AgdaPkt 2019-10-28 Joint SA PFA - Laserfiche WebLink

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CLK-Pamela Aguilar From: Tony Samara <wfasanmateo@gmail.com> Sent: Monday, October 28, 2019 1:02 PM To: GRP -City Council Subject: Support for urgency ordinance forjust cause and rent cap October 28, 2019 Dear Mayor Bain and City Council Members The Working Families Alliance of San Mateo County strongly urges the Council to adopt the urgency ordinance tonight forjust cause eviction protection and 9 % rent cap. The Working Families Alliance believes that safe, dignified and genuinely affordable housing is a basic human right and the cornerstone of strong communities. Housing policies must increase affordability, prevent displacement, and include regulation of rent increases and evictions. Long-term efforts must dedicate sufficient land and resources to produce, protect, and preserve affordable housing for all. On October 8, 2019, Governor Newsom signed into law The Tenant Protection Act of 2019 (AB 1482), legislation that will place an annual cap on rent increases and create new statewide standards for evictions. The law will take effect January 1, 2020. In the meantime, tenants are vulnerable to no-fault evictions and excessive rent increases. There is already evidence that Redwood City tenants have received excessive rent increases and no-fault eviction notices in rental units covered by Assembly Bill 1482. Some of these tenants, unable to pay the sudden rent hike, have been delivered 3 - day notices to vacate the premises for failure to pay the rent. Many more tenants will be finding themselves in this position for the coming months. Because of this, it is necessary for the City Council to consider a temporary moratorium on rent increases and no-fault evictions until January 1, 2020. Rent increases and no-fault evictions in anticipation of the law would defeat its intent and purpose. Furthermore, the aforementioned rent gouging and displacement would substantially impair Assembly Bill 1482's effective implementation. To protect neighbors and the community during the holidays, we encourage the City Council to consider an urgency ordinance that will cap annual rent increases and apply eviction standards in line with the Act's language and Costa -Hawkins state law on allowable rental units. The author Richard Rothstein made clear in his book, The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America and in his recent talk in the city of San Mateo, that segregation in the past was the result of government action at the federal, state, and local levels. Today, more and more research makes clear that the Bay Area is in the midst of a new era of residential segregation, as tenants in the regions's suburban communities are displaced from the places they call home. We must not allow historical racial and housing injustices to be repeated and passed on to yet another generation, and we are looking to you for leadership. We urge you to stand with the most vulnerable in our community and act today. Thank you and best regards, The Working Families Alliance