Ex A1 RRO_TRO_Eval_Annual_Report FY2018-2022 FINAL — San Leandro City Council, December 5, 2022

Housing Division Evaluation Reports
July 2018 to June 2022
I. Overview
This report covers the period from July 1, 2018 through June 30, 2022. There are multiple variations to note in this multi-year report. First, during the period from July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2020 there was a significant fluctuation in Rent Review cases heard by the Rent Review Board.

This was due to the adoption of AB 1482 by the CA Legislature, otherwise known as the Tenant Protection Act of 2019, that took effect January 1, 2020. AB 1482 limits rent increases to 5% plus the Consumer Price Index, or 10% whichever is lower. As of the effective date until June 2022 the sanctioned allowable rent increase under AB 1482 was below 7%. In San Leandro, rent increases of 7% or greater trigger the Rent Review Ordinance and a Rent Review Board hearing.

Property owners/managers have preferred to reduce rent to below 7% rather than appear in at a Board hearing. Therefore, there were no cases heard by the Rent Review Board since October 2019.

Second, although there was a significant decrease in Rent Review cases in 2020, there was an uptick in many other areas that the Housing Division staff serves. For example, in July 2019 the City adopted the Mobilehome Space Rent Stabilization Ordinance (MHSRSO) and, although an annual report is not required for this ordinance, City staff fielded many calls where information and referral services on the MHSRSO were provided. In FY 2020-2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, Housing Division staff fielded many calls regarding the eviction moratorium and both the City’s and Alameda County’s Emergency Rental Assistance Programs.

Data for most all of phone inquiries to the Housing Division are presented below in Table 1 and are, in some cases, further summarized by the type of caller. (Note that the total inquiries do not equal the sum of the types of callers as that data is not always provided.) Table 1
Inquires to Housing Division
Total Tenant
Property
Owner/
Manager
Realtor
FY 2018-2019 745 421 (57%) 114 (15%) 14 (2%)
FY 2019-2020 797 425 (53%) 153 (19%) 14 (2%)
FY 2020-2021 664 225 (34%) 77 (12%) 8 (1%)
FY 2021-2022 573 237 (41%) 72 (13%) 10 (2%)
Housing Division Evaluation Reports
July 2018 to June 2022
Part II: Rent Review Ordinance

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II. Rent Review Ordinance
During the FY 2018-2019 reporting period there were 16 tenant households that requested a Rent Review Board (RRB) hearing. Comparing this number to the 29 RRB requests in FY 17-18 there was a significant reduction in hearing applications. In FY 2018-2019, 5 applications for a RRB hearing were not subject to the Ordinance: 3 were applications for rent increases that were not >7%, 1 was an owneroccupied mobilehome, and 1 was a Single Family Residential unit, which are exempt. The monthly rent increases on all RRB hearing applications averaged 14%, the median was 13%, and the highest rent increase was 33%. Although there was an increase in the number of inquiries related to rent increases, City Housing Division staff mediated many instances of tenant and owner/property manager discord that resulted in fewer Rent Review Board Hearing Requests by the City’s tenants. The following is the breakdown of the outcome of those requests (see Appendix A for case details):
• 5 (or 31%) cases were ineligible for a RRB hearing as they were not subject to the ordinance; • 5 (or 31%) cases did not have a hearing scheduled; Of those cases, following is why they were not heard:
o 3 (or 19% of total cases) cases where the rent increase triggered the Tenant Relocation Ordinance that prompted the property manager to reduce the rent to below 7% therefore not triggering the Rent Review Ordinance nor the Tenant Relocation Ordinance; o 1 (or 6% of total cases) cases where the rent increase triggered the Tenant Relocation Ordinance that prompted the tenant to move out;
o 1 (or 6% of total cases) cases where the eligibility of the case was disputed and ultimately decided that the housing unit was not subject to the ordinance; • 6 (or 38%) of FY 2018-2019 cases that were scheduled for a hearing; o 5 (or 33% of total cases) were resolved at the hearing; o 1 (or 7% of total cases) had a second hearing scheduled and there was no resolution at that hearing.

During the FY 2019-2020 reporting period and as noted before, given the implementation of AB 1482, there were only 5 RRB hearing requests representing a one-third reduction in hearing applications received in FY 2018-2019. The following is the breakdown of the outcome of those requests (see Appendix B for case details):
• 2 (or 40%) cases were ineligible for a RRB hearing as they were not subject to the ordinance; • 2 (or 40%) cases did not have a hearing scheduled; Of those cases, following is why they were not heard:
o In both cases the rent increase triggered the Tenant Relocation Ordinance that prompted the property manager to reduce the rent to below 7% therefore not triggering the Rent Review Ordinance nor the Tenant Relocation Ordinance;
o 1 (or 20%) case was scheduled for a hearing and was resolved at the hearing.

