CITY OF SAN MATEO
CITY OF SAN MATEO
Agenda Report
City Hall
330 W. 20th Avenue
San Mateo CA 94403
www.cityofsanmateo.org
Agenda Number: 20 Section Name: PUBLIC HEARING Account Number: 10-3133 File ID: 25-10594 TO: City Council
FROM: Alex Khojikian, City Manager
PREPARED BY: Community Development Department
MEETING DATE: November 17, 2025
SUBJECT:
Housing Element Implementation, Tenant Protection Policies — Ordinance Introductions RECOMMENDATION:
To implement Housing Element Policy H 3.4, introduce an Ordinance adding Chapter 10.100 to Title 10 of the San Mateo Municipal Code; introduce an Ordinance amending Chapter 7.50 of the San Mateo Municipal Code; and find the Ordinances exempt from further environmental review pursuant to California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Section 15061(b)(3).
BACKGROUND:
The City of San Mateo’s 2023-2031 Housing Element (Housing Element) established goals, policies, and programs to facilitate the production of at least 7,015 new housing units and address key housing challenges identified through the housing needs assessment and community input process.
The City identified five overarching goals to guide the Housing Element’s policies and programs. The first three are based upon the “3Ps” framework that seeks to address the region’s housing needs and is endorsed by the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG):
1.Production of New Housing at All Income Levels, with a Focus on Affordable Housing
2.Preservation of Existing Housing That Is Affordable to Lower- and Middle-Income Residents
3.Protection of Current Residents to Prevent Displacement The fourth goal, or “fourth P,” is Promotion of community engagement and public outreach to support social resilience, and the fifth goal is to Affirmatively Further Housing (AFFH). The City committed to either researching or adopting multiple tenant protection policies to further the Protection and AFFH goals.
The relevant anti-displacement Housing Element policies are outlined in Table 1 below. Broadly, they include expanding certain provisions of Assembly Bill 1482 (AB 1482, also known as the Tenant Protection Act); strengthening existing policies related to substantial remodel evictions and unsafe or substandard units; and improving data tracking of rental rates, evictions, and displacement.
Table 1 - Housing Element Policies
Housing Element Policy Implementation Actions
Policy H 3.4: Expand tenant
protections in local Ordinance to
extend measures of AB 1482
related to relocation,
a. Extend AB1482 provisions to require tenant relocation payments for No Fault evictions for those with tenure less than one year. b. Make recommendations to the City Council for establishing tenant protection policies that include the requirement of documentation from landlords who use the substantial remodel
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documentation, and right to
return policy in eviction cases.
exemption to evict tenants and a Right to Return policy for tenants displaced from home due to demolition or substantial remodels. c. Amend the Code to strengthen enforcement penalty structure to aid in protecting tenants from unsafe or substandard units. d. Conduct outreach to the community on a biannual basis.
Policy H 3.6: Monitor rents,
evictions, and tenant
displacement citywide.
a. Research options and best practices for a rental registry list, including determining necessary financial and human resources needed to establish such a program. Make recommendations to City Council.
b. Collaborate with regional partners, such as 21 Elements or ABAG, to develop ways to monitor rental rates, evictions and
displacement citywide and countywide to track trends and use the information to guide policy priorities.
Policy H 5.4.1: Establish tenant
protections in local Ordinance to
extend measures of AB 1482
related to relocation,
documentation, and right to
return policy in eviction cases.
Increase tenant protections to prevent displacement of those with disproportionate housing needs related to relocation,
documentation, and right to return policy in eviction cases. This item is connected to Policy H 3.4 (and duplicates the language of Policy H 3.4(a)- (c)).
City Council Study Session
On April 21, 2025, the City Council held a study session on the tenant protections and anti-displacement policies in the Housing Element. Staff presented policy alternatives to follow through on the City’s Housing Element commitments and to address the issues raised over a series of stakeholder meetings and community workshops held in the preceding months.
The direction City Council provided to staff at the study session is summarized below.
