On April 19, East Bay for Everyone sent a package of endorsement letters to Sacramento supporting a slate of tenant protection bills under consideration by the California State Legislature.
These six bills – AB 36, 724, 1110 1481, and 1482, and SB 529 – are designed to ensure that renters across the state have more preventative measures available to protect against rent gouging, unjust evictions, and other displacement-causing factors. We believe these measures are necessary to build resilient communities, especially in fast-growing areas like the East Bay.
Below is a one-line summary of each bill we endorsed, and below that is full text of each of the letters we submitted.
AB 36: Reforms the Costa-Hawkins Rental Act to extend rent control to houses, condos, and new buildings after 10 years from date of completion (one and two home landlords are exempted).
AB 724: Creates a rental housing registry that would track evictions, vacancies, and other data to better understand our housing crisis.
AB 1110: Sets stronger rent increase notification requirements, such as 90 days notice for a 10 to 15% increase and 120 days for 15% or more.
AB 1481: Protects tenants from evictions without cause, and prevents owner move-in evictions in most cases and always for those over 60, disabled, or extremely ill.
AB 1482: Sets anti-gouging caps on rent increases (exact cap not yet determined) applicable to all housing not currently under stronger rent control ordinances.
SB 529: Protects tenant organizing in appropriate situations, such as lack of property maintenance creating unsafe living conditions.
Special thank you to East Bay for Everyone organizers and policy experts John Minot, Ian Monroe, and Alfred Twu for assessing bill language, impact, and scope and drafting the full letters below.