Today, in a historic move, the San Jose City Council voted 6-5 to increase renter protections. This critical and hard-fought victory for the City’s tenants is the largest progressive win at San Jose City Hall in decades.
The renter protection policies were supported by Vice Mayor Magdalena Carrasco and Council Members Sergio Jimenez, Sylvia Arenas, Raul Peralez, Don Rocha and Tam Nguyen and opposed by Mayor Sam Liccardo and Council Members Johnny Khamis, Chappie Jones, Dev Davis, and Lan Diep.
Council instructed staff to draft policies that address the City’s eviction and displacement crisis. These policies will come before the Council in a few weeks. Specifically, the ordinances being drafted will:
- Require “just cause” for evictions for all renters, no longer allowing landlords to evict responsible tenants;
- Ensure that landlords provide advance notice and relocation assistance for tenants under the Ellis Act; and
- Use the Consumer Price Index to cap rent increases on rent-controlled apartments.
San Jose is the second most expensive rental market in the country and, until today’s vote, was the last major city in the Bay Area without a just cause or Ellis Act ordinance.
Renters rights advocates, some of whom have been fighting for these policies for more than 40 years, the South Bay Labor Council, Working Partnerships USA, Silicon Valley Rising, PACT, UniteHere, Sacred Heart, SEIU USWW, SEIU 521, Silicon Valley De-Bug, Teamsters, Silicon Valley Renters’ Rights Coalition, and Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, are just a handful of the organizations that made today’s victory possible.
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