2.4 20-0228 Subject: Tenant Protection, Just Cause, & Rent Ordinance Amendments
From: City Attorney Parker, Councilmember Bas And Pro Tempore Kalb
Recommendation: Adopt An Ordinance Amending Chapter 8.22 Of The Oakland Municipal Code (Residential Rent Adjustments And Evictions) To (1) Limit The Maximum Rent Increase In Any One Year To Conform To State Law; (2) Make Failure To Pay Required Relocation Benefits An Affirmative Defense To Eviction; (3) Limit Late Fees; (4) Prohibit Unilaterally Imposed Changes To Terms Of Tenancy; (5) Add One-For-One Replacement Of Roommates To The Definition Of Housing Services; (6) Prohibit Eviction Based On Additional Occupants If Landlord Unreasonably Refused Tenant's Written Request To Add Occupant(S); And (7) Strengthen Tenants' Rights And Enforcement Of Tenants' Rights Under The Tenant Protection Ordinance [TITLE CHANGE]
I urge you to continue to strengthen tenant protections. Our residents are economically vulnerable and we need to treat housing in our communities as a human right.
As a district 1 resident, I urge you to support strengthening tenant protections during this time. Too many Oakland residents are already economically vulnerable, and the rates of homelessness have continued to skyrocket. Housing is a human right. The last thing we need is increased housing instability during a pandemic. Thank you.
I am a district 2 resident and I strongly support tenant protections. We need a plan to protect people from going homeless as a result of the pandemic or else we risk further infections, greater poverty, greater unrest, the list is endless. Help keep people in their homes.
My name is Rebecca Hom. I live in District 5, and I support extended tenant protections. During the coronavirus, lots of tenants are being harassed by their landlords. We need protections to keep tenants in their homes.
These changes need more clarification. The details are not clear. Housing providers need to maintain some tenant controls at their properties in order to insure the health and safety of their residents.
My name is Ada Palotai and I live in district 6. I urge you to IMMEDIATELY extend Oakland's eviction moratorium until the state of emergency is lifted. Experts warn of a tsunami of evictions due to COVID-19. Like the pandemic and police violence, communities of color will bear the brunt of the crisis. Housing keeps us safe, not the police. City Council must Defund OPD by adopting Kaplan/Bas's cuts of at least an additional 11.4M and reimagine public safety. They must also extend the Eviction Moratorium until at least the end of the local state of emergency, pass the Tenant Protection Upgrades, and protect workers by passing the Right to Recall ordinance.
I am a resident of District 1 and I strongly support this legislation. These basic protections are overdue and an important step in ensuring Oaklanders can stay in Oakland, especially in the midst of a pandemic.
These changes have not been thoroughly thought out and put the city of Oakland at risk for expensive litigation cost. There are many unintended outcomes that will result if passed.
My name is Constance Thomason. I live in district 3 and am an owner of a duplex and a senior citizen. I oppose this issue because this is not an emergency measure and you are treating it as such. If I don't know who is living in my upstairs unit and do not have emergency information who can I call if there is an emergency. If there is a health and safety measure and I am not allowed to take pictures how could I prove this issue. The City of Oakland just paid out 33 million dollars to the Ghost Ship ordeal. You have not well thought out this change and ought give it more consideration for health and safety sake plus what it will cost the tax payers. What are you thinking?
As a renter in D2 I strongly support this legislation. Renter protections are vital in a time of record unemployment, a raging pandemic, and exacerbating wealth inequality. We do not need to risk added pressure on already vulnerable communities, rising homelessness, evictions and displacement when we could do the *right* thing and keep renters safely housed, particularly during a public health emergency. Housing is healthcare.
As a resident of District 3, a renter, and the daughter of a landlord, I strongly support these measures to strengthen tenant protections. These protections are a long overdue check on renter exploitation in this community and more critical now than ever as we struggle to keep people in safe, reliable shelter during the pandemic.
I'm a District 1 resident, and I support this legislation. Please don't let housing instability exacerbate the economic and health crises we are already experiencing.