Housing Division Evaluation Reports
July 2018 to June 2022
Part II: Rent Review Ordinance

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For FY 2020-2021 and FY 2021-2022 City Housing Division staff mediated all instances of tenant and owner/property manager discord that resulted in no RRB Hearing Requests by the City’s tenants. Table 3 summarizes the number of RRB Cases since the inception of the Ordinance.

Table 2: Rent Review Board Case Summary (since 2006)
Period Cases
2006-2007 1
2007-2008 6
2008-2009 4
2009-2010 0
2010-2011 0
2011-2012 0
2012-2013 3
2013-2014 2
2014-2015 26
2015-2016 40
2016-2017 41
2017-2018 29
2018-2019 16
2019-2020 5
2020-2021 0
2021-2022 0
Housing Division Evaluation Reports
July 2018 to June 2022
Part III: Tenant Relocation Ordinance

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III. Tenant Relocation Ordinance
The Tenant Relocation Ordinance (TRO) went into effect in October 2017.1 Data for most all of phone inquiries regarding the TRO are presented below in Table 3 and, again, are summarized by the type of caller. (Note, again, that the total inquiries do not equal the sum of the types of callers as that data is not always provided.)
Table 3
Tenant Relocation Ordinance Inquiries
Total
Calls
TRO
Calls
Tenant
(% of TRO Calls)
Property Owner/
Manager
(% of TRO Calls)
Realtor
(% of TRO Calls)
FY 2018-2019 745 163 84 (52%) 62 (38%) 11 (7%)
FY 2019-2020 797 144 71 (49%) 43 (30%) 8 (6%)
FY 2020-2021 664 48 26 (54%) 7 (15%) 1 (2%)
FY 2021-2022 573 26 7 (27%) 10 (38%) 5 (19%)
From FY 2018-2019 to FY 2019-2020, of the total Tenant Relocation Ordinance Inquiries reduced by 13%; From FY 2019-2020 to FY 2020-2021 the callers were reduced by two thirds; From FY 2020-2021 to FY 2021-2022 the callers reduced from the prior year by over 55%. Due to the Shelter-in-Place Order issued in March 2020 and the City Eviction Moratorium that was adopted in the Summer of 2020, inquiries regarding the Tenant Relocation Ordinance were significantly reduced over those two years. 1 Given the October 2017 effective date of the ordinance, there was only about eight and a half months of data to report for FY 2017-2018. This incomplete data is not included since the successive data include full years of data reporting.

Housing Division Evaluation Reports
July 2018 to June 2022
Part IV: Summary Data

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IV. Housing Division Summary Data of Phone Inquiries
Table 4
FY 2018-2019 FY 2019-2020 FY 2020-2021# FY 2021-2022#
Total
Inquiries* % of Total Total Inquiries* % of Total Total Inquiries* % of Total Total Inquiries* % of Total Total Inquiries 745 - 797 - 664 - 573 -
Affordable
Housing 77 10% 53 7% 40 6% 59 10%
Code Enforcement 27 4% 57 7% 35 5% 28 5%
Eviction
Moratorium - - 36 5% 100 15% 70 12%
Fair Housing 3 <1% 3 <1% 2 <1% 2 <1%
First Time
Homebuyer
Program
32 4% 20 3% 36 5% 13 2%
Housing
Rehabilitation
Program
42 6% 29 4% 24 4% 11 2%
Inclusionary/BMR
Units 5 1% 15 2% 3 <1% 5 1%
Loans - - 3 <1% 2 <1% 0 <1%
Mobile Home Park 73 10% 103 13% 13 2% 49 9%
Regulated 4 1% 29 4% 17 3% 7 1%
Rent Review
Ordinance (RRB) 132 18% 115 14% 58 9% 51 9%
Rental Assistance - - 5 1% 90 14% 52 9%
Tenant Relocation
Assistance 163 22% 144 18% 48 7% 26 5%
Tenant/Landlord 149 20% 138 17% 148 22% 152 27%
Other request 38 5% 44 6% 30 6% 42 7%
Legal - - 2 <1% 3 1% 6 1% #
Note that the data from FY 2020-22 is lower than prior years for 2 reasons: 1) there were constraints to data collection during the pandemic, and 2) starting in 2020-2021 staff hired outside consultants (Centro Legal de la Raza & ECHO Housing) to assist with housing-related inquiries and the case reporting is not as detailed as City’s record keeping.