City Council to weigh just cause eviction protections in October

MILPITAS >> Amid demands from residents and advocates for bolder action to protect renters in the city, the Milpitas City Council has called for an urgency just cause ordinance.

At a special meeting Tuesday, the council directed city staff to work the ordinance — which would require landlords who want to evict a tenant to list a justified reason for doing so — that is slated to be voted on at the Oct. 15 council meeting.

The urgency ordinance would require approval of four of five councilmembers to pass, and if it does, would become effective immediately.

The Governor is soon expected to sign the state’s new rent cap legislation, AB 1482, which would go into effect Jan. 1 and would provide just cause eviction to renters who have been in their home for at least a year, or who are signed onto a one-year or more lease, the city attorney said.

The state law will exclude protection for renters in housing built in the past 15 years, renters in single-family homes and renters in government subsidized housing.

City Council and staff said the aim of the local just cause ordinance would be to patch a gap between mid-October and the end of the year, to prevent landlords from wrongly evicting people in advance of the new state law.

Details of which renters the proposed ordinance will cover are still to be worked out by city staff, though the council indicated Tuesday they may want it to closely mirror the coming state law’s just cause provisions, meaning it could contain similar exclusions.

The council could also later choose to enact a more permanent version of the just cause ordinance.

Changes also could be in store for the rent review ordinance the council initially voted to adopt just last week, including lowering the threshold the council set to trigger a rent review for tenants in the city from those who are facing an annual rent increase of 5% to 7%.

However, the council indicated it may also eliminate some of the types of rental units set to be covered by the ordinance.

The council again heard from renters in the city and advocates Tuesday, some who were frustrated at the council’s unwillingness or inability to pass strong protections for tenants, including just cause, over much of this year.

“You keep postponing and adding another date and another date and another date. Please, we need you to work harder,” Ana Naranjo, a renter in the city said to the council through a translator.

“I don’t know anything about politics, what I need is a result by doing something right now,” Naranjo added, echoing the sentiments of several who spoke Tuesday.

“Time is of the essence,” Loreto Quevedo Dimaandal, an advocate, said to the council.

“Does Milpitas care? Does the Milpitas city council care? You’ve been putting off this issue over and over and over again. … Have some empathy, please,” she said.

Vice Mayor Karina Dominguez also said she’s growing impatient with the council’s pacing on the issue of renter protections in recent months.

“Time is ticking, and community members’ lives are being impacted,” she said, noting that she proposed rent control and just cause eviction ordinances as far back as April, though those were shot down by the council.

“It just feels like every single time we meet, it’s an extra 15 days, an extra 30 days,” she said Tuesday at the meeting.

The council housing subcommittee, made up of Councilman Bob Nuñez and Councilwoman Carmen Montano, will further discuss both the proposed just cause and rent review ordinances with staff and offer feedback at its Oct. 1 meeting, which is scheduled for 1 p.m.

It will be held at the Milpitas City Hall, committee conference room, at 455 E. Calaveras Blvd.