Updates

Rent Board
Tonight the Berkeley Rent Board will vote to narrow down the candidates who are applying to fill Commissioner Harr’s seat on the Board. There were over 16 applicants including many BTU members, several folks who serve on other Berkeley Commissions, and former landlord Commissioner Judy Hunt, who was just voted out of office!
To see applications look in the agenda packet:
http://www.cityofberkeley.info/uploadedFiles/Rent_Stabilization_Board/Level_3_-_General/Item%204.a.(2)_Applicant%20submittals%20by%20name.pdf

To comment to the Board, you must appear in person at 7 PM.

Short Term Rentals
Tomorrow we hope the City Council will vote to pass (on second reading) a decent if not ideal law about short term rentals. BTU Steering decided to support this draft because the most important thing for Berkeley renters is that the city ENFORCE the rules about not turning rent controlled units into hotels! To date, the city has never responded to us about complaints BTU has filed regarding large landlords who rent multiple units on Airbnb. With the new City Council, and this new law, we hope to reduce the loss of permanent housing.

Some owners offer each room as a separate STR.

Read it here (Item 1):
http://www.cityofberkeley.info/Clerk/City_Council/2017/02_Feb/City_Council__02-28-2017_-_Regular_Meeting_Agenda.aspx
Support Item One by Emailing:
council@cityofberkeley.info

Save The Date: Better Tenant Protections
As mentioned in our newsletter, the new Mayor Jesse Arreguin is going to move forward on better tenant protections by revising last year’s lame TPO. Council will review the new draft ordinance on March 14.

A new law requires balconies be inspected and repaired.
A new law requires balconies be inspected and repaired.

Your Berkeley Tenants Union’s quarterly members meeting will be March 30th. It is open to all members, and you can join BTU at the meeting if you are willing to sign our member pledge. Contact us for more information.

The 2016 Rent Board Convention to select a pro-tenant slate for the elected Rent Board will be held on April 24th, a Sunday, at the South Berkeley Senior Center. Potential candidates should contact the convention, which has been held each election year by a coalition of progressive groups for over 20 years.
http://berkeleytenantsconvention.net/

Hot topics at the March 30th meeting (besides the upcoming Tenant Convention) will be proposed ballot measures to increase owner-eviction relocation funds and to fund affordable housing through a windfall profits tax on larger landlords, as well the upcoming Council consideration of an anti-harassment law known as the Tenant Protection Ordinance.
Read the BTU March Newsletter

They are Organizing, Are You?

Oakland Ballot Measure to Make Rent Control Real
“The measure would extend protections under the Just Cause for Eviction Ordinance to thousands more Oakland rental units, implement the currently un-enforced Tenant Protection Ordinance, and reform the existing Rent Adjustment Program (Oakland’s weak substitute for rent control) to make it much harder for landlords to raise rents above the rate of inflation, place an absolute 5% per year cap on rent increases, cover more rental units under rent control, and ensure a tenant-majority Rent Board, among other improvements.”
http://www.oaklandtenantsunion.org/news

“Currently, apartment units built after 1983 do not fall under Oakland’s just cause eviction protections, therefore landlords can evict tenants for almost any reason in those buildings when their lease is up. According to sponsors of the Renters Upgrade initiative, this change would bring 45 percent more of Oakland’s rental housing under just cause protection. The Renters Upgrade ballot measure would also set a cap on rent increases at 5 percent.
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/SevenDays/archives/2016/03/03/oakland-tenant-advocates-file-initiative-to-strengthen-rent-control-and-eviction-protections

“If approved by voters, the initiative would cap rent increases at 5 percent a year, down from the 10 percent landlords can raise rents annually; create a rent board with mostly tenants as members; and expand eviction protections to units built after 1983 that are not protected under the city’s Just Cause Eviction Ordinance. The so-called “Renters Upgrade” measure would require city leaders to prioritize enforcement and implementation.”
http://www.contracostatimes.com/breaking-news/ci_29596130/oakland-tenants-groups-pushing-rent-control-ballot-measure

Alameda Renters Gathering Signatures
http://www.ebcitizen.com/2016/02/alameda-group-seeks-to-place-rent.html

Read the Proposed Alameda Ordinance here:
http://www.thealamedarenterscoalition.org/

Alameda May Be Harassing Tenant Group
After filing their ballot measure, Alameda renters were talking outside the clerk’s office when they were approached by police. While that may not seem odd, the same Alameda group found a police officer scrutinizing them at a public meeting the month before.