1.Develop an emergency rental assistance program. This is not a program included in the Housing Element but was developed in response to staff research on rental housing conditions in San Mateo. This included newly-available data on evictions in San Mateo County, which showed that most cases are tied to nonpayment of rent. This program was created via City Council Resolution on July 28, 2025. The program, administered by Samaritan House, serves low-income San Mateo residents experiencing financial challenges to prevent evictions and displacement (starting August 1, 2025). A total of $168,000 of Housing Successor Funds was allocated for the administration of this program; $150,000 is set for client assistance and $18,000 for administrative costs.
2.Develop a policy (via Ordinance) extending AB 1482 provisions to include relocation assistance for no-fault evictions for tenants with a tenure of less than a year (11 months) and require property owners to notify tenants displaced due to substantial rehabilitation when the new or substantially remodeled unit becomes available.
a. AB 1482 provides for one month of rent in cases of no-fault, just-cause evictions, which include owner move-in, substantial renovation or demolition, a requirement to vacate the unit related to habitability, or withdrawal of the unit from the rental market. The intent of a City Ordinance would be to provide the same benefit under the same circumstances for tenants who have been in their units for 11 months or longer.
b. Staff was directed to include a requirement for the owner to notify the displaced tenant when, following completion of substantial rehab, the unit becomes available again. This “right to return” does not include any additional requirements or limitations on amount of rent charged. State law implementing AB 1482, Civil Code Sec. 1946.2, requires an owner who intends to evict for demolition or substantial remodel (as defined in subsection (b)(2)(D)(ii)) to provide a written termination notice to the tenant. This notice must include, among other things, the reason for the termination and must inform the tenant that, if interested in reoccupying the unit after substantial remodel is completed, the tenant must provide a name, email
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address, and telephone number. A City Ordinance would explicitly require the owner to contact the tenant regarding the availability of the new or remodeled unit.
3.Amend the City’s Tenant Relocation Ordinance (San Mateo Municipal Code 7.50) to strengthen the City’s ability to aid and support tenants displaced from unsafe or substandard units. Staff was directed to move forward with amendments to this Ordinance related to updating how costs are assessed to support tenants displaced from unsafe or substandard units, temporarily or permanently, and the appeals process when a unit is deemed unsafe or substandard.
4.Continue analyzing all available data sources and develop a proposal on how to build on existing City data collection to monitor rental rates and evictions citywide. The City’s Business License Tax collection was identified as a potential source of rental housing data that could be combined with existing sources such as CoStar. Staff was directed to explore this option and to connect with the authors of the San Mateo County Eviction Study by Mills Legal Clinic and Stanford Law School to obtain any additional eviction data specific to San Mateo.
5.Improve outreach on current tenant protection policies such as AB 1482 for both tenants and landlords. Staff was directed to use available channels to inform the public of these upcoming policy changes and, more broadly, to inform residents of Fair Housing laws, AB 1482, and other existing anti-displacement laws.
DISCUSSION:
New San Mateo Municipal Code Chapter 10.100 — Residential Tenant Protection Program Chapter 10.100 of the Municipal Code will implement the just-cause and relocation provisions of AB 1482. The proposed Ordinance (Attachment 1) incorporates the provisions of Civil Code Section 1946.2 by reference. Since the law does not allow a unit to be subject to both a local Ordinance and Civil Code Section 1946.2, “extending” its provisions, as directed by the City Council and as referenced in Housing Element Policy H 3.4, requires incorporation by reference of the entire Civil Code section. The provisions pertaining to rental increases are in Civil Code Section 1947.12 and are not included in the proposed Ordinance.
The Ordinance replicates the requirements of state law at the local level but sets the threshold at 11 months of tenure (rather than 12 months) as directed by the City Council and strengthens the requirement to notify tenants of the availability of the unit when construction is complete. Consistent with AB 1482, the provisions apply to housing stock that is 15 years or older (on a rolling basis), but not to single-family homes not owned by a corporation, owner-occupied duplexes, deed-restricted affordable housing, or housing rent-restricted by a local Ordinance. Aside from the changes noted here, the noticing and relocation assistance requirements for an eviction due to a substantial remodel and all no- fault evictions, as defined in Civil Code Section 1946.2, are identical to those in AB 1482.
