Action on Concord Tenant Protection Ordinance on hold ‘til January
CONCORD, CA (Dec. 13, 2023) — Concord renters raising their voices in protest ahead of the City Council second to the last meeting of 2023 were blessed with something of a Christmas miracle when a proposed Tenant Protection Ordinance was continued until the body’s January 9 meeting.
The agenda item prompted both questions by council members followed by several hours of public comment before it was decided to continue the item and allow city staff to prepare answers to some questions raised during the council’s discussion.
With a pending future decision on this issue destined to neither appease tenants or landlords, Mayor Edi Birsan said “It was a present to all.”
With many of the involved tenants being Catholic and, in honor of the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which falls on December 12, tenants brought roses to the city council as a symbol of hope and confidence that the council will deliver a “miracle”—a strong ordinance that protects the most vulnerable.
Raising their voices
Armed with a bull horn in courtyard outside chambers, several dozen protestors raised their voices in unison in support of the rights of tenants and rental control, and for the panel not to vote on the current proposal; but instead reintroduce a proposal in the new year that reflects the community’s demands.
“Fight, fight, fight, housing is a human right,” Gemman Montson led a chanting crowd.
Montson, a single mom who has endured fluctuating rents for the past 12 years, said she would gladly pay a stable rent that had regular increases, such as 3%, rather riding a roller coaster with her monthly rent payments.
“He talks about having to pay for maintenance,” said Montson to justify uneven rent increases. “What maintenance? He hasn’t done any.”
Loopholes
Opposition groups claim the current proposal incorporates many loopholes that render this ordinance ineffectual for tenants.
According to protest organizers, citing a report from the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project titled “Property ownership and consolidation in Concord, “corporate investors, not local “mom-and-pop” landlords, dominate Concord’s rental market. 66% of multi-family units in Concord are owned by the top 10% of landlords, which include about 50 corporations.”
“At multiple meetings and actions we have made clear that hundreds of Concord residents are demanding limits on excessive rent increases and strong “Just Cause” protections to stop unjust evictions,” said Betty Gabaldon, a tenant organizer with East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy
“It is not too late to do the right thing—and represent the needs of our community,” she continued, and come back in the new year “with a revised draft that truly addresses the needs of tenants and incorporates their demands.”
David Scholz
David Scholz is back in journalism as a freelance writer and photographer after nearly two decades in education. Prior to moving into teaching in 2000, he worked as a full-time journalist since 1988 for rural community and small daily newspapers in Central Ohio and Northern Nevada, and later in California with The Business Journal in Fresno and dailies in the Bay Area, including The Oakland Tribune and The San Francisco Chronicle. More recently Scholz also worked in an editing, writing, and page layout role with the Rossmoor News.