San Mateo, Foster City weigh tenant protection policies

In a new report released by Stanford Law School’s Community Law Clinic, which partnered with Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County and Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto, eviction filings in the county increased by 35% between 2019-23, with preliminary data suggesting 2024 will be even higher. Roughly 80% of the evictions were related to nonpayment of rent. 

The push to strengthen tenant protections — which can include policies ranging from relocation assistance to rent control — has gained momentum over the last five years, both at the local and state level. In 2019, the state passed Assembly Bill 1482, which limited annual rent increases and implemented more requirements for just-cause evictions. 

“The [Tenant Protection Act] is very important in protecting tenants’ rights. It has given us legal strategies or legal arguments in cases that we didn’t have previously. In the past, you didn’t have to have any reason for an eviction, so there was often nothing to go in with from the tenants’ side,” Stacy Hawver, executive director of the Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County, said.  

And cities like Half Moon Bay and South San Francisco passed more ordinances related to anti-displacement and tenant protection over the past couple years. 

In its April 21 meeting, the San Mateo City Council said it would be in support of a city-funded emergency rental assistance program but stopped short of other suggestions, such as a rental registry or extending rental assistance requirements — funded by housing providers — beyond the state-mandated one-month requirement. 

“I think, going forward, we should be focused on production as much as possible. The production of more housing in San Mateo requires us to balance the interests of residents with developers and property owners,” Councilmember Danielle Cwirko-Godycki said. “If we want more production in the city, we need to be a city that encourages capital investment in new housing.”

The report showed there were about 141 eviction filings in the city in 2019 and 2023, and while the council also opted not to move ahead with a rental registry, they did voice support for more robust data on rental information. 

Realtor Jeff LaMont said he supports emergency gap funding if renters are behind on rent, given the majority of evictions are related to nonpayment, but stronger policies that place more financial and administrative burdens on housing providers will discourage production and maintenance. 

“If the city put more effort into helping provide a gap funding program, that would be more helpful than onerous rent control measures … and measures that burden mom-and-pop housing providers,” he said. 

Despite the Foster City Planning Commission rejecting a recommended expansion of such policies, its City Council voted to move forward with the more robust measures during its meeting April 21. The policies would extend several AB 1482 protections to below-market-rate units — which are currently exempt from the state law — such as requiring landlords to pay three months’ worth of rent for no-fault evictions. 

Mayor Stacy Jimenez said she manages affordable housing units outside of Foster City and is acutely aware of the additional costs and regulatory burdens that housing providers face but the consequences that low-income families face when they lose housing often results in homelessness. 

“For someone in a low-income unit, having to move … is a very difficult thing to do, to come up with that money when you are, most of the time, living paycheck to paycheck,” Jimenez said. “Three months’ rent is a lot of money for landlords, but to a certain extent that’s kind of the cost of doing business … you have to remember that could mean the difference between homelessness and not.”