Amendments to SMMC 7.50 — Tenant Relocation Ordinance
The proposed amendments to the City’s Tenant Relocation Ordinance (Attachment 2) are based on City Council direction from the April study session and the commitments in Housing Element Policy H 3.4. The amendments will streamline the enforcement protocol by switching the function of the appeal body from the City Council to a hearing officer; by changing the payment formula for what a property owner would pay to a relocated tenant household to ensure that their costs are adequately covered during the period of displacement; and by giving the City the ability to change a relocation designation from “temporary” to “permanent” based on case-by case circumstances. This last change is intended to minimize impacts to tenants when they are displaced due to unsafe and/or non-habitable conditions and to return them to their unit expeditiously, or to relocate them to a new unit, if the conditions take more than 90 days to resolve.
Additional Housing Data and Methods for Data Collection As noted above, City Council also directed staff to further investigate how to obtain more granular data on the city’s rental housing stock, such as type and number of evictions, rental rates, and vacancy rates.
Follow-Up on Evictions Study – San Mateo Data
For the April 21, 2025 study session, staff summarized the findings of the Stanford Law School study, noting that AB 1482
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appears to have contributed to an overall decrease in “no-cause” evictions from 2019-2023. Overall, however, eviction cases have significantly increased within that timeframe, and the primary reason was nonpayment of rent, according to the study. Both of these conclusions were supported by City staff conversations with legal service providers.
Following the study session, staff followed up with the authors of the study, which was led by Stanford Law Professor Juliet Brodie, to obtain additional information specific to San Mateo eviction cases. The authors shared data on the number of unlawful detainers (UDs); the number of nonpayment of rent UDs and no-fault UDs, and a breakdown of default judgments versus judgements for plaintiffs (indicating that the landlord secured possession from the tenant).
The data show a definitive upward trend in San Mateo in overall UDs filed from 2019 to 2023, with 161 UDs filed in 2019 and 253 filed in 2023. This aligns with the rest of the county, and is driven by nonpayment of rent cases:
UDs in San Mateo represented a slightly larger share of the countywide total in 2023 versus 2019: 14.4% of UDs filed countywide in 2019 were based in San Mateo, compared to 16.75% of UDs filed countywide in 2023. While San Mateo does not appear unique in terms of the magnitude or type of UDs filed, in 2023, the percentage of overall UDs was higher than the percentage of the countywide population that San Mateo represents. In 2019, 128 of 161 (79.5%) total UDs filed were for nonpayment of rent, whereas in 2023, 234 of 253 (92.5%) total UDs filed were for this reason.
Of the 161 UDs filed in 2019, 18 were filed for a reason other than nonpayment of rent or tenant fault – including those covered by the no-fault provisions outlined in AB 1482. In 2023, the number of no-fault UDs filed was 13.
As noted in the April 21 study session agenda report, this data is limited to court filings, and the full extent of residential displacement from “soft” or “functional” evictions remains unknown. The City still does not have information on the type of housing (single-family dwelling, small or large multi-family, older or newer stock) where the evictions occurred, whether filings were concentrated in a certain areas of San Mateo, or the demographic profile of tenants involved in these cases, especially those where there was a judgement for the plaintiff.
City Data Collection -- Business License Tax Application – Voluntary Information The City’s platform of business license tax collection (administered by HdL) was one source that City Council requested staff investigate as a means of collecting basic information from rental property owners. This would serve as an alternative to a formal rental registry and could include information such as building type, number of units, rents, and vacancies. A rental registry would typically require much more detailed information from property owners and a larger upfront investment by the City, as discussed at length in the April 21 agenda report.
Since the use of the HdL platform is limited to collection of the tax, staff has determined that the City does not currently have authority to request this information from rental property owners. If the City were to rely instead on voluntary reporting through this system, it would likely result in incomplete, and therefore less useful, data on San Mateo rental housing. To require all rental property owners to share this information as part of their annual filing, a new Ordinance would likely need to be enacted.
