On December 2nd, the Palo Alto City Council will consider an urgency ordinance to suspend evictions through January 1st (and retroactive to October). The move is intended to protect tenants until a new state tenant protection law goes into effect. We encourage tenant and affordable housing advocates to show up in support!
On September 11th, Assemblymember David Chiu’s AB 1482 was passed, setting a statewide cap on allowable rent increases of 5% plus inflation per year for most tenants. The bill also established Just Cause eviction provisions statewide, requiring landlords to cite specific reasons for evicting a tenant. Allowable at fault reasons include nonpayment of rent, breach of the lease, consistent nuisance, while no-fault reasons include owner or family move in and demolition of the building, among others.
The bill was considered a historic win for tenant advocates, who have often struggled to pass tenant-friendly bills in the state legislature.
However, because the bill does not go into effect until January 1st, 2020, many tenant advocates have reported that landlords in their communities are serving tenants with no cause evictions before January 1st in order to avoid the onset of the tenant protections.
In response, cities around California have passed urgency ordinances suspending evictions or excessive rent increases until AB 1482 goes into effect. Palo Alto Councilmembers Lydia Kou and Tom DuBois submitted a colleagues memo proposing a urgency ordinance banning evictions through January 1st, which will be discussed at their meeting on December 2nd. The item is expected to be discussed by the council around 6:45pm, but could be discussed earlier depending on the pace of the council meeting.