Half Moon Bay institutes rental registration

Landlords will not have to pay a fee if they register property between June 1 to June 30 and will have a $75 registration fee when registering between July 1 to July 31, with late fees and citations available for noncompliant landlords, the City Council also voted 4-1.

Councilmember Debbie Ruddock was the dissenting vote on both issues, voicing several concerns — including the “adversarial” nature of the ordinance and worries that it wasn’t right for a small town like Half Moon Bay, sentiments echoed by several speakers during the public comment period.

The rest of the councilmembers, however, firmly said that a rental registry was an important step toward its ultimate goal, a future rent control ordinance limiting rent increases between 3% to 5% for multifamily buildings built prior to 1995 intended for passage by June. 

“It’s a way to get necessary data which we don’t have right now,” Vice Mayor Harvey Rarback said. “Without knowing how many rental units there are, what the rents are, without knowing how many people are involved in sub-tenancy, we can’t make any important progress on what I believe is important to protect our low-income tenants.” 

The tenant protection ordinance made changes to municipal code, creating a new title section for housing, adding the new regulations within the section and removing outdated code. The ordinance estimated a $200,000 fiscal impact for first-year implementation of the new regulations, with up to $150,000 allocated from the city’s affordable housing fund for initial backend costs of the registration program and analysis. 

Registration fees could cover up to 70% of the $150,000, Doughty said, although he emphasized that landlords could register early with no fee requirement. 

“We hope that would encourage folks to early register. We believe it is an incentive and also a statement to your interest as a council to get the information and not grab for money,” he said. 

Pamela Dorr, who spoke at public comment, said that as an advocate of affordable housing, she was concerned moves toward rent control and more stringent regulation would ultimately discourage property owners from renting out units. 

“I support producing new units, I support preservation of units and I support protecting tenants. This does not do that,” she said. “The ordinance does not produce units, as a matter of fact it decreases the supply of units ultimately. We won’t be preserving units and we’re not going to be protecting our tenants.”

She also voiced privacy concerns about a database of private rental information.

Mayor Deborah Penrose addressed the apprehension, voiced by Dorr and others, around the security of registration information for both renters and property owners, reminding attendees that the registration was only for landlords — not tenants. 

“This ordinance is not asking that tenants register, it is not asking tenants to give their name, their address, their telephone number and what they are paying. It is asking landlords to register,” she said. “The baloney I have been hearing about how it’s going to hurt the tenants is just that — it’s baloney.” 

Doughty emphasized that all data received from the registry will be compiled into data sets, and individual data will not be released to the public. 

“This ordinance goes out of its way to convey that info regarding very specific facts including name of tenants, rent charged and other such items, would not be subject to disclosure [and] would not be available,” he said. 

Ruddock — who changed her mind after originally supporting the registration at the Jan. 16 meeting — said that as a longtime resident of the 12,000-population Half Moon Bay, prioritizing neighborliness and face-to-face communication rather than implementing aggressive solutions utilized by larger cities should be a priority. 

“I just don’t understand where you’re coming from other than that you grew up in very large cities and some of you grew up under rent control circumstances,” she said. “In Half Moon Bay, I don’t understand why we would take that step, especially after so little homework and so little outreach to the community on the issue.” 

She added that much of the information the registry would request is publicly available. 

Half Moon Bay resident Carolina Carbajal spoke in favor of rent control at public comment through a translator, emphasizing that it could make a difference in the lives of the city’s Latino community. 

“Rent control is something that is needed. There’s been growth in our town, there’s been gentrification. It’s the Latino community that lives in different conditions and they live this way because the rent in Half Moon Bay is extremely expensive,” she said. “I think there should be some rent control in the sense that there’s some people who just cannot pay those prices.” 

But others felt that rent control measures and a rental registry would be an aggressive measure, harming renters and landlords.

“It feels very forced and fast. I don’t think it’s in the renters’ best interest,” Nancy Stern, landlord, said. “I think the annual fee that you’re charging will likely get passed on to renters and increase their rent … . For those seeking transitional housing, that will not be an option. It does not generate more units nor guarantee that housing in poor condition actually gets remedied.”

Stern and others against the regulation also said measures of this nature were somewhat uncommon, typically put into use in larger cities like Minneapolis or San Francisco. Mayor Joaquin Jimenez refuted this point by asserting it was put successfully to use in nearby East Palo Alto. 

“If it’s working in East Palo Alto, a city that was gentrified, why would it not work in Half Moon Bay?” he said. “I’m in big support. To our tenant protection, renters protection. It’s something that we need to do here in our community. We’re not saying don’t raise your rent, you can raise your rent, but do it the right way.” 

holly@smdailyjournal.com

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