However, requesting this information from rental property owners on a voluntary basis would not require an Ordinance and could be enacted by updating the application form. While this would yield partial/ incomplete data, it could still help improve staff understanding of the San Mateo rental market. If Council approves of this approach, it would take staff 4-6 months to implement and begin asking for this information when rental property owners submit their annual business license tax filing.
Outreach Efforts
Housing staff has engaged in multiple ways with outside partners and through City-led outreach to inform the public about existing tenant protections and available assistance, such as the new Emergency Rental Assistance Program. This includes the following:
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In October 2025, Housing staff hosted two tenant protections workshops in partnership with Project Sentinel. The workshops and other housing-related updates were announced to interested parties through the City’s eNewsletter and the Housing & Housing Policy Updates newsletter. In addition to informing residents through the newsletters, announcements were made through the City’s social media pages and individual emails to community advocates and stakeholders.
Following execution of the contract and program launch in August, staff continues to collaborate with Samaritan House to promote the Emergency Rental Assistance Program through extensive media outreach and a printed flyer that can be distributed at key locations throughout the city. Staff and Samaritan House meet on a regular basis to monitor subscription to this program. Staff will provide a progress report on the program to Council in the spring/summer of 2026.
Additionally, in an effort to gather more data on displacement in San Mateo, a survey from the 21 Elements regional planning collaborative has been shared through the City’s eNewsletter and the Housing & Housing Policy Updates newsletter.
Next Steps
City Council is being asked to introduce two Ordinances to implement Housing Element policies. If introduced, the two Ordinances will be brought back for second reading and adoption at a subsequent City Council meeting; and would then become effective 30 days afterwards.
In addition, Council is being asked to provide direction on if staff should proceed with collection of additional information from rental property owners on a voluntary basis as part of their business tax certificate filing. If directed, staff would develop 3-4 focused questions related to building type, number of units, rents, and vacancies, and work with HdL to incorporate them into the application form for rental property owners.
Currently, the City’s tenant protections/anti-displacement code sections are located in separate sections of the SMMC.
Staff believes that consolidating these Ordinances into one section of the SMMC is a more efficient way to determine the applicability of all local laws and to outline requirements in each case of tenant displacement. Staff are working to reorganize and integrate these various Ordinances and will return to City Council with a future item to consolidate them into one section of the SMMC.
BUDGET IMPACT:
Code Amendments to implement the Housing Element are fully funded in the Community Development Department’s annual operating budget, utilizing the Advanced Planning Fund (Fund 225), and does not impact the City’s General Fund.
ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINATION:
The adoption of these Ordinances are not a project subject to CEQA, because they are organizational or administrative activities that will not result in direct or indirect physical changes to the environment (CEQA Guidelines Section 15378(b)(5)). Even if adoption of the Ordinances were a project, they would be exempt from CEQA because it can be seen with certainty that there is no possibility that the Ordinances will have a significant effect on the environment (CEQA Guidelines Section 15061(b)(3)).
NOTICE PROVIDED
All meeting noticing requirements were met, including the publishing of a public notice in a newspaper of general circulation at least 10 days in advance of the public meeting. Additionally, staff sent meeting details, with multiple reminders, to recipients of the City’s eNewsletter, Housing Policy and Programs Updates email list, and tenant protections/anti-displacement stakeholder email list.
Staff received 43 public comments as of the publication of the agenda report, which are included as Attachment 4. Any additional public comments submitted after agenda publication will be posted to this item on the City’s Public Meeting Portal as “Post Packet Public Comments.”
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ATTACHMENTS
Att 1 – Draft Ordinance (New Chapter 10.100 – Residential Tenant Protection Program) Att 2 – Draft Ordinance (Amendments to Chapter 7.50 – Tenant Relocation Ordinance) Att 3 – Amendments to Chapter 7.50 (Track Changes)
Att 4 – Public Comment Received as of 11.13.25
STAFF CONTACT
Rachel Horst, Housing Manager
[email protected]
(650) 522-7223