Recommendation to declare ordinance amending the Long Beach Municipal Code by adding Chapter 8.102 to temporarily prohibit the termination of lawful residential tenancies by demolition and/or “substantial remodel” no-fault notices through December 31, 2021; declaring the urgency thereof; and declaring that this ordinance shall take effect immediately, read and adopt as read. (Citywide) (Emergency Ordinance No. ORD-21-0022)
Thank you. We're going to hear item 30, please, which is the substantial remodel. Report. From city attorney recommendation to declared ordinance amending the Long Beach Municipal Code relating to termination of tenancies due to substantial remodel and declaring the urgency thereof. Read the first time and lead over the next regular meeting of the City Council for Final Reading Citywide. I need a motion, please. I need a second. Thank you. We're going to do public comment first, please. Kathryn DOMA. Abraham Zavala. Tamara Romero. Karen Oakey. Nathan. Can you please line up at the podium? My name is. My name is Kate, the OMA. I appreciate all the hard work you've done on this ordinance, but it does not protect those of us most immediately at risk. I have communicated to you all my arguments countering the vested rights issue upon which any liability concerns are based. I am convinced by current law and precedent that the Council has the right to revoke permits already issued to remodel occupied units. But I'm not asking you to revoke the permits. I do request that you strikethrough the words quote on or after July six, 2021, and quote on page three ly 19 of the proposed ordinance, and allow all tenants at current risk of eviction for substantial remodel to be protected through December 31st. Removing the restriction and extending protections to all tenants is no more of a liability risk than the current temporary moratoriums in effect. This ordinance does not include the permanent prohibition proposed to replace it after a renovation administration program can be created. So the date restriction only affects the temporary moratorium. Removing it would give council staff and stakeholders five months to research and negotiate what terms may or may not be legally applied to existing permit holders under a new renovation administration. You have the ability to make that edit and proceed with passing the remaining ordinance today without creating an irrevocable situation that will put Long Beach families in the streets on December 1st, right in time for the holidays. Thank you. Good evening, council members. So for my time, I'm going to read Jesse Alcala, a tenant that is with Libra who who's in District six. I want to read his statement. He had to leave to feed his daughters. Also had a issue with the baby sitter. But I read it nonetheless. So says, good evening. My name is Jesse Alcala. I am a tenant in District six. I am a single parent raising daughters. I work in the food service industry. I've been on the front line during the pandemic to the present. Tonight, I want to urge councilmembers to adopt item 30 tenants like myself. Thank you for voting on this item last week. However. Council must think about their decision to exclude tenants with existing sub remodel notices. Many families will be evicted if you do not take action in some way. I implore you to make the choice tonight to protect all tenants, especially the ones with existing notices. Thank you. Hi. Long Beach City Council and Long Beach City Attorney. My name is Tamara Romero and I am a District two resident and organizer with Long Beach Tenants Union. I'm here today to demand that a retroactive eviction moratorium for tenants who received evictions are unlawful. Detainers through the substantial remodel loophole be amended to be included in the emergency ordinance that will be voted on today with an amendment to create the establishment of a renovation administration program. Thank you. Yeah. 10 million miles. Paisley or Velasco? Aurelia Ortega. Can you please line up? Hi, I'm Karen. I am a 40 year resident of Long Beach. I've lived in nine different neighborhoods. I've been a renter for these 40 years. I'm so happy that Mr. Mayor and his team, council members, that you are considering passing this ordinance. But the only question that I have, the only concern that I have is line in my notes is, uh, page three. Line nine. Um, regarding the, the beginning of. Well, let me refer to Kate. She said that she's look, she's concerned about July 6th through the December 20, December 31st. I'm sorry. I'm very nervous. That would that would really put people who have already been given eviction notices in a very bad situation. You've done a lot to continue to maintain and and hold forth low income housing. I know five other residents, all of which are are targeted for eviction as well, and they're all disabled. I think that you really need to pull that line from the ordinance. But the audience is fabulous. It's really terrific. It's going to help a lot of people. But I think you need to give temporary protection to people who are presently under eviction for this kind of some this kind of remodel. Thank you for your time. Hello. I'm here to read for Aurelio Ortega, who just left to care for her children. Hello. My name is Aurelia Ortega of District six with the Orange Resistance. I am a mother of four, and I'm here to ask you all to support a retroactive moratorium for substantial remodel evictions. We know that the city attorney's legal opinion has all the power to really protect us. And we hope that you all go against that legal opinion that you were told at the last. Council meeting and go with the legal. Opinions that many of your council officers have heard through other attorneys who really emphasize their work in protecting tenants. My son, my son's birthday was today and. We are here fighting to give him. Adequate housing and to show him to fight for his rights. So that he lives a dignified. Life. With respect. Thank you for. Supporting this item. When I started this atlas, you know, but I sold our last call. So de la résistance. Here they launch. What do you mean? My name is Ora Velasco and I am from the. Orange Resistance. Institute. Keep up with Alias confusing Nonis. Hello, Connor. My. May or may not want a moratorium. Raised to the rated R era. There's a long haul by your grandmother like consistency in the reformer. I am here to. Ask you, please. And to help us to stop these evictions due to these and remodel the remodeling situation. That is happening right now. And regarding the moratorium. And either they let you that they they didn't bother it for their part. But they were able to harness their necesitamos game status. The unfair emails or Armageddon scare or near ongoing concerns of seniors. The city attorney. It has a lot of power, all the whole power to protect us. But we need you. We need your. Faith in order to protect us from your officers. Not nonsense opinions. Legally, there, you're not protecting the larger than our guy, though they must feel that. And then you had to have faith in the attorneys that are united working for us because their opinions, their legal opinions are the ones that are protecting. Us from the attorneys, from the