FW: Town Council August 2nd Meeting
Michele Gardner
Wed 8/2/2023 1:19 PM
To:Town Council <[email protected]>
Cc:Heather Abrams <[email protected]>;Christine Foster <[email protected]> 1 attachments (4 KB)
untitled-[2];
-----Original Message-----
From: Suzanna Aguayo <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, August 2, 2023 12:29 PM
To: Michele Gardner <[email protected]>
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Town Council August 2nd Meeting
Dear Town Council,
My name is Suzanna Aguayo and I rent a duplex unit in Fairfax with my husband Morgan Schmidt-Feng. I would like to take a few moments to urge you to keep the ordinances as robust as possible for the sake of the tenants who reside here. I am grateful for your dedication and commend you for demonstrating great courage and grit in the face of this contentious process.
When my husband and I first moved to Fairfax five years ago, Fairfax did not have strong rental ordinances to consult, and the county rent ordinances offered us little recourse. We faced the reality of a potential
30 day eviction notice after only six months of living here because the owners of the property wanted to sell and there was no guarantee that a new owner would allow us to stay. We experienced many sleepless nights pondering what to expect if we had to look for a new place in the Bay Area's notoriously tight and expensive rental market. Even though we got to stay in our home after the new owners took over the intense anxiety we faced five years ago is still fresh in my mind.
I urge you to keep the rental ordinances as robust as possible to help protect all tenants and help prevent the unnecessary erosion of the protections the ordinances provide. In that spirit please keep the rental cap at 60% of CPI or 5%, whichever is lower, advocate for a five year right of return following a no fault eviction, maintain triple damages for violations of the ordinances because triple damages are consequential enough to help deter potential abuse. Those who face an unexpected displacement, especially low income families, the disabled, the elderly, or those who are dealing with a life threatening illness require more support and the proposed $150 daily allowance is simply not enough. I urge you to implement a daily allowance of $250 to help manage some of the extraordinary costs of a sudden displacement.
Finally, please advocate for a November 2024 vote on the ordinances.
Let's give a majority of voters more time to get informed and vote when they are historically more likely to show up at the polls.
Thank you for your time and patience with this process. I really appreciate your effort and leadership.
Suzanna Aguayo
Fairfax, Ca
August 2nd, 2023
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