The Concord City Council has officially altered its residential tenant protection law with the required second reading of the updated ordinance and another vote on its implementation.
The council at its April 22 meeting voted 3-2, with Dominic Aliano and Laura Nakamura dissenting, same as the initial March 25 vote. The ordinance will take effect 30 days from the vote.
The matter was seemingly settled more than a year ago in March 2023, when the council set annual rent increases for much of the city’s rental housing at 3% or 60 percent of the area consumer price index (whichever is less).
That now goes up to 5%, reflecting a change in the council from last year during the 2024 election. The council’s newest member, Pablo Benavente, proposed an increase of 7% and the exemption of single-family homes.
Tenant advocacy groups protested outside the council chambers before the meeting. Mayor Carlyn Obringer said Wednesday she estimated about 60 people spoke to the council concerning the ordinance Tuesday night.
“The City Council didn’t even bother to give the ordinance a year and study the data before they decided to move forward with these changes that will make it harder for Concord’s renting families, seniors, and young individuals to stay housed in Concord,” Betty Gabaldon, president of the Todos Santos Tenants Union and organizer for East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, said in a statement Wednesday.
“The city has all the research and data proving the importance of the original ordinance for thousands of Concord residents and is making an active decision to ignore these facts and our voices and instead pander to real estate lobbyists and corporate landlords,” Gabaldon said.
“(T)hese changes … will make it harder for Concord’s renting families, seniors, and young individuals to stay housed in Concord.” Betty Gabaldon, Todos Santos Tenants Union
Obringer, who voted for the ordinance in 2024 despite saying the 3% cap was too low, said in March the new ordinance was a compromise.
She also said changing her vote reflected 18 weeks of knocking on doors and speaking with Concord residents during her 2024 re-election campaign, and the results of Proposition 33, which unsuccessfully put statewide rent control on the 2024 ballot.
“Just cause” eviction restrictions will also change in the new ordinance, which will exclude property owners with two or fewer single-family homes or condominiums from having to show just cause to evict tenants.
Just cause includes “at-fault” reasons, such as non-payment of rent, breach of a material term of the lease, criminal activity, or occupying the space in a way that creates a nuisance.
Needing just cause for eviction still applies to owners of three or more single family homes or condominiums. The ordinance only applies to multi-family rental complexes of two or more units built before Feb. 1, 1995.
Single-family homes, condos and rented accessory dwelling units will not be affected by the ordinance, and neither will duplexes in which the owner lives in a unit.