Housing disputes fuel debate over government’s response in Sonoma County

When Ruth Lopez-Contreras and her family were evicted in May from their west Santa Rosa apartment, she immediately sought legal help.

The 41-year-old farmworker and hairdresser turned to a Sonoma County legal nonprofit for assistance because she lacked the money to hire a private attorney. She alleged that she and her boyfriend, the leaseholder, were not given proper notice to leave and were forced out with threats of deportation.

“I said ‘This is not right, I know we have rights. You have to give us more time,’?” Lopez-Contreras said.

The apartment’s property manager, Elena Baechtel, denied such claims and said she evicted the couple and their two children because they violated the lease agreement. Lopez-Contreras was not listed on the lease, and therefore she was not allowed to live in the Blair Place apartment complex, Baechtel said.

“Ruth was not on the lease, so they broke the rules,” Baechtel said. “They left peacefully.”

The dispute is one example of a diverse and complicated range of conflicts faced by landlords and tenants across Sonoma County. Such clashes are fueling a debate over how government should respond, with the Santa Rosa City Council and the county Board of Supervisors taking different approaches to address substandard housing complaints, unlawful eviction allegations and bogus claims by tenants.

Tenants rights’ advocates are calling for tighter limits on eviction proceedings, rent control and other regulations, while real estate representatives are pushing for a more hands-off approach that could include a campaign to notify tenants and landlords of their responsibilities.

“If people don’t understand what’s required under the law, then that’s where some of these things become an issue,” said Daniel Sanchez, director of government affairs for the North Bay Association of Realtors, an industry group that has been involved in discussions over tenant protection proposals at the county and in Santa Rosa.

County versus city

In Santa Rosa, the city imposed a 45-day moratorium in June on rent increases larger than 3 percent a year. The city is also staking out new government policies that could lead to a mandatory rental inspection program, landlord-tenant mediation services and a beefed-up code enforcement division to respond to complaints over substandard housing.

The county, on the other hand, has endorsed an alternative approach that relies heavily on the civil court system to intervene in cases where substandard housing complaints are ignored, as well as assist tenants with eviction-related cases. Such services could help people like Lopez-Contreras before they are forced out, said Ronit Rubinoff, executive director of Sonoma County Legal Aid, a Santa Rosa-based nonprofit that assists tenants in housing-related cases.

Disputes are increasing as the rental market across the county continues to tighten, Rubinoff said.

“We are seeing landlords bribe tenants trying to get them to waive their rights, we’ve had clients thrown out of their residences unlawfully without due process, we’re seeing what we consider to be predatory rent increases countywide and we have some landlords who don’t maintain their rental housing,” said Rubinoff, who is representing Lopez-Contreras. “This has reached a level I haven’t seen in 25 years.”

In June, supervisors increased county funding by nearly 500 percent for Legal Aid to more aggressively investigate tenant claims involving wrongful eviction and substandard housing. Supervisors last month also approved $226,000 in funding to hire two new county employees to focus on enforcing the county’s ordinance on vacation rentals, arguing that it will help free up code enforcement resources to more aggressively pursue substandard housing violations.

Last year, the county allocated $32,000 for Legal Aid programs that assist tenants. A $183,000 boost this year will allow the nonprofit to hire a full-time attorney and bilingual caseworker, expand its tenant services in rural communities and set up a free hotline offering advice for people facing eviction, Rubinoff said.

“If you think about it, getting a civil summons is more effective than the code enforcement route. I think we’ll get results quicker this way,” said Supervisor David Rabbitt, who pushed for the additional funding last month.

Rabbitt said the move was prompted by recent high-profile evictions of tenants in Petaluma.

“I think the majority of landlords are good folks, but it’s the few bad ones who are making this housing situation even more problematic,” he added. “We are seeing a need for this right now, with the housing crunch, so we need to make sure the safety net is as tight as possible.”

Calls for code enforcement

Tenants rights attorneys and other city and county elected officials say local government should focus on expansion of code enforcement divisions to more aggressively enforce state health and safety codes, as well as boost services for tenants.

