The California Apartment Association is calling on its members to speak out against a package of landlord-tenant proposals that would bring rent and eviction controls to the city of Concord.
CAA asks that rental housing providers speak out at the Concord City Council meeting on Wednesday, June 19, and email council members today.
At Wednesday’s meeting, the council will vote on the following:
- “Just cause” eviction ordinance: limits your ability to regain possession of your property or evict problem tenants.
- Tenant relocation fee: a forced payment to the tenant of up to three times the market rent if you don’t renew a lease.
- Binding arbitration: a mandatory requirement for you to justify rent increases over 5% in front of an administrative law judge. This is a form of rent control.
Rhovy Lyn Antonio, CAA’s vice president of public affairs, said members need to attend this meeting and speak out against the onerous proposals.
“The fate of Concord rental housing will fall on who shows up and speaks,” Antonio said. “After this meeting, there will be no opportunity to avoid costly regulations and bureaucratic red tape.”
CAA also asks that members email Concord council members at citycouncil@cityofconcord.org, writing their own messages or personalizing the sample letter below.
Sample email
I am a proud member of the Concord community and want to avoid new laws that would hurt our housing stock. Regulations like rent control, just cause eviction, and costly bureaucratic red tape do not help our region’s housing shortage. In fact, these laws will exacerbate the problem by driving rental housing providers out of Concord and making it hard to continue investments.
As you deliberate new potential programs, please consider their effects on the ability to maintain quality housing in Concord. The costs of maintaining rental housing business increases every year so the city should not pursue programs that would hinder capital improvements. We request that you do the following:
• Reject just cause eviction and avoid creating programs that provide lifetime leases to bad renters.
• Reject policies that penalize property owners for exercising their legal right to recover a unit after an expired lease.
• Include a cost-sharing mechanism for any new programs so that the fees are shared by the owners and renters
Rental housing owners did not create the problem the city is trying to solve with these added regulations. A better approach is to focus on community-based solutions such as building more housing and exploring opportunities to subsidize the cost of housing for underserved communities.
Sincerely,
Your name