City of San Mateo tenant protections

At its April 21 study session, the San Mateo City Council did not kick renters to the curb in favor of wealthy interests. Instead, based on facts presented, the council directed staff to explore creating an emergency housing assistance fund to help prevent residents encountering financial difficulties from being evicted. One of the facts presented was that in the past year there were roughly 100 evictions from some 10,000 housing units in San Mateo (about 1%). The majority of these evictions were for nonpayment of rent. Adding layers of regulation on housing providers will not cure this problem.

Moreover, most of the housing providers in San Mateo are not “the wealthy” but are “mom-and-pop” investors.

The tenant protections proposed by city staff were over and above Assembly Bill 1482, also known as the California Tenant Protection Act of 2019, which established a statewide rent cap and eviction protections for most residential rental units in California. AB 1482 was a compromise reached by tenant rights activists and the housing provider industry. It was described by Gov. Newsom as providing the strongest tenant protections in the nation.  

Apparently, there are some in San Mateo who are unwilling to live with a compromise and won’t rest until they force many small landlords out of the housing business. Fortunately, the San Mateo City Council understands this and elected to pursue a more practical and equitable solution.

Brian Ponty

San Carlos