are served. So given that there is ambiguity in this language and that there is not a lot of process that's been been outlined. Staff is recommending that that this Section ten, one of the 12 reasons that this this section be deleted from the ordinance and that we adopt that the council adopt an amended urgency ordinance, and that Section ten would be essentially listed as intentionally omitted. And the other thing that staff is proposing relative to Section ten is that for any notices that have been served. For substantial rehab, that those notices served between November 5th and December one, that those notices be deemed null and void and no longer in effect. And the removal of this provision is for the 65 day period that this ordinance is in effect. So that is one of the recommendations we have this evening for the Council. And then additional direction that was provided to staff was for staff to go through and look at the other 11 reasons that are provided for just cause of action under our ordinance. And if I could ask four for Exhibit A, Section five. There is another section of another basis on which just cause eviction notices can be served. And once again, staff feels like this provision of is perhaps also not as clearly drafted as it could have been and not as well informed by way of process. There is not we're not clear about how notice should be given and to whom notice should be given. And we did. I just want to say that we when we were drafting this ordinance for counsel's consideration, we took a look at ordinances in other jurisdictions and we focused in particular. And this is something that we often do because we want to make sure where we're really incorporating best practices when we recommend policy actions for the Council. And we were looking at the Richmond's ordinance. They were the most recent ordinance that was being looked at by by a local jurisdiction in the Bay Area. And we feel like this this may have been a provision that met some of the specific needs of the Richmond community, but we feel is maybe less less directly related to Alameda current situation. And so we just think because we don't want to trigger any unintended consequences in the next, you know, remaining month or so that we have on the moratorium, we would recommend that the council delete this section, too. And once again, we would if the Council wants to do that, we would replace number five this language with intentionally omitted. That would be the change that we would make. So that concludes my staff report and I am happy to answer any questions. Any clarifying questions from council. Then proceed with our speakers. Crystal Osorio and I'm going to name three at a time. J. Mariah I think it's f e r i. H it looks like than Aaron Subito. And you each have 3 minutes. Hello. My name is Krystal. I live in the Bayview Apartments and I'm also a student. And so now not only baby apartments are affected by this, but also other apartments here in Alameda. US renters make up almost half of the population in Alameda. Therefore, our rights deserve to be protected. If you could state. Your name when you speak. I'm Aaron Subito and I stand in solidarity with those who are affected by the evictions on Bayview Apartment. As a citizen, as a resident of Alameda myself, I can definitely see how gentrification it affects not just coming from San Francisco. It comes from San Francisco to Oakland's Alameda and a town where I've been spending 17 years of living and growing up in. I may not be living in the same apartment complex as Bayview, but who knows? This might be happening to my own family and that scares me and I don't want that to happen. And so we need to put some importance on rent control, not just we just do it now, not later. Now. And good evening. My name is. Jeffrey and like them, I am also a senior. Here at I'm a senior at Indiana High School. Now, the reason I'm here today is I want to show my support for not only for myself, but many of the people here as well, because this whole day I've been going around to several classes in my school to inform students about what's going on at the Bayview Apartments . To explain the increase in gentrification that's. Going on here in Alameda. There are 33 families living there, 33 families that have been living there for years. It's extremely. Difficult. To find affordable places to live. Nowadays. And now that they finally have a place that they can call home, they're being evicted. Now, as I spoke in these classes, every student gave me the same reaction of disbelief. They couldn't believe that this. Was going on, especially in their own communities. Some of these students live in these apartments. They have friends that live in these apartments and they have family that goes that lives there. Now to show. How much we support for this. To pass. I would like all the national students to stand up to show that we are supporting for this ordinance to pass. We have all gathered. Here today because. We don't want these families to lose their homes. It's the it's it's the it's it's getting Christmas. You don't want them to lose their homes. This. I just really I don't have any words for really what's going on. And we are here to show that we are here with these renters. If if a landlord wants to evict somebody, they better have a justifiable reason they cannot evict them. Just so we could let gentrification grow here in Alameda. And it's not just me. Every single one of these students that. Are standing up. They have family that lives here. And who knows, they could be targeted next. And we don't want that to happen. So, please, if you can pass this ordinance, you can stand with us and keep these homes. Thank you. And I. I counted approximately 60. If you have a different number, please let the clerk know before you leave. God. Thank you. Also, there are some who