County Renters Continue to Seek Protection
Demonstrators gathered outside the Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, July 23, demanding more protections for renters in Alameda County’s unincorporated areas.
About 30 people from several communities, members of the community groups My Eden Voice and Eden Renters United, joined under the slogan “Just Cause For Eden” to call for supervisors to pass an ordinance limiting evictions to 11 specified just causes. These include several reasons commonly cited by landlords for an eviction, including nonpayment of rent, damaging the property, or criminal behavior on the property.
Currently, state law gives all renters some protection, and cities can pass additional ones if they choose. However, residents in unincorporated areas can currently be evicted simply to charge a higher rent to the next tenant or for other reasons that do not reflect the tenant's doing anything wrong.
The state law also excludes renters of single-family homes, which My Eden Voice estimates make up 42 percent of the renters in the unincorporated areas. The group wants them included in a county ordinance.
“We want every renter in the unincorporated area included in Just Cause, from renters in single-family homes to mobile home parks,” said Tara Clancy, a Castro Valley resident at Avalon Mobile Home Park.
Clancy added, “Corporate landlords are evicting residents to reset rents and increase profits.” She said some 90 percent of those renting their units at Avalon, as opposed to owning them and paying rent on the space they occupy, have recently been evicted.
The draft ordinance had come from the county’s Community Development Agency, resulting from talks between renters and several supervisors since last March. Those began after several supervisors, including Lena Tam in District 3 and Nate Miley in District 4, abstained from voting on an earlier renter protection measure, thus defeating it.
Tam represents unincorporated San Lorenzo and Hayward Acres, along with the cities of San Leandro and Alameda. Miley represents unincorporated Ashland, Cherryland, Fairview, Castro Valley, and other communities, including part of Oakland.
Tam pulled the item off the July 23 agenda, saying it needed further thought on some provisions concerning single-family homes and compensation for tenant relocation.
The earliest it could be looked at again would be the supervisor’s meeting of September 17.
“The continued neglect is completely unacceptable, especially since tenants’ fight for protections has been as consistent as the Supervisors’ negligence,” My Eden Voice said in a statement.
Cherryland resident and My Eden Voice board member Laura Andrade said, “We met with our supervisors many times. We’ve had constant conversation”
Tam said in a statement. “Let us be very clear: Supervisor Lena Tam supports tenant protections. Residents should be able to enjoy the security of living in a safe, habitable home without the fear of being arbitrarily uprooted and tossed onto the street.”
Tenant groups aren’t convinced of her support.
“Supervisor Tam’s recent action also represents a consistent voting record of blocking local, tenant-related policies since her election in 2022,” Kristen Hackett of My Eden Voice said in an email. “Tam has voted down, abstained or now requested a continuance each time tenant protections have been on the agenda.”
Hackett said that Supervisor Miley has opposed any eviction protections for renters of single-family homes but hopes there is a compromise possible that could gain his support.
“There’s a difference between an individual or couple renting out a single house and a corporation renting out many,” she said. “Perhaps there is a limit somewhere in between that we can agree to set for now.”
Supervisor Miley’s office could not be reached at press time for comment.