City Council President Sean Elo-Rivera is calling for a Monday City Council discussion about a series of potential new tenant protections.
Elo-Rivera this week laid out a framework of changes he’d like to see to the city’s 2004 Tenants’ Right to Know Ordinance including relocation assistance for no-fault evictions, increased opportunities to address issues before evictions and immediate protections for tenants who now aren’t covered by the policy until they have lived in a rental for two years.
Elo-Rivera said his proposals will be fodder for City Council discussion and community input at Monday’s meeting. His next steps will be dictated by how the discussion goes. For now, Elo-Rivera plans to draft a tenant protection ordinance after receiving feedback and direction from his Council colleagues.
Elo-Rivera said Regional Task Force on Homelessness data released earlier this week showing that countywide housing efforts aren’t keeping pace with the number of people falling into homelessness only increased his belief that more tenant protections are needed to keep San Diegans in their homes.
“The urgency for (Elo-Rivera’s office) is a 10 out of 10, but at the end of the day we don’t make policy alone and it’s a body of nine and each member has an important opinion and needs to contribute to this,” Elo-Rivera said.
At Monday’s meeting, Elo-Rivera and fellow City Councilmembers Monica Montgomery Steppe, Joe LaCava and Raul Campillo are also introducing a resolution declaring housing a human right. Elo-Rivera described the resolution as a statement of values and a commitment “to be held accountable for those values that we say we stand for.”
Whether the city realizes it, it is a business partner in every rental in this City via its cut of property tax. Even when an apartment or home is vacant, the City gets paid. I would venture to guess one to two months of rent goes to cover property tax.
Under this proposal an owner of a property who wants to move into their property must cover three months of rent for the tenant even when providing them notice. But the tenant can leave at anytime?
Is the City going to rebate its share of the property tax to help cover this expense? I think not.
All this is going to do is raise rents to cover this cost.
If the City is so concerned about renters then it should focus on entities that own multiple units that are corporate landlords.
Stating that housing is a human right. This is definitely not the solution to put the additional burden on the taxpayer and investor. What is most likely going to happen is that the Investor is not going to be so interested in purchasing rentals or apartment units if there is no benefits such as return on the investment. Then what? The value of apartments and rentals will decrease. Who does this benefit? Actually no one.
Useless. 55% of his constituents are homeowners but he works instead for a couple dozen people on twitter, not the tens of thousands of homeowners comprising his constituency.
So this guy basically hates property owners? I own property in his district (92115) and we have dirt alleys, broken sidewalks, park full of homeless, roads that look like they’ve been carpet bombed. Thanks so much for your hard work Sean!
If these tenant protections are implemented I would consider just taking my rental off the market. Why would I want to deal with the headache of these new ordinances giving tenants more rights to my property than to me as a property owner?
If a person has some money, there are many ways for him to invest that money. He can buy bonds, invest in a mutual fund, buy CD’s, perhaps he might even buy a house for a rental. If the city was interested in increasing the stock of rental housing, they should be doing things to make purchasing the rental more attractive, NOT less attractive. Sean Elo continues to amaze me with his lack of understanding about basic economics.
City Councilmembers in a race to kill the golden goose.