Many elderly and minority Oakland residents are struggling with COVID-19 and rely on rental income or will face displacement onto the streets. They are not outside corporations and bought a duplex or triplex and opted to invest in our local economy instead of putting money into the stock market. The TPO amendments are not well aimed and unfairly targets them -- they are shouldering a heavy burden. There is an ongoing eviction moratorium and Oakland has the strongest tenant protections across the country. There is no city policy that protects hard working, small Oakland housing providers from outside banks and displacement.
Grandma bought her building and she's looking at displacement by these policies.
Hard work and honesty matters.
I'm Holly Fincke in District 4. Each one of these upgrades is critical to keeping more people housed by protecting from evictions and helping people being able to pay their rent. Please take action and vote for this package. We must do everything to keep people housed and not choosing between food and housing.
I am a renter in district 1 and fully support this legislation. Many Oaklanders have already been made economically, socially, and medically vulnerable by the pandemic. Allowing for housing instability on top of all of that would be cruel and exacerbate the public health disaster.
I am a renter in District 3, West Oakland. Our household's ability to pay rent has been significantly impacted by the pandemic. Many of my neighbors rent from the same landlord and several of us cannot afford to pay rent due to the loss of income from the pandemic. As a group, we have tried to contact our landlord, Justin Wallway of JDW Enterprises, and discuss this with him. However, our landlord has refused to even talk with us. Instead he sends threatening letters through abusive property managers. Please understand that we have tried our best to talk to our landlord Justin Wallway as reasonable people with reasonable proposals, including adding new tenants to leases. We have tried to do this with a simple request. We need this additional protections to continue to live in Oakland.
I live in District 3 and we are counting on all of you to adopt these amendments that protect tenants. We absolutely need to extend the eviction moratorium indefinitely during these extremely precarious times (this is obvious) because HOUSING IS HEALTHCARE. Having these meetings every month where our livelihoods are up for debate is stressful and disheartening, this virus isn't going anywhere any time soon. As for the tenant protections, the landlords have been taking advantage of the master tenant/subtenant loophole for years now. Our master tenant decided to move out abruptly and now my roommate and I are at risk of losing our housing because we have far less protections as subtenants. We had made numerous requests (before the pandemic even started) to be added to the lease but our landlord refused to add us to it. They do this so that as soon as a master tenant leaves they can raise the rent knowing that the subtenants can't afford it any longer. These situations disproportionately effect POC and marginalized communities! Do the right thing please.
I urge you to continue to strengthen tenant protections. Our residents are economically vulnerable and we need to treat housing in our communities as a human right.
As a district 1 resident, I urge you to support strengthening tenant protections during this time. Too many Oakland residents are already economically vulnerable, and the rates of homelessness have continued to skyrocket. Housing is a human right. The last thing we need is increased housing instability during a pandemic. Thank you.
As a resident of district 3 I support this legislation protecting our city's tenants.
I am a district 2 resident and I strongly support tenant protections. We need a plan to protect people from going homeless as a result of the pandemic or else we risk further infections, greater poverty, greater unrest, the list is endless. Help keep people in their homes.
My name is Rebecca Hom. I live in District 5, and I support extended tenant protections. During the coronavirus, lots of tenants are being harassed by their landlords. We need protections to keep tenants in their homes.
These changes need more clarification. The details are not clear. Housing providers need to maintain some tenant controls at their properties in order to insure the health and safety of their residents.
As a renter in District 3, I support these measures.
My name is Ada Palotai and I live in district 6. I urge you to IMMEDIATELY extend Oakland's eviction moratorium until the state of emergency is lifted. Experts warn of a tsunami of evictions due to COVID-19. Like the pandemic and police violence, communities of color will bear the brunt of the crisis. Housing keeps us safe, not the police. City Council must Defund OPD by adopting Kaplan/Bas's cuts of at least an additional 11.4M and reimagine public safety. They must also extend the Eviction Moratorium until at least the end of the local state of emergency, pass the Tenant Protection Upgrades, and protect workers by passing the Right to Recall ordinance.
