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HomeMy WebLinkAboutOrd. 1590-2019 (19-954)City of South San Francisco P,O. Box 711 (City Hall, 400 Grand Avenue) South San Francisco, CA City Council Ordinance: ORD 1590-2019 File Number: 19-954 Enactment Number: ORD 1590-2019 URGENCY ORDINANCE IMMEDIATELY IMPLEMENTING PROVISIONS OF CALIFORNIA STATE ASSEMBLY BILL 1482, THE TENANT PROTECTION ACT OF 2019. WHEREAS, the "Tenant Protection Act of 2019" ("AB 1482") was enacted by the Legislature on September 11, 2019 and signed by the Governor on October 8, 2019; and WHEREAS, effective January 1, 2020, AB 1482 will add provisions to California landlord tenant law requiring just cause for evictions and imposing limits on rent increases; and WHEREAS, the City Council, pursuant to its police powers, has broad authority to maintain the public peace, health, safety, and general welfare of its community and to preserve the quality of life for its residents; and WHEREAS, housing instability threatens the public peace, health, safety, and general welfare as eviction from one's home can lead to prolonged homelessness; increased residential mobility; loss of community; strain on household finances due to the necessity of paying rental application fees and security deposits; stress and anxiety experienced by those displaced; increased commute times and traffic impacts if displaced workers cannot find affordable housing within the city in which they work; and interruption of the education of children in the home; and WHEREAS, eviction creates particular hardships for individuals and households of limited means, given the shortage of housing, particularly affordable housing, within the City of South San Francisco and San Francisco Bay Area region generally; and WHEREAS, as AB 1482 does not go into effect until January 1, 2020, landlords could seek to evict tenants without cause in order to implement rent increases that would not otherwise be possible after the effective date; and WHEREAS, the City is informed that landlords are evicting tenants before the Tenant Protection Act of 2019 goes into effect; and City of South San Francisco Page 1 File Number: 19-954 Enactment Number: ORD 1590-2019 WHEREAS, the City desires to prohibit evictions without just cause during this transition period; and WHEREAS, the City Council finds and determines that regulating the relations between residential landlords and tenants will increase certainty and fairness within the residential rental market in the City and thereby serve the public peace, health, safety, and general welfare; and WHEREAS, Government Code section 36937(b) authorizes the adoption of an emergency ordinance to preserve the public peace, health, safety, general welfare, where there is a declaration of the reasons for urgent action and the ordinance is adopted by four-fifths (4/5) of the City Council; and WHEREAS, this urgency ordinance would essentially establish the rental protections that will go into effect on January 1, 2020, under AB 1482 immediately within the City of South San Francisco to prohibit an owner of a residential property (with specific exceptions) from terminating a tenancy without just cause; and WHEREAS, an emergency ordinance that is effective immediately is necessary to avoid the immediate threat to public peace, health, safety, or welfare, as failure to adopt this emergency ordinance could result in the displacement of the City's residents and community members; and WHEREAS, based upon the above-described facts and circumstances, and for these same reasons, the City Council finds that this ordinance is necessary as an emergency measure for preserving the public peace, health, and safety and therefore it may be introduced and adopted at one and the same meeting, and shall take effect immediately upon its adoption. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED that based on the entirety of the record before it, as described below, the City Council of the City of South San Francisco does hereby ORDAIN as follows: SECTION 1. Incorporation of Recitals. The City Council of South San Francisco, finds that all recitals are true and correct and are incorporated herein by reference. SECTION 2. Findings. The City Council of South San Francisco hereby finds, determines and declares that this emergency ordinance, adopted pursuant to Government Code section 36937(b), is necessary because: (a) Housing, particularly affordable housing, is difficult to procure in the San Francisco Bay Area and in South San Francisco. Evictions without just cause occurring in advance of the effectiveness of AB 1482 destabilizes families, communities, and the housing market, which subsequently results in displacement and the loss of affordable housing. City of South San Francisco Page 2 File Number. 