Santa Rosa strengthens protections for some renters

Santa Rosa strengthened its interim protections for renters Tuesday night, but for far fewer renters than some council members had hoped.

The City Council sought to pass what is known as a “just cause for eviction” ordinance for all renters in response to concerns that tenants are afraid to assert their rights under the city’s new rent control rules.

The city passed a 45-day moratorium on certain rent increases over 3 percent in May, and then extended it another 90 days on July 7.

The moratorium, as per state law, only covers apartments built before 1995 and does not apply to single-family residences, duplexes and owner-occupied triplexes.

But since the moratorium has been in effect, there’s been a sharp increase in the number of renters who’ve been served with eviction notices for no other apparent reason than landlords trying to get around the city’s rent restrictions, said Ronit Rubinoff, executive director of Legal Aid of Sonoma County.

She said residents don’t have the legal protections in place to protect them should they invoke the moratorium with their landlords.

But the real estate lobby argued at the meeting the ordinance went well beyond what was needed to support the rent moratorium.

Daniel Sanchez, a government affairs director for the North Bay Association of Realtors, pointed out that a four-bedroom house in Fountaingrove listed for nearly $4,000 in rent per month would be covered under the just cause rule, which he called “absurd.”

Councilman Gary Wysocky agreed, and blocked Councilwoman Julie Combs’ effort to extend the protections to all renters in the city. He argued, as the real estate industry representatives had, that it should be limited to those same units the city is allowed to regulate under the state law.

After two rounds of competing measures failed, a clearly annoyed Combs gave in and supported Wysocky’s narrower measure, saying she wasn’t willing to let the protections for renters fail. The measure passed on a 4-2 vote.

If approved next week, the protections would go into effect Aug. 25.

The council was not able to muster the five votes necessary to pass an ordinance that would have gone into effect immediately.

Mayor John Sawyer recused himself because he owns two rental properties. He said he had asked the Fair Political Practices Commission to rule on whether he had a conflict of interest. He said he chose not to vote on the issue out of an abundance of caution.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @srcitybeat.