Home » World » San Diego County Passes Additional Tenant Protections Against Eviction

San Diego County Passes Additional Tenant Protections Against Eviction

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday in favor of additional rental protections to prevent widespread evictions.

The measure limits eviction of tenants to those who pose an imminent threat to health or safety, or to non-payment of rent. County law goes beyond state protections that still allow “just cause” evictions for things like lease violations. It still requires a second vote at the May 4 meeting to go into effect.

The vote was 3-2. It had originally failed because it was an emergency ordinance requiring four votes. After it failed, Supervisor Nora Vargas – who introduced the ordinance – changed it to a non-emergency element that requires three votes to pass, and will require another public hearing.

A local group of homeowners, the Southern California Rental Housing Association, objected, arguing that good residents would be forced to suffer with troublesome neighbors.

The ordinance was written to say that a landlord could not evict a tenant if they planned to rehabilitate or move into the property, two things the law now allows.

Bulletin

Receive the latest news in Spanish Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Occasionally, you may receive promotional content from the San Diego Union-Tribune en Español.

Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer proposed amendments to allow evictions for “repeated and prolonged” hassles and allow people who own two or fewer homes to evict tenants if they want to live in them again. Both amendments are likely to be refined in time for the next supervisors meeting.

Vargas argued that state laws don’t go far enough and people could still be evicted for things as simple as unit renovations.

“State laws actually have loopholes and evictions keep happening in San Diego County,” he said. “Tenants continue to be evicted during this global pandemic.”

More than 200 people called for the meeting, which featured a mix of tenants, smallholders and community activists. Many of those who called said they continued to face eviction despite all state protections in place. But the owners argued that they had made a lot of sacrifices during the pandemic and that stricter regulations from the county would put an undue financial burden on them.

Smallholder Art Moses, who rents a condo in downtown San Diego, said he had worked with his tenant during the pandemic after she lost her income. But he argued that the county was creating a situation that would bankrupt smallholders.

“The cost of maintaining the property has not decreased,” he said. “I find it difficult to understand why this board is considering this new measure.”

The tenant Claudia Vicente said that her landlord wanted to evict her for non-payment of rent, but she has children and is worried about being thrown out. For that reason, he asked supervisors to approve the additional protections.

“We just want to stay home and be safe,” he said, “and get back to business as usual quickly.”

Supervisor Jim Desmond noted that many of the people who called the meeting said they could not pay their rent because they had lost their jobs, but state law already prevents the eviction of tenants who have a loss of income due to COVID-19. . He also wanted a broader range of interests consulted for the ordinance.

“It is a great blanket that does not include the contribution of the owners,” he said.

Desmond and Supervisor Joel Anderson voted against the ordinance. Vargas, Lawson-Remer, and President Nathan Fletcher voted in favor.

The ordinance can only last until the summer, or end sooner. It is scheduled to expire 60 days after the governor’s stay order. About eight hours before the supervisors’ vote, Governor Gavin Newsom announced a plan to end the color-coding system by June 15. Therefore, the ordinance is likely to end around that date or two months later.

San Diego County is poised to move from the red tier to the second least restrictive tier, orange, on Wednesday. Yellow is the least restrictive level and allows most indoor businesses to open.

The rent is not forgiven in the ordinance. Under the state’s rent relief efforts, most tenants facing difficulties from COVID-19 can get 80 percent of the rent paid if the landlord forgives up to 20 percent.

The supervisors’ action took a step beyond the typical rent relief program in that it limits rent increases until July 1. It says that rent cannot be increased more than the Consumer Price Index, or CPI (a measure of inflation) until the ordinance ends. The CPI rate for San Diego County was 1.7 percent annually in January.

This caused less concern to homeowner groups because rent increases have slowed during the pandemic. San Diego County’s median rent for all home types, about $ 1909 a month, was up 3.3 percent in a year from the fourth quarter, real estate tracker CoStar said.

– .

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.