The city of Sacramento is evaluating proposed new rules designed to protect tenants from harassment, but it’s unclear whether the draft plan will receive enough votes to pass in the next few months.
Opponents of the tenant anti-harassment ordinance say it isn’t necessary because state laws cover many of the issues, while supporters argue it’s difficult to hold landlords accountable to existing laws.
Council member Caity Maple proposed the ordinance and said she modeled it after renter laws passed in cities such as Richmond, Oakland and Los Angeles. Despite state and federal landlord-tenant laws, Maple said many low-income and undocumented renters in the Oak Park area are struggling with landlord harassment. Organizers with the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment told her a local ordinance could help.
“If you're operating in bad faith, if you're not accepting my rent payment because you want me to leave and not because I've done anything wrong, if you are entering my home without permission … then we need to have a standard that people can actually meet,” Maple said.
The proposal could build on top of existing law, adding local penalties tenants could sue for if landlords threaten a renter with physical harm, force a renter to vacate a unit or harass them in other ways.
Sacramento’s law and legislation committee discussed the proposal on Wednesday, but didn’t direct city staff to start working on the ordinance. Instead, the committee asked staff to prepare information on resources available for tenants and an analysis on whether the proposal could meet gaps in services.
Members didn’t specify a deadline for the staff’s work, but the next committee meeting is scheduled for April 18. Council members Katie Valenzuela, Rick Jennings, Eric Guerra and Lisa Kaplan sit on the committee; Maple isn’t part of it. A majority of the committee must support the anti-harassment policy in order for it to move on to the City Council, which could vote to adopt it.
Landlords, realtors and representatives from the California Apartment Association (CAA) and the Sacramento Association of Realtors urged the committee to reject the proposal. They argued a Sacramento tenant anti-harassment ordinance could leave landlords vulnerable to lawsuits, make the business of rental housing more expensive and difficult, and hurt small landlords who try to keep up with various regulations.
Mallori Farrell, senior vice president of local public affairs for CAA, was among those who requested the city focus on programs to increase education on existing tenant protections and anti-harassment laws. Farrell said the CAA applauded the committee’s decision to look into existing resources instead of beginning work on the proposal.
“The proposed anti-harassment ordinance is an unnecessary, duplicative and misguided piece of legislation that will do nothing to solve our housing crisis, build more affordable homes, or help families who have been waiting for rental assistance get the help they need,” Farrell said in an emailed statement.
Monica Madrid, an organizer with the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, said it seemed the majority of the committee members cared more about apartment and realtor associations than tenants in their districts. A tenant anti-harassment ordinance provides a way to hold landlords who act in bad faith accountable, Madrid said.
“It's not something that we want to do because we think all landlords are bad,” Madrid said. “We're just trying to go after the ones that are. If they're a good landlord, if they do everything to the T, they should not have to worry about this kind of anti-harassment policy passing.”
She added existing tenant resources are limited and emphasized that Sacramento’s tenant protection program doesn’t cover harassment. Madrid also said Sacramento Self-Help Housing and its affiliated renters helpline is in financial peril following funding issues with the county board of supervisors.
If the proposal doesn’t receive majority support from the committee to advance to the council, a city tenant anti-harassment ordinance can’t be reconsidered for a year.
Madrid said the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment is also advocating for a similar policy at the county level. It has been working with Supervisor Patrick Kennedy’s office on a tenant anti-harassment ordinance since around July 2022, she added.
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