Community Organizations Say City Council Must Enact Rent Control

From SEIU Local:

WHAT: Community rally for a Santa Rosa rent control ordinance

WHEN: Tuesday, May 3, 4-6 pm

WHERE: City Council Courtyard, 100 Santa Rosa Avenue, Santa Rosa

SANTA ROSA, CA — On Tuesday, May 3, a coalition of community groups, including unions, churches, and others, will rally outside the Santa Rosa City Council chambers urging the Council to move forward with historic rent stabilization and just-cause eviction measures for the city.

Evictions in the area have increased dramatically in the past two years, so much that local housing attorneys cannot handle the flood of cases. The housing crisis that has moved beyond San Francisco and now has Oakland and Richmond considering rent control measures, has moved further north.

Sonoma County's low vacancy rate (as low as 1%) has made it nearly impossible for evicted residents to find another place to live in the area. Many people have refrained from protesting severe and often unjust rent increases for fear of eviction. This has become a widespread cause of mental and physical hardship for local seniors, students, and working families.

"I was evicted after my apartment was robbed and my landlord tried to blame my 12-year-old daughter. He called her racist names and tried to enter our apartment without permission. I had no recourse at all," said Debbie Steen, a local renter who spent months couch-surfing with her daughter before finding another apartment in the tight rental market.

"Even though I have a good-paying job with the County, I could not find housing for 7 months," she said.

"In August 2015 I attended the first City Council meeting where they discussed whether to take on rent control. About 300 landlords showed up to protest," Steen recalls. "They said the people they evicted should just go live with their families, that they don't need their own housing."

At its May 3 meeting, the Council is expected to direct staff to draft an ordinance stabilizing rents and including just-cause protections for tenants. The Council may also consider an emergency moratorium on rent increases while the ordinance is being drafted.

A community rally organized by the North Bay Organizing Project and SEIU Local 1021 in support of rent control and just-cause will take place from 4-6 pm outside the Council chambers during the meeting.

The NBOP is calling for:

- Code-compliant rental housing and strong rent control protections with reasonable limits on rent increases

- Just cause eviction policies that don't allow landlords to evict tenants for arbitrary reasons

- Mediation and arbitration with an independent rent board

- A program administered by rent board and staff.