Concord lawmakers will vote on these new, stronger tenant protections this month

Renters occupy approximately 40% of all housing units in Concord, and more than 48% of renters spend over 30% of their income on housing costs, city staff said.

There’s a lot at stake in Concord’s debate over tenant protections, since renters occupy approximately 40% of all housing units in the city, and more than 48% of renters spend over 30% of their income on housing costs, according to city staff.

Concord policymakers have spent more than a decade debating how best to protect the suburb’s tenants, a conversation that’s intensified as more Bay Area renters get priced out of urban centers. These protections are still relatively rare — of the 538 cities and counties in California, only 26 have enacted rent stabilization policies, while 43 include just cause for eviction policies beyond state law.

Now after more than a year of public meetings and input, the Concord City Council is slated to approve some of the most comprehensive rules — including stronger policies on rent stabilization and just cause evictions — proposed for renters and landlords in the city of 125,000.

A final, red-lined draft of the ordinance will be presented before the discussion and vote scheduled for a special public hearing on Jan. 30.

This work has been underway since January of last year, when the council committed to adopting a Rent Stabilization Ordinance and a Just Cause for Eviction Ordinance by the end of the year. Public input was gathered at meetings in July, September, October and December about the program, which has been woven into the city’s 6th Cycle Housing Element Update.

While final details still need to be ironed out, some of the most notable elements of the ordinance are Concord’s decision to cap rent increases to either 60% of the change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) or 3% of current rates — whichever is lower — and apply just-cause protections to tenants renting space in single-family homes.

Among other tenant protections, relocation assistance is tentatively set to be bumped up to three times the fair-market rent rate and an extra $3,000. Some low-income, elderly and terminally ill renters will be eligible to be paid for an additional month’s worth of rent.

However, the Concord City Council will likely exempt ADUs from local rent control and just cause initiatives, as long as those structures are properly permitted as ADUs with the city or Contra Costa County, and any property that has an existing contract with Concord will be allowed to continue following the rules of those specific agreements.

If landlords violate any portion of the ordinance, tenants will be defended against unlawful detainers — the technical term for an eviction.

After working on housing issues in Concord for the last seven years, Rhea Elina Laughlin, executive director of nonprofit Rising Juntos, is cautiously optimistic about what these new rules will mean for the community.

She lauded the council majority’s tentative support of rent hike caps, protections to tenants in single-family homes and increased relocation payments.

But she remains worried about the final wording of the policy guiding landlord petitions for a “fair return on investment,” which is essentially a request to raise rents past the set cap. Laughlin hopes that the council will approve adding specific standards for these types of requests within the ordinance, rather than letting landlords meet with a third-party hearing officer behind closed doors. For example, she doesn’t want homeowners to raise rents after “gold plating” units with unnecessary improvements or justifying requests based on an inability to afford their mortgage.

“It’s now been seven years, but we didn’t stop pushing (the city council) to listen,” Laughlin said Thursday. “It took countless tenants during countless meetings, practically begging with tears at the podium to protect families from being broken up, living in their cars or just becoming homeless. These policies are like a three-legged stool: they only work when passed together.”

Rents catapulted to record highs in 2014, as Bay Area landlords took advantage of a booming economy that eventually led to a spike of evictions that left scores of renters scrambling to find a place to live. But advocates say the political will to tackle this crisis only recently gained momentum in City Hall, especially following the start of district elections in 2018.

In Aug. 2020, Concord lawmakers established the city’s Tenant Protection Program, which largely aligned with AB 1482, a state law that required both at-fault and no-fault causes for eviction across California. While that state law took effect earlier that same year, Concord’s did feature additional local protections, including greater relocation assistance and minimum lease terms.

Most recently in Aug. 2022, Concord approved a specific “Residential Tenant Anti-Harassment Protection Ordinance,” after complaints of retaliation from landlords boomed amid pandemic-era moratoriums on evictions/rent increases.

These ever-shifting rules have continually been criticized by property owners and other opponents, such as the California Apartment Association, which has asserted the new protections would be among the strictest in the state. Most recently, those voices have lambasted the proposed ordinance as “outlandish,” arguing it is unnecessary and would impose punitive regulations on housing providers.

While affordable housing activists are on the cusp of seeing the fruits of their labor, Laughlin said there’s still time to continue strengthening the ordinance at hand.

“Concord’s children and families must have affordable, safe and stable living conditions,” Laughlin said. “This ordinance is an opportunity for Concord to affirm its values to be a city where people can thrive. There’s no reason to wait any longer, because tenants have waited long enough.”