Richmond fails to pass moratorium on rent increases
By Karina Ioffee kioffee@bayareanewsgroup.com
Posted:   04/22/2015 06:39:27 AM PDT0 Comments | Updated:   9 min. ago
RICHMOND -- In a resounding blow to affordable housing advocates, Richmond failed to pass a moratorium on rent increases Tuesday, the result of a bureaucratic mix-up that required a super majority of votes from the council.
More than 50 percent of Richmond residents are renters and many say they are getting priced out of this city of 107,000. While Richmond is still one of the most affordable cities in the Bay Area, rents are rapidly rising and have increased an average of 33 percent in the past five years, according to RealFacts, a company that monitors real estate trends.
On Tuesday, the City Council was expected to pass a 45-day emergency moratorium on all rent increases, which would pave the way for an eventual vote on rent control. But a day before the vote the city attorney advised the council it needed six votes to pass the emergency resolution, not five as he had previously advised.
"Our legal research has been good, our math poor," City Attorney Bruce Goodmiller said in an email to the council.
At Tuesday's meeting, residents clad in matching yellow T-shirts and waving signs calling for a rent control ordinance, said they were disappointed that what they described as a "bureaucratic flop" had again prevented the measure from reaching a vote.
"The rent increases are killing us," said Hector Monico, 49, who pays $1,150 a month for a two-bedroom apartment he shares with his wife and two children. "The rents keep going up, up and up, while our salaries stay the same."
Monico, who works at a local market, said he and many others in his building have received rent increases of $150, money they need for their groceries.
"If the city was truly interested in helping us, they would have passed this already," he said.
At least four council members support a rent control ordinance, but Mayor Tom Butt and Councilman Nat Bates oppose the measure and Councilman Vinay Pimplé remains undecided. An ordinance to place an emergency moratorium on all rent increases for 45 days was placed on Tuesday's agenda by Vice Mayor Jael Myrick, but pulled at the start of the meeting, stunning residents who had arrived expecting it to pass.
Myrick said he removed the item from the agenda because he knew he didn't have the six votes required to pass an emergency resolution.
"I always knew it was a longshot," Myrick said following the meeting. "When you have something that's so divisive, is it doing the city a favor to vote on something you know won't pass?"
He also said he has been working with Richmond landlords to voluntarily freeze rents until a more formal policy is put into place. So far, he said landlords renting some 2,000 units in the city have agreed, a move Myrick hailed as a victory.
Meanwhile, affordable housing advocates said both rent control and just-cause eviction ordinances, the latter of which would bar landlords from evicting tenants without a reason, were vital for preventing displacement of low-income residents from their homes.
Leah Simon-Weisberg, legal director for Tenants Together, a statewide group advocating for renters' rights, said the measures would also stimulate the local economy, giving residents more money to go out or purchase items for their families.
"When people are not spending 50 percent of their salary on housing, they have more discretionary income to spend at Richmond businesses," she said. "There have been rent control and just-cause eviction ordinances for the past 30 years," Simon-Weisberg said. "Why is this so difficult? It's not rocket science."
Contact Karina Ioffee at kioffee@bayareanewsgroup.com. Follow her at Twitter.com/kioffee