“Warmerdam <the Interim City Manager> was the Alameda official, according to city emails,  who asked that plainclothes officers monitor renters at a council meeting last Jan. 5. The officer’s identity became known after a renter saw one of them accidentally drop his handcuffs.
http://www.publicceo.com/2016/03/alameda-city-hall-called-cops-on-renters-group-filing-rent-control-ballot-measure/

Richmond Ballot Measure
The Fair and Affordable Richmond Coalition — consisting of elected officials, renters, homeowners and activists — on Tuesday gathered to officially file the petition with the city clerk. The group will have until June to gather 4,198 valid signatures to place the measure on the November ballot. A rent control ordinance was narrowly passed by the City Council in August, but it was repealed in November after a landlord association circulated a petition. Since then, affordable-housing activists have promised to bring the measure to the November ballot. Had the ordinance approved in August been implemented, Richmond would have been the first California city in more than 30 years to pass rent control.”
http://www.contracostatimes.com/breaking-news/ci_29552957/richmond-group-pushes-bring-rent-control-measure-voters

“Claudia Jimenez, a homeowner in Richmond who is a community organizer with the Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA), said, “The Richmond City Council passed some renter protections including rent control, and just cause eviction protections that were supposed to go into effect last year to protect Richmond renters. However, the California Apartment Association (CAA) spent a lot of money to hire people who gathered enough signatures for a petition that blocked the renter protections from going into effect.”
http://www.thestreetspirit.org/the-struggle-for-renter-protections-in-richmond/

Over on the Other Team

Berkeley Landlord PAC Attempts to Seem Reasonable…
We represent the voice of rental housing providers through our political action committee and legal defense fund. We are here to restore fairness, efficiency and objectivity to Berkeley’s rental housing policies.”
http://www.thebrhc.org/

…While the BPOA Continues to Seem Odd
And so welcome to the latest arrival on the local scene, the Berkeley Rental Housing Coalition. It cannot be said to represent we, the people nor does it comprise a Declaration of Independence. It does, however, establish and ordain an organization to address our rightful grievances to the government which shackles rental housing in so many ways. And, to quote another revered figure from American history, ‘it is altogether fitting and proper that we do this.’ ”
http://bpoa.org/

California Apartment Association Just Won’t Quit
http://www.preservetheellisact.org/

IMG_8492

The Berkeley Tenants Union Quarterly Members Meeting Will Be Wednesday March 30th.

Why The November Election Matters
The Berkeley City Council rejected a perfectly fine option to fund affordable housing through real estate transfer taxes. Councilman Jesse Arreguin, the progressive leader running for mayor, explains why we need to win back City Council in this election: http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2016-03-11/article/44234?headline=Council-Action-Needed-to-Prevent-Berkeley-Displacement–Councilmember-Jesse-Arreguin

The Berkeley Tenant Convention Will Be Sunday April 24th.

The Planning Commission will be discussing Vacation Rentals on March 18, 2015!

SF’s New Vacation Rental Law Making Everyone Unhappy
http://www.triplepundit.com/2014/10/san-francisco-airbnb-wins-vacation-renters-lose/?doing_wp_cron=1425914928.0972390174865722656250
“Residents were previously restricted from renting out their homes for periods of less than 30 days, according to a law that the city said protected housing rates and helped to regulate property rentals. The new law allows residents who live in the city for a minimum of nine months of the year to rent out rooms or residences for short stays for up to 90 days of business per year….
The legislation, he said, was “easily subvertible” and encourages homeowners to try to find a way around the restrictions. “A person has to declare that it’s their permanent residence, and anyone can say that about any place [and] this invites people to do all sort of things and then say ‘come catch me,’” he told SFGate.”