I am a resident of District 1 and I strongly support this legislation. These basic protections are overdue and an important step in ensuring Oaklanders can stay in Oakland, especially in the midst of a pandemic.
These changes have not been thoroughly thought out and put the city of Oakland at risk for expensive litigation cost. There are many unintended outcomes that will result if passed.
This seems like a common sense approach to keeping people in housing and helping those on the margins of our society.
My name is Constance Thomason. I live in district 3 and am an owner of a duplex and a senior citizen. I oppose this issue because this is not an emergency measure and you are treating it as such. If I don't know who is living in my upstairs unit and do not have emergency information who can I call if there is an emergency. If there is a health and safety measure and I am not allowed to take pictures how could I prove this issue. The City of Oakland just paid out 33 million dollars to the Ghost Ship ordeal. You have not well thought out this change and ought give it more consideration for health and safety sake plus what it will cost the tax payers. What are you thinking?
As a renter in D2 I strongly support this legislation. Renter protections are vital in a time of record unemployment, a raging pandemic, and exacerbating wealth inequality. We do not need to risk added pressure on already vulnerable communities, rising homelessness, evictions and displacement when we could do the *right* thing and keep renters safely housed, particularly during a public health emergency. Housing is healthcare.
As a resident of District 3, a renter, and the daughter of a landlord, I strongly support these measures to strengthen tenant protections. These protections are a long overdue check on renter exploitation in this community and more critical now than ever as we struggle to keep people in safe, reliable shelter during the pandemic.
I'm a District 1 resident, and I support this legislation. Please don't let housing instability exacerbate the economic and health crises we are already experiencing.
Many elderly and minority Oakland residents are struggling with COVID-19 and rely on rental income or will face displacement onto the streets. They are not outside corporations and bought a duplex or triplex and opted to invest in our local economy instead of putting money into the stock market. The TPO amendments are not well aimed and unfairly targets them -- they are shouldering a heavy burden. There is an ongoing eviction moratorium and Oakland has the strongest tenant protections across the country. There is no city policy that protects hard working, small Oakland housing providers from outside banks and displacement.
Grandma bought her building and she's looking at displacement by these policies.
Hard work and honesty matters.
I'm Holly Fincke in District 4. Each one of these upgrades is critical to keeping more people housed by protecting from evictions and helping people being able to pay their rent. Please take action and vote for this package. We must do everything to keep people housed and not choosing between food and housing.
I am a renter in district 1 and fully support this legislation. Many Oaklanders have already been made economically, socially, and medically vulnerable by the pandemic. Allowing for housing instability on top of all of that would be cruel and exacerbate the public health disaster.
I am a renter in District 3, West Oakland. Our household's ability to pay rent has been significantly impacted by the pandemic. Many of my neighbors rent from the same landlord and several of us cannot afford to pay rent due to the loss of income from the pandemic. As a group, we have tried to contact our landlord, Justin Wallway of JDW Enterprises, and discuss this with him. However, our landlord has refused to even talk with us. Instead he sends threatening letters through abusive property managers. Please understand that we have tried our best to talk to our landlord Justin Wallway as reasonable people with reasonable proposals, including adding new tenants to leases. We have tried to do this with a simple request. We need this additional protections to continue to live in Oakland.
Ben Sigrist
Renting Tenant
District 3
I live in District 3 and we are counting on all of you to adopt these amendments that protect tenants. We absolutely need to extend the eviction moratorium indefinitely during these extremely precarious times (this is obvious) because HOUSING IS HEALTHCARE. Having these meetings every month where our livelihoods are up for debate is stressful and disheartening, this virus isn't going anywhere any time soon. As for the tenant protections, the landlords have been taking advantage of the master tenant/subtenant loophole for years now. Our master tenant decided to move out abruptly and now my roommate and I are at risk of losing our housing because we have far less protections as subtenants. We had made numerous requests (before the pandemic even started) to be added to the lease but our landlord refused to add us to it. They do this so that as soon as a master tenant leaves they can raise the rent knowing that the subtenants can't afford it any longer. These situations disproportionately effect POC and marginalized communities! Do the right thing please.