Healdsburg OKs guidelines limiting rent increases to 10 percent annually

Escalating rents and pleas to help longtime residents from being priced out of town prompted the Healdsburg City Council this week to approve a set of nonbinding guidelines to landlords intended to bring some stability to the rental housing market.

The advisory advanced by council members came in response to recent substantial rent increases and tenant displacements in the city.

It states that rental increases should be “reasonable and fair” and not exceed 10 percent annually; that owners should provide “whenever possible” a minimum 90-day notice prior to a rent increase; and that landlords should spread the recovery of any cost of their improvements over a period of at least four years.

Proponents touted the move as a use of the council’s “bully pulpit,” and “moral authority,” though council members were also clear that guidelines do not represent mandatory rules for landlords to follow.

“It’s not enforceable by law. But in the court of public opinion it should make quite a difference,” Councilman Tom Chambers said of the advisory

With disputes about rising rents simmering across Sonoma County and California, the issue was brought to a boil in Healdsburg by the recent, high-profile eviction of 21 Latino families from a low-rent apartment complex. The new landlord plans to fix the dilapidated property and in some cases more than double the rents.

Other tenants or housing advocates in the city have stepped with examples of skyrocketing rents, reporting increases of 50 to 65 percent.

Despite some calls for rent control among speakers who flocked to City Hall last month, council members have not expressed support for the concept. City officials have noted that by state law, rent control is restricted to apartment buildings built prior to 1995. It’s not allowed for single-family homes or condominiums and could apply only to a fraction of Healdsburg’s 4,378 housing units.

Mayor Shaun McCaffery said the rent stabilization advisory, which will be disseminated to landlords and in city utility bills, “is probably the strongest statement we could make that will have an impact on the rental situation in our town.”

The advisory was crafted after City Manager David Mickaelian met with more than two dozen property managers representing approximately 650 rental units in Healdsburg.

He noted that most property owners support rent increases between 3 and 8 percent annually, and they prefer to keep their tenants, to avoid lost rent and property improvements for a new renter.

Daniel Sanchez, governmental affairs director for the North Bay Association of Realtors, signaled the advisory was preferable to rent control, which real estate interests largely oppose.

“It’s a set of best practices. A lot of this is already taking place,” Sanchez said, adding that “it puts peer pressure on landlords who might not be abiding.”

Bruce Abramson, a former parks and recreation commissioner and self-described community activist, said Healdsburg’s rental housing market is “in crisis.”

Abramson was one of the first to suggest a rent stabilization advisory, a sort of proactive use of the City Council’s moral authority to provide reasonable guidelines to the rental housing community.

Renters, he said, account for more than 5,500 people in a city of approximately 12,000 residents, based on the city’s 2010 housing element, part of the city’s general plan.

He said evictions, 60-day notices and 20 percent-plus rental increases are increasingly common and suggested the advisory could help reverse the trend.

“If this is publicized heavily and repeatedly for the next six months or more, it will have a good effect on the most blatant of those rental owners who are considering or who have dramatically raised rents or evicted good tenants,” he stated in an e-mail Wednesday.

“It will also remind other rental owners of their city government’s concern for rent stability and moderation,” he wrote.

Healdsburg resident Heidi Marino told the council that “in regard to the housing crisis, it’s just the beginning of consciousness raising, but the problem is not going to go away.”

She advocated for housing for “agricultural workers, and people who have created the amazing wealth all around us.”

They live on the margins of society, Marino said, “but without their hard work, we just have soil.”

Mayor McCaffery said the crux of the matter is the need to build more housing that people can afford.

“We have a lot of activism and togetherness in this community,” he said, adding that the momentum needs to keep going when housing projects get opposed.

“When people don’t like it, you need to come out and say, ‘We need this,’?” he said, speaking of new housing projects.

The council on Monday also took some other actions related to affordable housing, awarding a $269,000 contract to upgrade 11 units of transitional housing the city owns in the 300 block of East Street.

The council also agreed to spend as much as $150,000 in the next three years on programs directed at families struggling to gain permanent housing, or those on the verge of homelessness. The programs help with things like security deposits, moving assistance and other support.

You can reach Staff Writer Clark Mason at 521-5214 or clark.mason@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter@clarkmas