After facing opposition from local landlords, a controversial ordinance proposed to dramatically strengthen tenant protections in Lemon Grove has been scaled back to minor tweaks. City leaders advanced their recommendations Tuesday.
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Nearly six months have passed since residents of Serra Grove — a 64-unit apartment complex in the center of Lemon Grove — complained their new landlord was bending substantial renovation rules to clear out longtime renters.
City leaders quickly passed an urgency ordinance that established temporary protections for renters by increasing eviction notice and relocation requirements. Unless a new policy is adopted, the temporary ordinance will expire in August.
Mayor Alysson Snow, a housing rights attorney, has been the driving force behind a controversial proposal that would permanently strengthen the city’s tenant protections. The months-long discussion on potential policy changes has ignited disagreements among city leaders.
“We have to turn off the faucet that makes people homeless,” Snow said.
To find consensus among residents, elected officials and landlords on tenant protections, the city held two public workshops and pushed back the first reading on a potential permanent ordinance.
Residents are most concerned about reducing homelessness, keeping rent affordable and protecting vulnerable residents, according to a city survey.
During a meeting Tuesday night, City Council members were presented with a variety of potential policy framework approaches for the permanent ordinance, from making minor enhancements to rental protections to a comprehensive rework of city policy.
Otherwise, officials could allow the urgency ordinance to expire and default to state law. Passed in 2019, the California Tenant Protection Act strengthened protections for renters, including a provision requiring that tenants can only be told to move out if the owner plans to demolish or “substantially remodel” the unit.
“I’ve had a change of heart,” Councilmember Jessyka Heredia said. She had originally voted in support of the urgency ordinance. “I don’t see any data supporting an emergency at this time. What we should do is advocate at the county and state level to have better laws that protect everybody that are more universal.”
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Councilmembers Seth Smith and Yadira Altamirano said they were also opposed to adopting a permanent tenants protection ordinance.
“We are creating confusion for both landlords and tenants,” Altamirano said, adding that “nobody benefits from this.”
On the other hand, Snow proposed sweeping reforms. One proposal would remove “substantial renovation” as just cause for landlords to remove tenants. Her other proposals were to enhance relocation assistance, expand applicability of tenant’s protections to apply to all corporate landlords, strengthen tenant anti-harassment and anti-retaliation protections, allow violations as affirmative defense for tenants in eviction cases and require the city to collect data related to evictions.
Altamirano said the proposals would burden staff and create new rules the city could not enforce.
“The only thing I’m asking for that will require additional staff time is data collection,” Snow said.
Smith said he was opposed to modifying state law, but supported tightening the city’s definition of substantial renovation to “narrow what the potential for abuse is.”
Ultimately, a majority of the council said they were opposed to making significant changes to local tenant protections. While a unanimous consensus was not reached, city leaders asked staff to draft ideas for a permanent ordinance that would require landlords to provide a copy of the Tenant Protections Act to tenants and tighten the definition of substantial renovation.
The City Council will consider the ordinance on first reading during their next regular meeting July 21.
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