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Page 1 of 15 <br />City of Redwood City 1017 Middlefield Road, Redwood City, CA. 94063 Tel: 650-780-7000 www.redwoodcity.org <br />STAFF REPORT <br /> To the Honorable Mayor and City Council <br />From the City Manager <br />DATE: October 13, 2025 <br />SUBJECT <br />Ordinance adopting Tenant Protections including Relocation Assistance and Minimum Lease Terms <br />RECOMMENDATION <br />Waive the first reading and introduce an ordinance (Attachment A) repealing Chapter 42 (Relocation <br />Assistance) and Chapter 42a (Minimum Lease Term) of the Redwood City Code and replacing with Chapter <br />42 (Tenant Protection Ordinance) of the Redwood City Code. <br />STRATEGIC PLAN GUIDING PRINCIPLE <br />Housing <br />BACKGROUND <br />In 2018, in an effort to mitigate the causes and impacts of displacement, the City adopted two local <br />ordinances — Relocation Assistance Ordinance (RAO) and Minimum Lease Terms Ordinance (MLTO). The <br />purpose of the RAO was to ease the financial burden for low-income families displaced due to no fault <br />evictions. The intent of the MLTO was to improve housing stability for tenants by encouraging longer lease <br />terms, as opposed to month-to-month leases that are less stable and vulnerable to monthly rent <br />increases. By contrast, a 12-month lease could reduce the stress and anxiety associated with uncertainty. <br />An initial assessment conducted in early 2020 revealed that the City’s two ordinances were not fully <br />implemented due to significant staff turnover in the City’s Housing Division and a complex implementation <br />process. In addition, an evaluation conducted in late 2020 revealed that the City’s RAO was pre-empted <br />by the California Tenant Protection Act of 2019 (TPA). The TPA requires a landlord to have a “just cause” <br />to terminate a tenancy, limits annual rent increases to no more than 5% plus the local change in the <br />Consumer Price Index (CPI), or 10% whichever is lower, and requires landlords to provide displaced <br />tenants with relocation assistance equal to one month of the tenant’s rent. Attachment C provides a <br />9.A. - Page 1 of 84 <br />106