Rent stabilization is again on the agenda for the Concord City Council on Tuesday night.
The hot-button issue drew 67 public speakers spanning about five hours of testimony at the council’s Sept. 5 meeting. The council closed public comment and, after some discussion of the merits of the proposal, continued the item.
The proposed Residential Rent Stabilization Ordinance, which — like ordinances in Richmond and Antioch — would cap rent increases at 3 percent annually, or 60 percent of the consumer price index, whichever is lower.
It would also require just cause for evictions of tenants living in a unit for at least a year. Just cause includes non-payment of rent, criminal activity, material breach of a lease, refusing to allow the owner access, refusal to sign a new lease with similar provisions and duration, and subletting the unit in violation of the lease.
The proposal wouldn’t affect units built since 1995 or landlords with four or fewer units.
Proposal supporters point out, between 2011 and 2021, Concord’s median gross rents increased 62 percent, according to city statistics.
Tenant advocates say high rents likely impact seniors in Concord harder than other groups, as 58 percent of area seniors — according to the Association of Bay Area Governments — are very low-income.
Which means about 2,000 households in Concord are vulnerable to displacement, according to the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, a tenants rights advocacy group. The group says about 29 percent of unhoused people in Contra Costa County are over 55.
Landlords cite California’s Assembly Bill 1482, a three-year-old law capping rent increases at 5 percent, plus the rate of inflation, which together can’t exceed a 10 percent annual increases, as proof tenants are already protected in California.
They also cite the economic damage they suffered during the pandemic, when they were affected by eviction and rent moratoriums.
The council on Tuesday is likely to offer more comments and direct staff to craft an ordinance to bring back to the council for approval later this year.
The Concord City Council meets at 6 p.m. at the council chamber at city hall, 1950 Parkside Drive, in Concord.
When rent doesn’t cover costs of ownership it’s condo conversion time.
More steps towards socialism
I just had my rent raised. Not happy about it.
My rent has been raised by $100 every year for 7 years and no sign of it stopping.Hey owners,could you maybe be honest and tell people in the rental agreement or even verbally that you’re going to do that so people can keep looking for something better?
Thanks now.
Thanks Peter B.
There’s not much to consider.
I’ve had to move many times because rent costs and income don’t work out.
No government interference.
It’s a supply and demand issue.
Cities end up enacting rent control because elected officials and overpaid staff refuse to admit the policies they support impact the ability to pay reasonable rent increases. Concord will need rent control now because the city needs affordable places for people to live who help run the city day to day (teachers, retail and restaurant workers, students, office admin workers, janitors, bus drivers, etc.). But rent control without some policy changes won’t stop people being unable to afford to live here – it hasn’t anywhere else.
For example, $2.4M of the $5M given to Concord’s Homeless Advocacy Group comes directly from Measure V tax funds. Measure V is an extra sales tax promoted by every current sitting member of the Council. Sales tax is also one of the most regressive taxes, impacting the amount of money low income people have to spend more than it does middle to high income earners. So council is robbing the poor to virtue signal about helping the poor while supporting policy that adds to the reason people become and stay poor. And council lives in a circle jerk bubble, virtue signaling to each other about how right they are without making changes that help give low income people opportunity to use more of their own money to advance their own economic status. Many price increases are affecting people now and Concord City Council can’t control all of them but Measure V is one they can control. But instead of rolling back the extra sales tax, they have given themselves large stipend increases with it and promised underperforming staff advanced pay increases over the next two years.
I am generally a supporter of rent control when needed to help hard working people stay in the city. But council shouldn’t expect private landlords to take a pay cut while council gives itself and staff stipend and pay increases.
Enjoy your virtue signaling and stipend/pay raises on the backs of low income earners, council. You can pretend it doesn’t matter but the increasing homeless population and increase in renters in danger of being unable to pay rent are the outcomes of your own actions that won’t be changed just because you are all loyal to each other and staff.
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Call it what it is… “RENT CONTROL”.
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Concord landlords need to review their rental rate and possibly raise it before the ordinance goes into effect.
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Yes, I am a landlord (no properties in Concord).
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Now that’s weird. It’s almost as you would not support this?
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But I thought you’re a big MLK supporter. Remember, “the rich nations must use their vast resources of wealth to develop the underdeveloped, school the unschooled, and feed the unfed” and “the problems of [… ] economic injustice cannot be solved without a radical redistribution of […] economic power”?
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Or is it just one I have a dream quote which you clearly don’t even comprehend correctly? I mean you have been posting this week after week …..
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You, as a bleeding heart liberal, are being a typical left wing dolt and conflating the issues.
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The landlord-tenant relationship is a contractual business transaction – Not a social statement.
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But you support radical redistribution of economic power. I think this would be part of it or not? So you should applaud this. Or tell me how would you achieve “radical redistribution of economic power”?
Is it even worth being a landlord these days?
I refused to be a landlord in the lunatic State and I would recommend those with current rental properties do a Section 1031 exchange for a property in a different state. LESS GOVERNMENT IS BETTER!!!
1) “cap rent increases at 3 percent annually, or 60 percent of the consumer price index, whichever is lower” – so the landlord needs to eat all the parcel tax additions? If the landlord provides water, what covers those cost increases?
2) “Proposal supporters point out, between 2011 and 2021, Concord’s median gross rents increased 62 percent, according to city statistics” – Easy to manipulate stats like this, is it the same units from 2011 OR do they take in all units which would include newer high end, more expensive apartments.
No one owes you free or cheap rent. No one owes you anything at all.
If you can’t afford to live here, move. Don’t expect the government or the taxpayers to bail you out. Landlord should be able to charge anything they want. That is a free and open market. Just like if you’re selling a product. If you don’t like the price, move on.