§ 8.22.320. Findings.

1.

A public emergency exists in the city due to the lack of adequate, safe, sanitary, and affordable housing. This emergency disproportionately impacts tenants of residential rental units, a majority of whom are people of color, working class families, the homeless, those of low income, and the elderly and disabled.

2.

Just cause eviction protections would strengthen and effectuate existing rent control legislation in Oakland as landlords are able to use no cause evictions to evade the Oakland Residential Rent Arbitration Ordinance.

3.

Oakland presently has no just cause protections for tenants. As a result, any residential tenant may be subjected to eviction at anytime and without reason.

4.

Without just cause protections, many tenants are afraid to demand their right to a safe, inhabitable home.

5.

Furthermore, Oakland is experiencing extreme housing market pressures from neighboring Santa Clara and San Francisco counties, resulting in a decrease in the vacancy rate and an increase in residential rental prices.

6.

This situation has been exacerbated by the Costa-Hawkins law, which, by eliminating controls on rents upon the voluntary vacation of a rental unit, has provided added economic incentive to evict tenants. From January 1999 through December 2000, the effective date of foil implementation of the Costa-Hawkins law, Sentinel Fair Housing has reported a three hundred (300) percent increase in the eviction of Oakland tenants. This trend has continued to date.

7.

Without the institution of just cause protections, Oakland's housing emergency will continue, and will contribute to increases in homelessness, crime, neighborhood instability, and harm to small businesses.

8.

Many municipal jurisdictions in California, including Berkeley, Hayward, and San Francisco in the Bay Area, have effectively utilized just cause protections to preserve affordable housing. Such protections have helped abate the urban problems associated with neighborhood instability, homelessness, and illegal activity in vacant units, providing concrete benefits for both landowners and tenants.

9.

Just cause eviction protections are consistent with the Housing Element of the Master Plan of the city of Oakland, which states that residents have the right to decent housing in pleasant neighborhoods at prices they can afford.

(Ord. 12537 § 1 (part), 2003)