SF Already Discussing Changes; Can Law Be Enforced?
http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/san-francisco-considers-revising-airbnb-law-to-help-enforcement/Content?oid=2922455
“But high-ranking city planning officials said there are loopholes in the current law that no amount of resources could fix.
“The department said that without cooperation from the host platforms, it can’t enforce the requirement that there be 90 days of unhosted stays — those where the resident is not at the rented unit — when there is no cap on hosted stays. There has also been concern about the low number of short-term hosts who have taken steps to register under the law. Sixty residents successfully applied and received registration numbers, which are required to be included in the host’s listings on websites like Airbnb. But there are an estimated thousands of other listings that remain illegal.
Sanchez said the department is “frustrated” that hundreds turned out to support the law’s adoption but there hasn’t been the same turnout to comply with it.”

SF City Attorney Sues Two Landlords
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/S-F-city-attorney-sues-2-landlords-over-5425826.php
“Illegal short-term rental conversions of our scarce residential housing stock” are contributing to “a housing crisis of historic proportions,” Herrera said in a statement.
To illustrate, the suits cited the proliferation of short-term vacation rentals in San Francisco advertised on popular websites: 6,225 on Airbnb, 1,413 on VRBO and 1,351 on HomeAway, VRBO’s parent company.”

SF Tenant Advocates Sue Two Vacation Rental Firms
http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/housing-rights-committee-lawsuit-alleges-vrbo-homeaway-violating-sf-laws/Content?oid=2918721
“The legal action comes a day after The City’s Short-Term Residential Rental Ordinance legalizing home rentals for periods of less than 30 days went into effect. Hooshmand said the new legislation allowing property owners or tenants to rent space short-term if they meet specific criteria will not rectify the various allegations against VRBO and HomeAway.
The new legislation, according to the Committee’s Executive Director Sara Shortt, does not include a strong enforcement mechanism and “actually gives us all the more resolve to put the brakes – in this case through litigation – because the new rules are not going to adequately protect tenants from displacement due to the short-term rentals industry.”

SF Sued by HomeAway – New Law Too Strict
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/nov/5/homeaway-sues-san-francisco-over-airbnb-law/
“The lawsuit filed Monday by HomeAway says the law stymies competition and discriminates against both vacation hosts by requiring them to be city residents and vacation-website companies by mandating they collect the city’s 14 percent hotel taxes….”

Even Senator Diane Feinstein Opposes SF Law
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/openforum/article/Don-t-hand-San-Francisco-over-to-Airbnb-5835325.php
“This is a shortsighted action that would destroy the integrity of zoning throughout San Francisco, allowing commercial and hotel use in residential areas throughout the city.”

SF’s Current Vacation Rental Law – Overview
http://www.sf-planning.org/index.aspx?page=4004

San Diego Begins Revision of Codes for Vacation Rentals
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/mar/08/airbnb-vacation-rental-growth-causing-confusion/
“In San Diego, the regulations that come closest to encompassing short-term rentals are those governing bed-and-breakfasts where residents are renting out one or more rooms in a house in which they are living. In those cases, special permits are needed that require owners to notify surrounding neighbors.”

New York State Bans Most Short-Term Rentals
http://www.nycinsiderguide.com/nyc-vacation-rentals#.VP5CQ44lRzp
“The short of it, is that unless the Landlord owns the entire building, it is illegal to rent or sublet a co-op, condo or apartment for stays less than 30 days. In 2010, the NY State Governor passed a bill and NYC plans to crack down on this law.”

NY City Council Considers Innovative Enforcement
http://town-village.com/2015/03/10/mendez-bill-would-make-illegal-hotels-a-form-of-tenant-harassment/
“(Short-term renters) are coming in at all hours, bringing people they meet into the apartment and it’s then impacting the quality of life, in that there are strangers in their building,” Mendez said. “It’s a breach of peace and quiet in your home because of the noise and people traffic.”
Governor Andrew Cuomo, Schneiderman and Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the launch of a joint enforcement task force last week called the Tenant Harassment Prevention Task Force that will investigate and bring enforcement actions against landlords who harass tenants. Under Lancman and Mendez’s tenant harassment bill, illegal hotel conversions would be included in that definition of harassment. It would fall under the jurisdiction of the task force and would be subject to its investigations and enforcement actions.”

