HomeMy WebLinkAbout10/28/2025 Item 5a, Spanos (2)
2025 2:48 PM
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,
Kristyn Spanos
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