city. Instead of democracy and importantly, pornography. We're doing this for our own rights and for our own children. Francis. Thank you. Miles Hensley. Alias Sheik. Jesse. Alcala. Marlene Alvarado. Please line up the podium. Good evening. I'm speaking today in solidarity with tenants of Long Beach, California, who are facing violent eviction because of the substantial remodel loophole in the city's just cause eviction ordinance. As drafted, the emergency ordinance for substantial remodel reform does not include a retroactive eviction moratorium. The exclusion of a retroactive moratorium leaves many families who have received eviction notices and unlawful detainers vulnerable to the violence of eviction. The Council should motion to amend the ordinance to extend the moratorium back to the initial passage of the Just Cause Eviction ordinance. The city possesses vastly greater resources than the tenants in receipt of eviction notices and unlawful detainers and should expend these resources in defense of working families. The recommendation to not include a retroactive moratorium in this emergency ordinance comes from the office of Charles Parkin, who, in the one opposed ran for office in 2014, received thousands of dollars from developers and real estate management companies due to this. I perceive that we need to question the city attorney's capacity to provide an impartial recommendation regarding a retroactive moratorium. You need a marshall City resources to protect hundreds of families from eviction. So motion to amend the ordinance to include a retroactive moratorium. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Aliya Sheikh, and I'm a community organizer with L.A. Voice. We are a multiracial, multi-faith organization spanning dozens of congregations throughout Los Angeles County, including several here in Long Beach. People of faith in our community are calling on you to close the substantial remodel loophole that landlords have exploited to begin eviction proceedings upon tenants exacerbating the housing crisis. We need a retroactive moratorium so that no families are pushed out of their homes. We hope that you all make the right decision and stand on the side of renters. Thank you. Jose Alcala, Marlon Alvarado and Karen Harper. My name is really Novato. I'm with Democratic Socialists of America. And let me show you a piece that worked. And I used to be an ESL teacher and I remember once I thought we were studying and if you teach, it's called survival English and we were coming upon a renters. So I told them, I told my spouse they had a certain amount of rights, legal rights. So I this one woman said, well, my house is infested with cockroaches and it is a lot of repairs. I said, Well, you have the legal right to do this. So she went and she told her landlord that she could that she had the right to do this. Well, he fixed it all up and increased her rent and she couldn't afford it. And granted, this is not exactly what is happened with the new law. They can't get people out, but it's still the same kind of human tragedy that's happening with this restriction. I really highly recommend that you extend the more the moratorium and look at the human beings that are suffering, who are hard working people because I taught them, thank you. My name is Karen Harper. Greetings to the mayor and the council people. I'm with the Long Beach Area Peace Network, a coalition of groups working on social, economic, environmental justice. And we also are advocating for figuring out a way to prevent evictions of those folks that had the remodel permits. But the work has not begun. Please figure out a way to protect them, too. Thank you so much for your work. We're really impressed with this ordinance and what it will do to protect people. Thank you. That concludes public comment. Thank you. There's a motion in a second. Councilman Allen, any comments? I yes. Just real quickly, I just want to say thank you to all the folks and for all your comments and your support with this item. I also want to thank the staff and the city attorney for their work on this and for everyone's engagement throughout this process. I know we have we're concerned throughout the process about the residents who have received eviction notices under previously issued permits. And last week, I know that we all ask in the motion for the city staff to report back on what the city can do to support these residents. So, Mr. Modica, I do have a question for you. Do you know when we can expect to have that report back? I will answer that. Good evening. Councilmember Allen, members of the council. So that initial report back will be within 30 days of your first hearing, which was a week ago. And then I just want you and the members of the public to know, you know, we were sending out several million dollars of rental assistance. So that is one program. But we also participate in the county's stay housed L.A. program, which provides eviction defense services to tenants. And that program is available to anyone who received an eviction notice. And there is a website stay housed, L-A, which is where you sign up for that program. So we'll be putting that and some other information in the report back. But that is a service that's available immediately to those that may have received a notice. Additionally, if it's other landlord tenant issues, repairs not being made, a harassment, other issues. And we have a contract with the Long Beach Fair Housing Foundation. And those services are available today and always to any tenants that may be in in those situations. And we'll be putting that and more in that report back, which will be in the next 20 days or so. Thank you very much. I do appreciate that. Appreciate all the efforts. I know that that's really important. I also really quickly want to recognize Councilwoman Sorrow for her partnership and for all the Cosigners and colleagues that supported this last week. The ordinance we see today is the first step in addressing the systematic issue. And I'm really proud of the unanimous support that was received on this item. And I look forward to the results of stakeholder meetings and to seeing the recommendations. Thank you very much. Thank you. Compliments are. Yeah. I just want to add on to the thanks to the organizers, advocates and tenants for sharing your stories and I think working so hard to ensure that tenant rights are protected. And also the city attorney, as well as development services for all your help, and especially so Councilmember Allen's leadership, steadfast leadership and hard work on the item as well as the cosigners for supporting. Thank you. Thank you. There is a motion or a second. Please cast your vote. This item requires two votes. Yes, this. Is the first one. The first vote will be on the urgency and the second vote will be on the ordinance. Thank you. Come on, Mango. Motion carries eight zero. Thank you. And the second. Your motion in a second, please. Also for the second vote. Kevin Rushing the second for that vote. And please cast your vote on that one. Motion carries eight zero. Great. Thank you very much. That concludes item 30. We are now going to go back to the regular agenda and we will do item 35 next.