SAN BRUNO CITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING
July 28, 2026
Public Comment(s)
From: Kate Comfort
To: City Clerk
Cc: City Manager; Joseph Toney; Raquel Pulido; Peter Gilli; Laura Fanucchi; Laura Moya Subject: HIP Housing | 7/28/26 Agenda Item 8C | Business License Tax Date: Tuesday, July 28, 2026 8:25:58 AM
Attachments: HIP Housing Business Licence Tax Letter to the CIty of San Bruno 62826.pdf Dear Mayor Medina, San Bruno City Council Members, and City Manager McIntyre, On behalf of HIP Housing, I submit the attached letter expressing our tremendous concern over the City's proposal for a new Business Licensing and Income Tax for individuals who rent rooms in their homes, as a way to both secure their own housing and to provide housing for others.
This item is on the July 28, 2026, Council Agenda as 8C.
We urge you to exempt anyone renting rooms through nonprofit organizations that provide Home Sharing programs. Individuals using speicalized
home sharing programs are instrumental in expanding the pool of available local affordable housing in a way that is practical, time-tested, and inexpensive for the City.
Please do not tax them for being a part of our local housing solution.
Very fondly,
Kate
www.hiphousing.org
Kate Comfort Harr | she/her
Executive Director
111 E. 5th Avenue, San Mateo, CA 94401
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE and DISCLAIMER: This email message is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by
reply email and destroy all copies of the original message. If you are the intended recipient, but do not wish to receive communications through this medium, please so advise the sender immediately. Nothing in this communication should be interpreted as a digital or electronic signature that can be used to authenticate a contract or other legal document. The recipients are advised that the sender and HIP HOUSING or its subsidiaries and affiliates are not qualified to provide, and have not been contracted to provide, legal, financial, or tax advice, and that any such advice must be obtained from the recipients’ attorney, accountant, or tax professional.
1 Home. Heart. Hope.
Board of Directors
Lauren Boro
President
Nancy Bush
Vice President
Kalah Espinoza-Agger
Treasurer
Napallo Gomez
Secretary
Alicia Aguirre
Aaron Aknin
Richa Awasthi
Ian Bain
Mary Bates
Lauren Berman
Igor Bershteyn
LaTisa Brooks
Jesse Gutierrez
Peggy Jensen
Mary Leahy
Brian Perkins
Corey Rostad
Honorary Board
Lois Almen Everett
Emeritus
Congresswoman
Anna Eshoo
Honorable Helen Fisicaro
T. Jack Foster, Jr.
Honorable Jerry Hill
Dennis Lanterman
Honorable Jack Matthews
Memo Morantes
Helen Hilton Raiser
David Schemel
Honorable Jackie Speier
Administration
Kate Comfort Harr
Executive Director
Ghion Dessie
Vice President of Finance
Laura Fanucchi
Director of Programs
Troy Wilson
Fund Development
Director
HIP Housing
111 E. 5
th Avenue
San Mateo, CA 94401
650-348-6660
www.HIPhousing.org
July 28,2026
RE: July 28, 2026 Agenda Item 8C Regarding Proposed Business License Tax
Dear Mayor Medina, San Bruno Council Members, and City Manager McIntyre,
HIP Housing would like to express its deep concern about the proposed Business License and Gross Receipts Tax being proposed for individuals renting rooms and ADUs in the City of San Bruno--taxes that would be in addition to any property taxes they already pay.
The need for housing in San Bruno and throughout San Mateo County is acute and taxing these individuals only exacerbates the problem.
The 2026 homeless count in San Mateo County showed our homelessness population has risen 5% since the previous assessment. Every municipality in San Mateo County must use every tool in its tool belt to create housing opportunities. Home Sharing is an essential part of this local tool belt.
HP Housing has been providing our Home Sharing program throughout San Mateo County since 1979 and is in the San Bruno housing element as a way to provide fair housing choice.
Currently, 11% of our home sharing matches are in the City of San Bruno. Additionally, in 2026, San Bruno’s Community Development Team partnered with HIP Housing to conduct outreach activities in the City to raise awareness of HIP Housing’s Home Sharing Program for homeowners with rooms or Accessory Dwelling units to rent.
Home Sharing helps match those who have space to share in their homes with individuals in need of an affordable place to live. In doing so, the program assists in using existing housing stock extremely efficiently to create new housing opportunities. Of those using our Home Sharing Program in San Bruno:
· 75% are seniors
· average income is $58,731
· 56% of home providers had incomes at the poverty level · 91% of home providers were low-income
For those using our Home Sharing Program, renting a room is not a way to make income. It is a way to secure their housing while also helping others to find and maintain housing in an otherwise hostile housing market.
