Laserfiche WebLink
1 <br />MGR-Victor Gaitan <br />From:rwc4rent <rwc4rent@gmail.com> <br />Sent:Friday, April 24, 2026 4:10 PM <br />To:Housing rwc <br />Subject:[Alert. Email sent from outside the United States.] TPO Regulations and Guidelines <br />Comments <br />Date: April 24, 2026 <br />To the Redwood City Housing Department and City Council, <br />Thank you for the opportunity to share our concerns with thisTPO that I hadn’t heard about until they had <br />the meetings late last year. I am curious to know how much input Landlords, Property Owners, and <br />Property Managers had on this ordinance. <br />I am a property manager who represents local "mom-and-pop" housing providers in Redwood City. My <br />clients and I take great pride in our relationships with our tenants, the longest of whom have resided in <br />our properties for 17 to 20 years. However, the current draft of the TPO creates significant operational <br />and financial burdens that threaten our ability to continue providing up to date and competitive housing <br />for the community. <br />1. Unintended Consequences of Rent Cap Restrictions <br />We have operated on a foundation of mutual respect, often going seven years or longer without a <br />rent increase to support our long-term tenants. The TPO, as currently drafted, makes such <br />benevolence a liability. By removing the ability for a landlord to ever 'catch up' with surging <br />operational and capital costs, the City is leaving us with no choice but to implement maximum <br />allowable increases every single year just to protect the long-term costs and viability of the property. <br />This ordinance effectively ends the era of the 'benevolent landlord' in Redwood City." <br /> <br />2. Right to Return Rent Levels & Capital Improvement Disincentives The requirement to offer a <br />unit back at the original rent (plus only the state-allowed 5% + CPI) after a "substantial remodel" is <br />financially unsustainable. <br /> The Reality of Costs: Essential infrastructure repairs—such as a $50,000 sewer line replacement <br />along with over $3,000+ permit fees plus bonds—are direct capital expenses that rent cannot <br />cover in a single year. The high costs of labor for remodeling a bathroom, kitchen and replacing or <br />upgrading a HVAC unit are significant cost burdens that cannot be recovered or sustained with <br />the restrictions of the TPO. <br /> With this ordinance, landlords are essentially forced to operate "in the red," which will lead to <br />the deterioration of older housing stock as owners can no longer afford necessary structural or <br />energy-efficiency upgrades. <br /> You don't often get email from rwc4rent@gmail.com. Learn why this is important <br />8.A. - Page 82 of 85 <br />340