Next Tuesday, the Long Beach City Council will consider a temporary ban on evictions related to substantial remodels. If approved, the urgency ordinance would go into effect immediately.
The item is being proposed by Councilmembers Cindy Allen and Suely Saro, with support from Councilmember Mary Zendejas and Vice Mayor Rex Richardson.
In a newsletter announcement today, Allen noted that substantial remodels are putting working families at risk of permanent displacement.
“Renovation projects should not be considered a just cause for eviction,” Allen wrote. “What’s happening right now isn’t working.”
Substantial rehabilitation runs the gamut of quality-of-life improvements. A unit may have asbestos, have mold, need infrastructural improvements or require the removal of hazardous materials. Any kind of substantial modification—structural, electrical, plumbing or mechanical—that requires a permit falls under the provision.
Since the TPA went into effect on Jan. 1, 2020, tenant organizers have found that some landlords interpreted “substantial rehabilitation” as an opportunity—not to improve the living conditions of their units—but to evict their tenants and increase rents.
“We’re tired of losing our families to these notices. We’re tired of losing people to these notices,” tenant advocate Norberto Lopez said in an interview with the Signal Tribune.
If approved, the item also directs the city attorney and city manager to work with a number of stakeholders in the housing realm to study the feasibility of a “renovation administration program.”
Suggested stakeholders include advocates for property owners—the California Apartment Association and Apartment Association of Southern California—as well as tenant advocacy groups Long Beach Residents Empowered (LiBRE) and the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles.
The intent of the program is to balance the needs of landlords who may want to substantially remodel their units with the needs of tenants, who are often subject to inadequate living conditions pre-remodel and subsequent displacement while remodels take place.
City staff would also study the feasibility of removing substantial rehabilitation as a viable reason for no-fault evictions in Long Beach, a move that tenant advocacy groups worked towards since the Tenant Protection Act of 2019 first came into force.
The next Long Beach City Council meeting will take place Tuesday, July 6 at 5 p.m. in the Civic Chambers, 411 W Ocean Blvd. Meetings will be in-person for the first time since the pandemic began. Residents who wish to submit a public comment must attend the meeting in person.
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