HomeMy WebLinkAbout10/28/2025 Item 5a, Hansel
Olivia Hansel <
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:October 28 Study Session on Tenant Protections: Agenda Item 5a
Dear Mayor, Councilmembers, and Staff: Thank you for making renter protections a part of our Major City
Goals, and for your commitment to ensuring safe and stable housing for every resident of our City. I
sincerely appreciate the time and effort staff have put into engaging with stakeholders and preparing the
comprehensive report accompanying the agenda for this Tuesday's study session. As staff have ably
demonstrated, existing law does not effectively protect most renters in our City, and existing programs
do not meet the needs of many residents. The program options they have presented are common-sense
solutions to fill these gaps and ensure all rental units meet basic habitability standards, tenants aren't
evicted without cause or justification, and the City can collect basic information on our rental housing
stock that can be used to formulate effective policy. These programs have been implemented
successfully in many other cities and counties across California and the nation, and there is no reason
they cannot be successfully implemented here if we just have the courage to stay the course. I can
understand why some interests would circulate misinformation about the effectiveness and impacts of
such programs and the City’s prior efforts to meet these goals. When the City prematurely abandoned
prior efforts, it came with a promise that new policies would be implemented to meet those goals. Now is
the time to keep that promise. We all want a livable community with healthy and vibrant neighborhoods,
where everyone has safe and stable housing, no matter what. Please continue to move forward to
achieve those goals without delay. Respectfully,
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