“We need more code enforcement officers to say ‘Here are the problems,’ and we need attorneys to communicate what those problems are to the courts,” said Edie Sussman, a local housing rights attorney. “If tenants try and do it on their own, they’re just going to lose.”

The county currently has seven code enforcement officers to carry out inspections and verify complaints. County supervisors have not increased the number of enforcement officers who go after health and safety code violations related to substandard housing, but the board this year added two new positions at the Permit and Resource Management Department to enforce county vacation rental laws.

“Hopefully that will take some of the burden off of our existing code enforcement officers,” said Supervisor Susan Gorin. “But I think we need to take a harder look at substandard housing. Legal Aid is an important component of that, but I do believe we need more code enforcement.”

Santa Rosa, meanwhile, is considering a mandatory rental-inspection program, according to city officials. The program could support as many as 10 new code enforcement officers, said Santa Rosa Councilwoman Julie Combs.

“I’m thrilled the county is providing more funding for Legal Aid,” Combs said. “But I think, in the city of Santa Rosa, we shouldn’t leave it all to Legal Aid. We need more code enforcement officers to protect tenants.”

The Santa Rosa City Council in April also advanced an initiative that could require property owners to pay a fee and agree to regular rental inspections. City officials are studying similar programs underway in other California cities, including the Southern California cities of Oceanside, Ontario and Pasadena, as well as Hayward in the East Bay, said David Gouin, Santa Rosa’s director of housing and community services.

“We’re looking at what it would cost to inspect these rental units annually or maybe every five years,” Gouin said.

Fees paid by landlords could provide loans to landlords seeking to repair substandard housing problems and perhaps fund additional code enforcement officers, Gouin said. The city is also considering a mediation program that could provide interventions before tenant-landlord disputes escalate to the courts, an approach that is amassing support from real estate groups.

Sanchez, director of government affairs for the local real estate agents association, said such services “merit research” but the trade group has not officially backed it because the city hasn’t yet worked out the details of the proposal. It is expected to come back to the full council later this year.

“A rental inspection program could send a message to landlords that if there are issues out there, they need to take care of them before the inspector comes,” Sanchez said.

Other proposals endorsed by the Santa Rosa City Council include a rent control program up for adoption later this year that could institute a cap on rent increases for some Santa Rosa units and just-cause eviction rules that would limit landlord rights when evicting people.

Opposition to rent control

Sanchez and other real estate representatives have voiced strong opposition to rent control and just-cause eviction policies, saying they would do little to address Santa Rosa’s housing crunch.

“It is not a targeted anti-poverty program. It does not create new housing and it encourages landlords to skimp out on improvements to their properties,” Sanchez said.

And, in some cases, evictions of tenants are required for landlords to make major upgrades, he said.

“Now that the economy is doing better, rents have increased and property owners have more disposable income to make improvements on their properties,” Sanchez said. “A lot of the time, in order to make those improvements, you need to have evictions. Then in order to recoup that investment, rents have to go up.”

Meanwhile, Rubinoff, the Legal Aid executive director, is representing Lopez-Contreras and her family. She is seeking relocation money from the property’s owner, Joseph Kent, to find new housing for the family, who are living in four separate places. Lopez-Contreras is sleeping in her car outside a friend’s home.

Kent, a Texas-based real estate investor who owns multiple units in the Blair Place apartment complex, could not be reached for comment.

Rubinoff said it appears that Lopez-Contreras and her boyfriend, Onofre Ayala, were not given due process when they were kicked out of their apartment. Rubinoff said she will file a letter of demand asking for up to $10,000 in relocation costs. If the case is not resolved, it could escalate to small claims court, she said.

“They were intimidated into moving,” Rubinoff said. “This is exactly the thing that we are trying to prevent.”

Baechtel, the property manager, said she gave the couple a notice two months before she asked them to move, a claim denied by the tenants.

“I’m not a bad person,” she said. “I informed them of the need to move and served them the way I should have - with a 60-day notice.”

You can reach Staff Writer ?Angela Hart at 526-8503 or ?angela.hart@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @ahartreports.