Imposing a Business and Gross Receipts Tax on individuals who are already struggling and who are also helping to relieve our local housing crisis by providing rooms for rent, is not only regressive but will be so much more costly in the long run as it will exacerbate homelessness and displacement.
2 The tax creates a chilling effect for home sharing providers and as individuals become disincentivized to rent their rooms, it will not only destabilizes their housing situation but also removes a very practical, time-tested, and desperately needed housing option for low- wage workers, seniors, and others in search of an affordable place to live.
Recognizing that home sharing is an essential part of affordable housing stock, legislation across the country is moving to protect the model rather than hurt it by imposing regressive business and income taxes.
This year, Portland, Oregon announced a pilot program to pay $1,000 to homeowners who make a spare room available (or $1,500 for two rooms) through qualified home-share programs like HIP Housing’s Home Sharing Program.
Meanwhile, legislators in several states have introduced or passed bills that prohibit municipalities from unduly restricting homeowners who want to rent spare rooms to nonfamily members. Sponsors in Pennsylvania and Connecticut actually call them Golden Girls bills, and they’ve drawn bipartisan support.
In Colorado state Rep. Manny Rutinel, helped pass a 2024 law prohibiting cities and counties from limiting the number of unrelated people who could live together in a single dwelling.
In Pennsylvania, state Rep. Tarik Khan steered a similar bill through the House in June that now awaits a Senate vote.
Home sharing can’t solve the housing crisis, but it can make a dent by potentially unlocking thousands of spare bedrooms across the County.
As in Portland, and across the Country, any proposed Business Licensing or Gross Receipts Income Tax needs to be exempted for those renting rooms through qualified non-profit organizations like HIP Housing.
Please ensure that rooms which are an essential source of workforce and senior housing continues to benefit the City of San Bruno and those desperately in need of an affordable place to call home by exempting those who are renting room through nonprofit home sharing programs designed to expand the available inventory of local affordable housing.
Fondly,
Kate Comfort Harr
Executive Director
HIP Housing
CC: Alex McIntyre, San Bruno City Manager
Joseph D. Toney , Assistant City Manager
From: Rhovy Lyn Antonio
To: Rico Medina; Sandy Alvarez; [email protected]; Marty Medina; Michael Salazar Cc: Alex McIntyre; Joseph Toney; Lupita Huerta
Subject: Letter from CAA re: Agenda #8C - Business License Tax Modernization Measure Date: Tuesday, July 28, 2026 3:30:06 PM
Attachments: 2026-07-28 Letter from CAA re Item 8c Gross Receipts Tax.pdf Honorable Mayor Medina and City Council Members,
Please see the attached letter from the California Apartment Association opposing the proposed gross receipts tax measure.
I am available for any questions or concerns.
Thank you all for your consideration.
Best,
_____
Rhovy Lyn Antonio
▪ Senior Vice President, Local Public Affairs
California Apartment Association
CAA is your partner in the rental housing industry.
Find out how we're working for you.
CAA Services: Events and Education Insurance Tenant Screening
July 28, 2026
Mayor Rico Medina and Members of the City Council
City of San Bruno
567 El Camino Real
San Bruno, CA 94066
RE: Agenda Item 8C – Business License Tax Modernization Measure
Dear Mayor Medina and Members of the City Council:
The California Apartment Association (CAA) opposes Agenda Item #8C – Business License Tax Modernization Measure.
CAA understands the city’s need to fund essential services. But the proposed business license tax measure would move the city to a gross receipts formula and is a serious problem for rental housing.
The proposal singles out rental housing.
The recommended rate structure places Property Rental in the highest proposed tax category at $3.00 per $1,000 of gross receipts, while retailers, service businesses, contractors, and other business categories would be taxed at lower rates.
The staff report explains why several industries warrant lower tax treatment, citing factors such as thinner operating margins and existing sales taxes. However, it does not provide a comparable analysis demonstrating why residential rental housing should instead be assigned the City's highest proposed tax category.
A gross receipts tax is fundamentally different from a tax based on income.
Unlike taxes based on profitability, a gross receipts tax applies to revenue before accounting for the costs of operating a business. Apartment owners incur significant expenses: insurance, utilities, maintenance, payroll, property taxes, financing, capital improvements, and regulatory compliance, regardless of whether a property is profitable.
Yet the staff report does not evaluate how a gross receipts methodology would affect residential rental housing or explain why gross receipts are a more appropriate basis for taxing this industry than the City's existing approach.
The Council should also consider whether a gross receipts tax is the most stable revenue source for the City. Because gross receipts are directly tied to business activity, City revenues decline when businesses struggle and receipts fall— precisely when municipalities often face increased demand for public services and greater budgetary pressures. Before replacing the existing business license structure, the City should evaluate whether this methodology promotes long-term fiscal stability as well as tax equity.