cannot make it today, but they're also either out there or spreading the word. Thank you very much. Sammy Gutierrez. Jimmy. When. Barney Duncan. But. It. Well, I thought you'll have my back. What? Okay. Yeah. But everybody goes, okay, I'm gonna start talking because I know we all want to get out here on time. My name's Sammy Gutierrez, and I am a counselor and civic engagement coordinator with Filipino Advocates for Justice. And I work with many of these students, and I work with students who live at the Bayview Apartments and. Bang. Okay. These are all the folks who are with us. This is their community. They are the folks who are living here. They. They're the families, the children who are living here. They are the friends. This is their community we represent. And so now we represent Bayview. We represent Alameda. We represent. And so now and we also represent by any hand, youth group. Bayanihan is a word in Tagalog. That means essentially the the community is going to work together in order to get something done. Here. We are here in order to protect these families and make sure that this ordinance is passed. We want you to see how how many folks support them. And we are asking you. To join us in that spirit of Bayanihan and pass the ordinance to protect these families. So we thank you for that. Jimmy Nguyen. Yes. Hi, everybody. My name is Jimmy Nguyen. I am a. My family rents a home here. Now, Amita and I. I just want to tell my own personal experience. I'm in a house with five boys. It's kind of, like, keeps you on your toes, but, I mean, it's. Telling them that we will be having to move away from the house that we've been in for all my life. It's is just so heartbreaking, you know? Sorry. It's super. Even taking a speaker. Every night. They tell me, are we going to stay in this house tomorrow? Don't. Just hear them say that. I usually don't cry. This is a little crazy. Just my mom works every single day from 8 to 8. I barely see her at home. And knowing that her her working is not enough to keep us here in this beautiful community where everybody here is a friend. We all. We make of this community as being diverse and just. Oui, oui, oui, oui. Just give this eccentricity to Alameda and the people there being displaced. We can't find homes anywhere else near here. It's so beautiful here. I've been here all my life, and I just. I don't want to change. Neither will it be for my brothers either. Please pass on its thank you. Annie Duncan. And then Dwayne Moles and then Michael John Torres. Hello, Mayor. Hello. City Council. I know. Most of. You and I've been. Up for 70 Central helping them. I've got to know many of them. It's terrible. To find out, especially at Christmas and. Thanksgiving. That you're getting kicked out of your. House. And now Christmas is almost over. Where are they going to go? Are we going to have tent cities here in Alameda like they have in Oakland? Because right now we have something called the fields and that's where a lot of them are staying. Not the people from 470 Central. The other people that have got evicted. And it's right next to the trailer where you get from the food bank. There's a lot of people. Living there in tents. In this cold. Weather with babies, with children. So, Mel, I'm looking to you. To make a decision. Because you're number one up there. So you've got to let these people know. What's going on? You have to know you've been a teacher, so you know what these kids are going through. Don't let them go. Through it any longer. I mean, they're stressed out as it is. Let's get something done about these rent increases. Ask the landlords to pay their own. Rent and maybe that'll help. Okay. Good evening, Mayor. City Council members. My name is Dwayne Moles. Here specifically to ask you to change the language in the emergency ordinance. And that is the Speaker of the House. Yep. Yep. People live through remodels all the time. I think. You could ask any number of people in this town. I owned I owned a house at 1905, Craftsman Cottage here in town for the better part of a decade. And, you know, remodel floors and kitchens and bathrooms and all that stuff. And, you know, I didn't need to be. I didn't need to affect myself. So what is it we're talking about here? We're talking about efficiency. Versus family stability. That's really what we're talking about, this issue. Can we do it cheaper if we kick everyone out? Versus I. We let the families stay. And this city in particular. As values, as values that it expresses through ordinances and through its regulations. We do it all the time where we say efficiency isn't the guidance for everything. That same cottage. I was putting in new windows at these really cheap, terrible aluminum side sliders was not period. And you know what? I could replace those with the cheapest possible option there. But now our city says, you know, we value we value our architectural heritage. So you know what? You need to actually go back. You need to put something in that's not the cheapest option available, not the most efficient version available, but something that represents this part that we value in our city architectural heritage. I agree with that. I'm glad that the city has that. I would argue in this situation, family stability. Stability of all the people you've seen come up here is a value that this community has that outweighs any of these efficiencies that you get when you evict people. We're talking about the ability to come in and do a little renovation here and there. We're not talking about you know, there's already stuff for demolition, demolition, health and safety. Those are the other items. So, you know, I would just ask that you give the people that live in the buildings the same kind of protections that we give the actual buildings in this town. And I think this is this is this is a value that this town has