Concord City Council voted in favor of a rent control ordinance this Tuesday that caps annual rent increases and establishes new just cause for eviction policies. Rent caps would only apply to multi-family rental complexes built before 1995, and excludes rented single-family homes, rented condominium units, or rented accessory dwelling units.
The final draft will be reviewed at second meeting on March 5. If approved, Concord will be one of the few cities in Contra Costa County with rent stabilization and just cause for eviction policies, along with Richmond, that passed a similar ordinance in 2017, and Antioch, that passed a Rent Stabilization Ordinance in 2022.
The ordinance will include a three percent annual rent increase cap or a cap at 60 percent of the consumer price index, whichever is lower, on multi-family rental complexes of two or more units built before February 1995. It also establishes just cause for eviction policies that cover most units, including single family homes, condominiums, and multi-family homes no matter when built.
Four out of five council members voted in favor of passing the ordinance that, according to them, is intended to protect renters as housing costs have skyrocketed in the region, overcrowding has increased, and more people have moved into uninhabitable spaces.
Our neighbors were being evicted and displaced (…) this will stabilize our communities
Laura nakamura, concord city council member
“Our neighbors were being evicted and displaced from their communities, and children were being uprooted from their schools. I am very excited to see that this will stabilize our communities,” city council member Laura Nakamura said before her vote. “Hopefully, people will feel secure in their homes so they can do more than just eat, sleep, and work, and be able to invest economically in our community that is Concord.”
After several rewrites, the ordinance expanded the definition of no-fault for eviction, which would entitle some renters to compensation from their landlords. Some no-fault evictions include if the owner intends to move into the unit. Another no-fault for eviction reason is if the owner wants to remove the unit from the rental market, or if the owner decides to demolish or make major renovations to the property.
A topic of debate among the council members was how much financial assistance landlords should be required to provide tenants who are forced to relocate for no fault of their own. The final version of the ordinance ultimately decreased the financial relocation assistance from three times to two times the Housing and Urban Development definition of Fair Market Rent, along with a decrease of a moving stipend from $3,000 to $2,000.
The new law does provide further protections for disabled tenants, seniors, or the terminally ill. In the instance of an eviction of a vulnerable person by an owner who plans to move in, the ordinance states that the owner must also be considered vulnerable. If the owner decides to make major renovations, they must provide relocation assistance to the tenant, depending on the amount of relocation time needed.
At a Jan. 30 city council meeting, dozens of landlords voiced their concerns about the draft of the ordinance, stating that the rent cap is much too low to compete with rising maintenance costs and that the relocation assistance fees are much too expensive. Margaret, who spoke during public comment and did not share her last name, said she has been a homeowner and a landlord in Concord with her husband for 30 years, and rents to a local family. She expressed her concerns with the low rent cap and how it will affect her rental property. “Because of the proposed ordinance, we will most likely need to sell the house we rent. It will need to be taken off the market and further contribute to the housing shortage,” she said.
In an interview after the vote, Rhea Laughlin, the executive director at Rising Juntos, one of the organizations leading the conversation on tenant rights in Concord, described the ordinance as a tremendous move in the right direction.
“It’s an important step for the city to prioritize people over profit,” she says, “and to send a clear message across Concord that low-income families, immigrants, working families and families of color belong in Concord, and deserve to have safe, affordable, and dignified housing.”
