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<br /> Page 1 of 2 <br /> <br />November 25, 2024 <br />Mayor Jeff Gee and City Council <br />Redwood City City Council <br />1017 Middlefield Road <br />Redwood City, CA 94063 <br /> <br />Re: November 25 City Council Agenda Item #7A City Council Referral: Future <br />consideration of an ordinance restricting the use of City resources to assist or <br />cooperate with immigration authorities. <br /> <br /> <br />Mayor Gee and Redwood City City Council: <br />The California Apartment Association (CAA) is the largest statewide trade organization representing <br />rental housing providers and operators. Our membership is diverse; it encompasses owners of single <br />unit rentals as well as owners of multi-unit apartment communities providing safe, quality rental <br />homes for families in San Mateo County. CAA is proud to serve as a resource for local jurisdictions in <br />the county on matters related to rental housing and to provide information on current laws that <br />govern rental housing locally and statewide. <br />CAA submits this letter in response to Councilmember Sturken’s proposal to enact an ordinance <br />restricting the use of city resources to assist or cooperate with immigration authorities. <br />In page two of the staff report, Councilmember Sturken provides the following statement: <br />“ … leaders with Faith in Action have shared with me that there have been multiple accounts <br />of landlords claiming they will call Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) on their <br />tenants when they raise concerns about their rent or the habitability of their homes.” <br /> <br />This action is highly illegal and a reprehensible practice. <br /> <br />The situation described above would likely be considered a discriminatory practice in violation of the <br />Fair Employment and Housing Act as a form of harassment based on race, ancestry, and/or national <br />origin. See Gov. Code 12955(a). <br /> <br />Specifically, Civil Code 51, which is the Unruh Civil Rights Act, makes it illegal to discriminate based <br />on immigration status. It would likely be considered discrimination based on immigration status for <br />a housing provider to threaten to report a renter to ICE if they raised concerns about <br />rent/habitability (because presumably such threats are not made to tenants not perceived to be <br />undocumented). <br /> <br />Statewide, the California State Legislature adopted a law that is specifically aimed at the type of <br />conduct described in Councilmember Sturken’s statement.