that applies not just to this little raw. But the ordinances that we're looking forward to next month and continuing in the city. Thank you so much for your work so far. Thank you. So I have only three more speakers Philips, Michael, John Torres, Eric Strimling, and then John Klein. If there's anyone else that wants to speak on this issue, please turn in your slip. Thank you. Honorable Patricia Spencer Mayor, Honorable Frank Matter, U.S. Vice Mayor, Notable Members of the City Council. Michael John Tory, former member of the Board of Housing Commission of the City of Alameda. I know, as you know, some time ago, another group of people came with a situation similar to this back, I guess, 2003, 2004, I think they were the harbor and the Tenant Association Group that came because some landlords wanted to remodel their units and they were evicting units, evicting tenants too fast and not giving their notice. Seems to me like the same thing is happening from what I've been reading with the Bayview. Apartments that tenants are being rushed out because they want to do some remodeling. And I can't argue with remodeling, but I think that tenants should have been given a fair notice, a warning that that was going to happen so that they would be able to find another place to stay without having all this turmoil. And I thought that you, Mr. Vice Mayor, and Tony de Soto had worked out that that issue and came up with a policy that went into the the the charter that would allow for tenants to have a fair amount of time to move out and find another place without being impacted by a landlord so quickly because they want to remodel. Thank you. Thank you. Eric Strimling and then John Klein. Good evening. There's nothing that I can say that it would be anything close to as powerful as these youth coming up and speaking to you. I think that what's at stake here is a stable Alameda community. What's at stake here is the right. Of an Alameda to live in their. Home securely. How many want to live under a 60 day? You can you can be forced to move. I'd like to point out to you, I strongly support this ordinance. But it only is going to last for another 35 days. I ask you, make it permanent. Make the eviction ban a permanent law in Alameda. We can adjust it. You're adjusting it now as you find the faults. You'll adjust them. But how do you ask these kids and not know if they're going to stay in school for the rest of the year? Every year of their lives. How do they know, not know if they can go on the Boy Scout camping trip because they may not live in town anymore by the time it actually happens. I didn't live like that. When I was a kid, I was thrown out of an apartment because the landlord wanted to remodel. They changed the carpets and painted the walls. That was the remodel. That was in Santa monica. Santa monica passed a very successful rent control model. And I'd like you to look at it. I'd like you to really consider making it the law of this city. But please make the eviction ban, at a minimum, the permanent law of the city. Thank you. And our last speaker on this item, John Kline. Managed John Combs Alma to Renner's coalition. I can't add much. Thank you for having the political will to back up and make this change. It's obvious that it was it's needed and we look forward to doing something similar with in the long term and permanent. You've seen all the students. I want everybody else that's here for in support of the change to stand up. Everybody else stand up for all of us. You see all the students over there. But then you have all of these people in support as well. So we're going to keep coming back until you get it right. You got it right. You're getting it right. And so. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Comments from Council. Nebraska. I'm ready to make a motion, but I will just insert that in the last. Well, since we met before and passed the emergency ordinance, I've had an opportunity to talk to a lot of landlords in this town, especially the smaller property owners, a number of property managers, all of whom were horrified by what the new owner of 470 Central did to serve a notice notices of eviction on all the tenants at 470 Central, the very day after we met in a special meeting to consider the emergency moratorium. So and what I heard from them is that they would never have done the sort of thing he did, the timing , the way it was done. Some of them are already paying relocation assistance to tenants when there is a reason, a legitimate reason that they need to vacate. And so certainly what this experience has done for the council, I think, at least for me, is to help inform us and staff of the kinds of measures we want to make sure are incorporated into an ordinance that we come back and vote on in January when this moratorium is up. And and I will say, I also met with the the owner of 470 Central Avenue and, you know, had a discussion about the way I wish things would have happened. But this is an opportunity for the council to step in, to add a protection that we now realize is needed. And so with that, I would like to move that. We adopt an urgency ordinance to remove certain specified grounds for just cause evictions by amending. Ordinance number three went for, oh, an emergency ordinance of the city of Alameda imposing within the city of Alameda a temporary 65 day moratorium on certain residential rent increases and evictions from all residential units except for just cause evictions. And specifically, the two amendments we were making were to remove paragraph ten, which is the evictions for for doing renovations and paragraph five, which has to do with tenants who have not. Executed a new written agreement with the housing provider. I'll second that, but would also like to talk in my turn. All right. And also, I think Steph suggested that in regards to paragraph five, that