28 Mar Antioch Renter Protections Need to Go Further, Advocates Say

Tenant advocates spoke at the Antioch City Council meeting on Tuesday in favor of a just cause eviction ordinance. (Screenshot captured by Samantha Kennedy / The CC Pulse)

By Samantha Kennedy

After years of advocacy from tenants and community organizers, the Antioch City Council had passed rent stabilization and tenant anti-harassment ordinances to protect renters. Tenants and organizers were grateful but not satisfied. One key tenant protection, they say, was missing.

On Tuesday, the council directed city staff to draft that protection, a just cause eviction ordinance intended to supplement existing protections by state law. The ordinance will likely take inspiration from just cause protections in the Los Angeles-area city of Bell Gardens, according to Antioch city staff.

Tenants and organizers have said the ordinance would help prevent homelessness in a city that had the highest rate of evictions in the Bay Area during the pandemic. Even with the existing protections, some tenants say they don’t ask for things like repairs out of fear they’ll be evicted.

Staff looked at various just cause eviction ordinances in other cities, including Richmond and Bell Gardens, to begin the drafting process of Antioch’s.

Under current state law, landlords must provide a tenant who has been living at a residence for at least 12 months with a valid reason for eviction at the beginning of that process. Valid reasons for eviction in the law fall under two categories: at fault and no fault.

Justifications for at fault evictions include a tenant engaging in criminal activity at the residence or not paying rent. No fault evictions mean the tenant has done nothing wrong but can legally be removed for the purposes of renovations or a landlord move in.

One representative from the California Apartment Association said the council should wait to draft or implement a just cause ordinance because of further eviction protections that will go into place April 1.

Those protections, outlined in SB 567, primarily deal with no fault evictions. If the eviction is due to renovations, SB 567 will require landlords to provide the tenant with information about the type of work that is to be performed and their right to reoccupy the residence should the work not happen or be completed. Owner move-in rules will also change to require the owner or family member who moves into the residence to do so within 90 days and stay for at least 12 months.

Due to differing interests on the council and in the community, Mayor Lamar Hernandez-Thorpe said the draft ordinance would likely not go up for a vote the next time the public sees it. The ordinance would undergo further edits and then be brought to the council for a vote.

Previous tenant protection ordinances have come down to close votes in the city, with council members Lori Ogorchock and Michael Barbanica voting against them. Barbanica, who owns a property management company, recused himself from the tenant anti-harassment ordinance.

The next Antioch City Council meeting is April 9.