Supervisors Side with Renters in ‘Just Cause’ Ordinance
Renters in unincorporated Alameda County are expected to receive mediation of landlord-tenant disputes, and tenants may be protected against some evictions after the county Board of Supervisors took action at its November 12 meeting.
The board gave final approval to setting up a dispute resolution process for disputes between landlords and tenants that might have otherwise ended in eviction. It gave initial approval on a 3-2 vote to a “Just Cause” ordinance that would further limit evictions beyond what state law allows. The ordinance was based mainly on Community Development Agency (CDA) recommendations. The board must pass it again at its December 10 meeting for it to become a county ordinance. In rental law, the term “just cause” requires landlords to have a reason to evict a tenant from a rental unit.
That a Just Cause bill finally passed came as a pleasant surprise to organizer Kristen Hackett of My Eden Voice (MEV), a community group that has spearheaded the fight on behalf of the tenants.
“Mediation without just cause would have been a lost cause,” Hackett said. “It might not have prevented very many evictions, and evictions have been continuing.”
Landlord groups have argued that state protections, passed after a wave of evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, were more than sufficient to guard against arbitrary loss of someone’s dwelling.
Supervisors Elisa Márquez from District 2, District 3 Supervisor Lena Tam, and District 5 Supervisor Keith Carson voted in favor. District 4 Supervisor Nate Miley and District 1 Supervisor and Board President David Haubert voted against it.
Supervisor Tam said in an email, “I believe after two years of working with housing providers and tenant groups, we have a balanced ordinance that will support more housing in Alameda County and security to tenants against being unfairly treated by housing providers. Tenants must have a sanctuary to retreat to at the end of the day that is private, safe, and comfortable.”
Supervisor Miley’s chief of staff, Tona Henninger, said Miley was in the middle of suggesting further changes to the proposal at the November 12 meeting when Supervisor Elisa Márquez interjected that the board had been debating the protections for far too long and should vote on them immediately. They did, and the ordinance passed.
Henninger said she does not know if Miley would propose any additional changes at the second reading, likely on December 10. Second readings of proposed ordinances are meant to correct minor errors and make needed technical changes in bills before final passage.
Henninger said any major changes would require starting over on a new bill, adding that Miley was well aware of how long the issue had been under discussion.
Most of the reasons landlords often give for an eviction remain legal: nonpayment of rent, damage to the property, creating a nuisance, or illegal activity, among others, where the tenant is at fault. A state law passed in 2023, SB 567, closed some loopholes in so-called no-fault evictions, where tenants are told to leave for other reasons. These include the property being taken off the rental market, the landlord or a relative moving in, major renovations or repairs, or a government agency declaring the dwelling uninhabitable.
The county Just Cause ordinance would extend protections to groups of tenants left out of the state laws, such as those renting a single-family home from a landlord who rents out five or more of those in the unincorporated areas, often a corporation rather than an individual or couple.
A no-fault eviction will require extra notice if the household includes a school-aged child, elderly person, disabled person, or low-income person. However, at the landlord groups’ suggestion, the amount of relocation assistance for a no-fault eviction would be reduced to two months from three months.