we substitute language. And do you want to say what that was? So just to to be clear on the motion, you do have and they are on the website as well. You do have proposed ordinances that are red line showing the amended provisions which have some, whereas is and also address in the body of the ordinance itself, the fact that the notices for rehabilitation evictions would be null and void if they were issued between November 5th and December one, which is today's date. So that is on the website in there and then on Exhibit A, which is part and parcel of the ordinance. There are two sections within Exhibit A that are just cause evictions. One being Section five and one being Section ten. And each of those would be the language that is in there now would be struck. And instead, what would appear in. The ordinance is that that section was intentionally omitted. And that is what I believe the motion is and seconded. It is indeed. Thank you. Councilmember Ashcroft, did you have any other comments? Not at this time. Vice Mayor and I just wanted to note that. Our intention in putting the moratorium in place on November 4th. My understanding of these amendments are to emphasize the intent that we had, that during this moratorium period, we would freeze no fault evictions. That would provide some sort of protection while we were while staff was putting together ordinance for our consideration on January 5th as is that meet the Skull City attorney. That is correct. Thank you. A number. You. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I think the one speaker I think put it best that this represents our values. I can't remember which speaker it was, but for me the value is and this should be the underlying premise of anything we do here to protect tenants is that. Everyone has a right to stay in their home. I mean, that should be the number one value. That should be the number one goal of any protection. Now, I understand that there's sometimes when that's not always possible. But if you pay your rent, if you're not a nuisance, if you're not committing criminal activity, you basically should be able to stay in your home. I mean that to me and as staff is drafting our new ordinances. To me, that should be the underlying premise behind all of those ordinances. So that was our intent earlier this month when we met. I mean, our intent was has the vice mayor said to put a freeze on these unjust evictions and give staff a time to draft an ordinance that we could all have some consensus on? You know. Without talking too much about what happened in the last not this close session, but the last one. I've never seen this council so united as we were in that meeting, so I think bravo to our council for being united. And when I look at this, I'm hoping that staff comes back with a comprehensive set of tenant protections and not a menu where we can pick and choose. Because if you do that, then it's like the Jenga game, you know, you pull one out. I don't like some things. Another council member doesn't like something, and then before you know it, you pull enough things out, it collapses and we don't end up with reasonable tenant protection. So I'm hoping to see that when it comes back. And again, you know, if we focus on making sure that we keep people in their homes, you know, we passed this ordinance. The vice mayor said it was our intent to do freeze the status quo, to make sure that we could protect tenants. And I'd like to see that we protect tenants above and beyond Christmastime and above and beyond this moratorium, because this is not something that's going to go away. And on January 11th, when the moratorium expires and and the reason I do that is I don't particularly care for this term, but now it's it's being used housing provider . But the critical part of housing provider is your housing provider. And housing to me is one of the most critical needs now on food, shelter, clothing. And that's where we have to come down. When we come down on a policy, in my mind, on the side of the tenants, on the side of protecting people's right to live in quiet enjoyment in their home, it doesn't matter whether their home is technically owned by somebody else or it's owned by them, they should have the right to quiet enjoyment and be able to not worry not only at Christmas time, but all year round that they're not going to be evicted. So as we go forward, you know, we've we've listened and we've, you know, we've had reasonable landlords come up here and say, let us police ourselves. And I think that has worked with other reasonable landlords. But despite letting them police themselves, we've had double digit ten, 20, 25% increases and we've had these mass unjust evictions. And then we've been we've been asked to, well, let's just try enhanced mediation. Well, in my mind, you know, mediation is you get in a room and you figure out how much you're going to pay so I can leave my building or leave my unit. And to me, that does not meet my fundamental goal, which is to keep as many people in their houses as possible. So I hope as we go forward and we find ways to structure our ordinance, you know, whether it it it provides temporary relocation and requires that tenants are allowed to come back in their homes because basically these are their homes. I'd like to make sure that we we protect that right of tenants to be able to stay in their homes, even if they do have some type of renovations. Because, you know, face it, folks, we have we don't have any rental units that are under or under 40 years old here in town. So some of them will require some type of renovation. But let's find a way to do that in a way where we don't kick people out. I'm ready. Well, thank you very much. Thank you very much to all the youth who had come out this evening. I know this is a busy time and like many of you, you want to be with your