Proposed East Bay rental rules would stabilize rents, protect tenants

Pittsburg renters fed up with high rents and the lack of tenant protections have moved a step closer to getting new rules on this November’s ballot.

Backed by the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, housing advocates on Wednesday turned in the more than 4,000 signatures needed to bring rent stabilization, just cause evictions and tenant protection rules before voters. Election officials have 30 days to verify the signatures.

“We did it,” Richmond City Councilman and ACCE member Melvin Willis told the small group gathered in front of City Hall. “Now, with all these signatures, we are going to be able to get this on the ballot and folks who didn’t have rental protections, eviction protections before ….they have a chance to actually assert the right not to be taken advantage of by people who are just looking at their housing as another price up in the stock market.”

Pittsburg ACCE Action member Nicole Arrington, who is unable to work because she has cancer, has been campaigning for this proposed ballot measure since it was first introduced last year. She said she has no other options as attempts to persuade the City Council to introduce the measure have failed in the past.

“It’s very necessary because unfortunately there are a lot of people here who have been evicted, and the majority of those people being evicted that I’ve seen personally are older Black women,” she said at Wednesday’s rally.

State law already offers some protections, allowing rents to rise by 5% plus inflation with a cap at 10%, but many properties like the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit building Arrington lives in are exempt.

Willis and other housing advocates said the proposed Pittsburg Rent Stabilization and Tenant Protections Ordinance will ensure a 3% rent cap or up to 60% of the inflation rate based on the Consumer Price Index.

Single-family homes, condos and any unit built since 1995 would be exempt from the rent stabilization portion of the proposed rules and landlords would still be able to charge market-rate rent to new tenants.

The new rules, though, will also protect against unjust evictions, safeguard against harassment of tenants and ensure healthy living conditions, according to tenant organizers.

Last year Arrington’s rent was $1,700 – the same as her social security check, but working with her landlord, she was able to get it reduced to $940, which is still more than 30% of her income, she said. And she still must pay back the $16,000 she was unable to pay when her rent was higher, she said.

“It’s kind of crazy that you live in a supposed income-based housing and they charge you more than what you get a month,” Arrington said.

Contra Costa County has seen homelessness and housing prices grow over the past few years. According to RentCafe, approximately 59% of Pittsburg residents are renters who pay an average rent of $2,213.

Advocacy groups last month submitted the required signatures to get a similar ordinance before San Pablo voters, while a group in Larkspur turned theirs in on Monday. Advocates also expect petition signatures for rent control ordinances to be submitted in Redwood City and Delano later this month.

The Pittsburg effort follows successful ballot measure campaigns last year to increase tenant protections in Oakland and Richmond, both of which already had rent control. In Antioch and Petaluma, officials approved new limits on rent hikes for some tenants, and Antioch is working on a just cause ordinance. The Concord City Council, meanwhile, enabled rent stabilization and just cause eviction laws last month after a real estate broker failed to push forward a referendum petition to let voters decide.

The proposed ordinance in Pittsburg will likely see pushback from landlords and rental property associations who have said new regulations could hurt those still struggling from lost rental income during pandemic eviction moratoriums.

Even so, housing advocates are determined to get rent stabilization and other protections in place, so tenants won’t have to worry about big spikes in rent or unjust evictions.

“Our seniors, our kids, our families and disadvantaged Black and Brown low-income communities deserve to have stable, secure housing,” Willis said.