NY City Council Discusses Enforcement, Housing Crisis
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/21/nyregion/hearing-pits-tenants-who-denounce-airbnb-against-those-who-profit-from-it.html?_r=0
“At the hearing on Tuesday, which focused on Airbnb, members of the City Council took turns fuming over what they called a reckless enterprise that put neighborhoods in jeopardy and sapped an already-weak affordable housing market. Speaking before a crowd of hundreds who waved placards reading “My Home Is Not a Hotel,” they variously compared Airbnb to a “marauding army” and an “epidemic.”
“No one should have to live in a building or next to someone where the apartment is being used as an illegal hotel, people coming and going, traipsing in and out, no idea who they are,” Councilman Corey Johnson, a Democrat from Manhattan, said.
The hearing, which focused on how the city enforced a state law barring people from renting an apartment for under 30 days unless the apartment’s resident also stays there, grew into a wide-ranging face-off between two groups of city residents who each said they were being battered by the growing cost of housing.”

Guardian Summary of the Debate on Vacation Rentals
http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2014/jul/08/airbnb-legal-troubles-what-are-the-issues
“While the heat is on in Barcelona – where Airbnb have just been fined €30,000 for breaching local tourism laws – the company is also under attack in a growing number of other cities. In New York it is currently in the midst of a prolonged legal dispute with the attorney general, while authorities in San Francisco, New Orleans, Malibu and other US cities are also mounting crackdowns. In Berlin – where Airbnb has been partly blamed for increasing rents – city officials have created a new housing law banning regular short-term letting of rooms without permission from the authorities, something that could have a big impact on the number of Airbnb hosts in the city.”

Spain Makes Nationwide Law
http://www.spain-holiday.com/rentalbuzz/dispelling-the-myths-about-holiday-rental-licences-in-spain
“In the UK you could not rent your home out as a furnished holiday let without meeting set standards in safety and cleanliness, and declaring your earnings to the tax man. And this is essentially what the new law in Spain sets out to do.”

Barcelona Suspends New Licenses
http://www.spain-holiday.com/rentalbuzz/barcelona-suspends-the-issue-of-further-holiday-rental-licences-for-six-months
“…the rights of local residents were being undermined and community life was suffering, due to the volumes of tourist apartments springing up in local neighbourhoods.”

Paris Actually Enforces Vacation Rental Laws
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-08-07/paris-airbnb-cops-want-to-know-if-you-re-rental-is-legal
“As in New York and Barcelona, officials in the French capital say companies such as Airbnb Inc. have spawned a cottage industry of scofflaw landlords who are cheating citizens out of housing and depriving localities of much-needed revenue from the growth in international travel.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has a 20-person team making unannounced visits to apartments whose owners are suspected of, or turned in by nosy neighbors for, unlawfully renting to visitors.”

stairsRefusal to repair can be considered harassment in Oakland, but before you get too jealous that Oakland finally got an Anti-Harassment Law – there is a BIG catch: tenants will have to enforce the law by suing landlords – the city has no enforcement mechanism at all. So even though Oakland now defines actions such as repeated bogus eviction attempts, refusal to make repairs, and threats to report renters to immigration as harassment, tenants without the means to hire an attorney might not benefit from the new rules.

Such additional protections against harassment have been discussed often but never developed by our elected leaders. San Francisco, East Palo Alto, Santa Monica and West Hollywood are other Rent Control cities that have similar laws. If Berkeley renters want such protections, they will have to organize like Oakland renters did!

There is also an exemption in Oakland for new construction.

“James Vann, co-founder of the Oakland Tenants Union, responded in an email to the city council, “Why should it even be suggested that owners of new construction be made free to harass and retaliate against tenants with impunity! By what rationale does that make sense?” But the exemption remained.”
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/SevenDays/archives/2014/11/06/oakland-officially-okays-tenant-protection-ordinance

More info about the law:

http://oaklandlocal.com/2014/12/know-your-housing-rights-part-1-tenant-protection-ordinance/

https://oaklandnorth.net/2014/10/22/council_manuel/

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/SevenDays/archives/2014/09/25/dan-kalb-proposes-tenant-protection-ordinance-to-curb-landlord-harassment