families in your homes. But let us make sure to say that when the property owners serve the eviction notices to the 33 families, they not only punched their families in the gut, but they punished all of Alameda as well. And rest assured that in city hall you have a force that has awakening that will fight on behalf of the residents here to do whatever we can to make sure that the residents at 470 stay there. What that means in the long term is that we have to do new types of legislation and talent that has never been in place, such as just cause evictions. We have to look. We have to implement a just cause eviction in the city of Alameda. It has to be done in the immediate term. We have to modify the ordinance along the lines that we're talking about. So stay tuned. The fight is just beginning, and it's not just about a470. It's not just about this or that apartment. It's about the character of all of Alameda, not just the west end of town, as socio economically diverse as it is, but it's also all all of Alameda is at risk. And so we need to do new things that we have not done before. We need to look at a strengthened just cause of action so that you can only get evicted if you're if you haven't paid your rent, if you've done some kind of crime and then some kind of damages. We also have to look at strengthening the rent review advisory committee process on the table. For some on the table for some is rent control. You know, there are different models to help protect the residents. But for some, that that is on the table. Everything is on the table now because the force has awakened. We as your five representatives of our city council, we are doing our best to represent the city because we know that the city is behind us in being behind you. Thank you. I want to thank staff for bringing this back at this time. I think it was critical that it be returned to us. I think what you're hearing is that council is united behind this. This is a serious problem. From my perspective, I think we all got together and we had a meeting where we had a huge turnout of people that want to speak on November 4th. We were here until 130 in the morning and we made a decision. And then the next day we hear from tenants that have received eviction notices. That was a problem. It was disappointing to me. We have many landlords in our town who are excellent landlords, who really do care about our community, who are part of the fabric of our community. There are many that do not raise rents or have reasonable rent increases. Many with long term tenants. At this point, we have a few that I call outliers that don't really seem to get the message. Which is why we're back today. To clarify the message to me, the intent. My intent was that we really would give everyone what I call time to breathe. We have all known people that have been receiving these notices, sometimes rent increases that they can't afford that make it so that they cannot continue to reside here in town. We also know many that have received these notices, 60 day notices to vacate. We know families. We have students that are being forced to find new homes outside of the community. Many and and I appreciate having so many students from Encino here today. I think it's very important that students be part of the government process. It's absolutely important that we hear your voice as you are impacted by these decision. So thank you for coming out tonight. Moving forward, I continue to hope that we will be able to work together as a community and that these outliers will get the message . I really want to thank all our meetings for working with all of the landlords and trying to share with them. But we think is important what I'm going to call the Alameda Way. So thank you for coming out. Thank you for continuing your work, your public work, as well as the work that's happening behind the scenes to reign in what I'm going to call reining in these these outlier landlords, of which the majority of our landlords are not. Yes. Member Ashcraft thank and I did just want to add while you were speaking Madumere, it occurs to me that you and I and I think Councilmember Desai just said that everything is on the table. And I do think that this council has some serious challenges before it going forward, not just with crafting the right ordinance that gives protection to our renters and also takes into account the needs of landlords. Because as was also noted, we have aging housing stock in this in this community, and there are legitimate needs to to renovate it. But there are better ways of going about it than the examples that we saw the day after a special meeting. But I think something this council is going to have to grapple with is it is supply and demand. And when we have the opportunity to add to our housing stock and especially some multifamily of which has been noted, we have it built with a few exceptions for more than 40 years. We've got to look at doing that and finding out the best way to do it, address traffic at the same time. But we we can't you know, there have to be a lot of tools in our toolkit going forward that we know what we have to do between now and January. And I also want to commend our staff. We have thrown a lot at them in the last couple of weeks, months, and they've got even more to do. But they're doing a great job for all of us and all of you. So thank you, staff. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. I don't believe I use the term. Everything is on the table. That was Councilmember Davis. All right. Thank you for clarifying that. And with that being said, no other comments by council. I'll call the question. All those in favor. I oppose abstentions. Motion carries unanimously. And I'm going to call for a short recess. Thank you. Thank you. Then. Thank you very much. If you can take your seats. And we have item six. See?