19-954 Enactment Number. ORD 1590-2019 (b) The City estimates that approximately forty percent of South San Francisco rental units, or 4,800 households, will potentially be protected by AB 1482. (c) Since the signing of AB 1482 on October 8, 2019, Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County reports that it has seen six South San Francisco tenants who received 60 -day termination notices without cause and who would be eligible for the just cause protections under AB 1482. This number excludes households in exempt units or tenancies, such as tenancies of under 12 months or single-family homes. Typically, Legal Aid reports that it sees about 1.5 cases of no-fault evictions per month in South San Francisco. Six "no cause" termination notices in little over a month far exceeds the normal rate observed by Legal Aid. Community Legal Services of East Palo Alto reports that, since August 2019, it has seen two no -cause evictions of City tenants. They emphasized that normally they do not see many cases from South San Francisco, and that tenants who contact them are usually only a small number of the cases of individuals who are similarly affected. (d) Since October 2019, the City's Economic and Community Development office has received ten requests for assistance regarding evictions by tenants, many of whom received eviction notices. (e) For the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, safety, and general welfare the City Council finds that it is necessary to adopt an ordinance regulating the residential evictions regulated by AB 1482 by imposing the same just cause for eviction standards on the same residential tenancies that will be affected by AB 1482 on January 1, 2020, for all reasons set forth in the recitals of this ordinance. (f) Without the imposition of this ordinance, evictions without cause may result in the displacement of residential tenants who would be forced to find new housing in an ever -more expensive housing market before a non -emergency ordinance or AB 1482 would become effective, and would significantly increase the risk of residential tenants becoming homeless. (g) There is a current and immediate threat to the public peace, health, safety, and general welfare of the City and its community due in part to the adoption of AB 1482, which increases the risk of tenant displacement prior to the effective date of the bill, thereby necessitating the immediate enactment of this emergency ordinance in order to ensure that tenant are not turned out of their homes without just cause. SECTION 3. Urgent Need Based on the foregoing recitals and findings, all of which are deemed true and correct, this ordinance is urgently needed for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, safety, or welfare. This ordinance shall take effect immediately upon adoption in accordance with the provisions set forth in Government Code section 36937(b). City of South San Francisco Page 3 File Number. 19-954 Enactment Number. ORD 1590-2019 SECTION 4. Incorporation of Assembly Bill 1482 Assembly Bill 1482 ("AB 1482") signed by Governor Newsom on October 8, 2019 and attached as Exhibit A is hereby incorporated by reference and shall be effective in South San Francisco immediately, as described in Sections 5 below. SECTION 5. Just Cause Protections (a) Section 2 of AB 1482 (referred to here as the "Just Cause Protections") shall be effective as follows: (1) Any termination of tenancy notice served by an Owner on a tenant on or after November 25, 2019, shall be based on just cause as defined in the Just Cause Protections. (b) An Owner's failure to comply with the Just Cause Protections as required under the Ordinance may be asserted as a complete affirmative defense to any unlawful detainer or other action brought by the Owner to recover possession of the rental unit. (c) Any waiver of the rights under this section of this Ordinance shall be void as contrary to public policy. (d) For the purposes of this Ordinance, the following definitions shall apply: (1) "Owner" and "residential real property" shall have the same meaning as those terms are defined in California Civil Code Section 1954.51. (2) "Tenancy" means the lawful occupation of residential real property and includes a lease or sublease. SECTION 6. Severability If any provision or part of this ordinance, or the application thereof to any person or circumstance, is held invalid or unenforceable by a court of competent jurisdiction, the remainder of the ordinance and the application of such provision or part to other persons or circumstances shall not be affected thereby. SECTION 7. Compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act The City Council hereby finds approval of this ordinance is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (Public Resources Code §§ 21000 et seq., "CEQA," and 14 Cal. Code Reg. §§ 15000 et seq., "CEQA Guidelines") under Section 15061(b)(3) of the CEQA guidelines. SECTION 8. Publication and Effective Date City of South San Francisco Page 4 File Number. 19-954 Enactment Number. ORD 1590-2019 As set forth in the recitals and findings above, this Ordinance is necessary for preserving the public peace, health, safety and welfare, and is adopted on an urgency basis. Pursuant to the provisions of Government Code section 36937(b), this Ordinance is effective immediately and shall expire on December 31, 2019. The City Clerk shall post in the Clerk's Office a certified copy of the full text of this Ordinance along with the names of those City Council members voting for and against this Ordinance or otherwise voting. Introduced and adopted at a special meeting of City Council of the City of South San Francisco held the 25th day of November 2019. At a meeting of the Special City Council on 11/25/2019, a motion was made by Councilmember Nagales, seconded by Vice Mayor Garbarino, that this Ordinance be adopted. The motion passed. Yes: 5 Councilmember Nagales, Mayor Matsumoto, Councilmember Addiego, Councilmember Nicolas, and Vice Mayor Garbarino Attest by �ow /dof4 osa Govea Acosta Mayor City of South San Francisco Page 5