Concord enacts new rent rules after referendum fails
New drop-in times to guide landlords through provisions.
CONCORD, CA (May 16, 2024) — As the city begins implementing its new rent ordinance, staff has set up Q&A opportunities and also plans to send a letter to all residents, homeowners and landlords.
The Residential Tenant Protection Program went into effect April 19, after a resident’s effort to put the measure before voters didn’t collect the required signatures before the April 18 deadline. The rules establish a Rent Stabilization Program, increase “just cause,” no-fault eviction protections and expand the city’s Rent Registry.
Concord’s housing staff will be available via Zoom 1-3 p.m. Mondays, with in-person, drop-in meetings 1-3 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Housing manager Sophia Huckabay said five residents and landlords had questions during the first session on May 6.
“They were really pertaining to understanding what the allowable rental increases were and if their units were covered by the ordinance, how the rent rollbacks work, and if the just cause for evictions provisions apply to them and if relocation assistance is due and, if so, how much,” she said.
Staff will be verifying compliance through “a complaint-driven process” – meaning tenants must inform city officials if they didn’t receive a rent rollback or if a rent increase is higher than allowable under the rules. The city will hire hearing officers to adjudicate any issues.
Meanwhile, landlords must complete the Rent Registry, although the typical July 30 deadline will be extended.
“Because we have to implement the software, it’s gonna take a little bit more time,” Huckabay said. “So we’re targeting fall this year to get all the units registered.”
According to Huckabay, Rent Registry fees will “pay forward” administration of the rent stabilization and just cause evictions provisions, while also providing more data about the rental market. “It will help the council to understand what rents look like and whose being evicted and for what reason to inform future policies.”
The rent stabilization and rent rollback sections only apply to multi-family rental complexes of two or more units built before Feb. 1, 1995. Single-family homes and condos are included in the just-cause, no-fault eviction portions.
Tenant rights groups have long advocated for more safeguards for Concord renters, but Jo Sciarroni began the petition drive last month because she objected to the inclusion of single-family homes. The City Council planned to discuss the single-family home component again on May 14, after the Pioneer’s deadline.
“We could amend the ordinance; we could decide to put it on the ballot if we can’t make up our minds or we don’t want to do it ourselves; or we could do nothing,” Mayor Edi Birsan said last month.
Before the council approved the rules 4-1 earlier this year, Councilmember Carlyn Obringer brought up concerns about single-family homeowners not being aware that they would be included. Councilmember Laura Hoffmeister also said she had been approached by residents who were just learning about the plan.
Sciarroni did not return the Pioneer’s call for a comment after she withdrew the petition, but she previously called the ordinance “an unfair taking of property rights, especially when it concerns single-family homes.”
If the council decides to adjust the rules for single-family homes, there would be a second reading in 30 days before any changes would take effect.
Related story: Divided Concord council retains eviction policy for single-family homes
Read more stories about Concord’s Residential Protection program.
Bev Britton
Bev Britton graduated with a degree in journalism from the University of North Dakota and moved to the Bay Area with her soon-to-be husband Jim in 1986. She was features editor at the Contra Costa Times in Walnut Creek before becoming managing editor of the Contra Costa Sun in Lafayette in 1995. She retired from newsrooms in 2001, but an ad for the Clayton Pioneer drew her back in. The family moved to Lake Wildwood in the Gold Country a few years ago - but working at the Pioneer keeps her in touch with her old neighborhoods in Concord and Clayton.