Albany Property Rights Advocates
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Please see the latest APRA seminar, “A Legislative Rental Housing Outlook,” presented by Krista Gulbransen, Executive Director of the Berkeley Property Owners Association.
County-Wide Eviction Moratorium Ordinance
Dear APRA members,
As you know, we are in the midst of a national crisis. The Covid-19 pandemic will affect us all. No one will escape the economic impact of the virus. At this time it is important to think about the financial impact on your tenants as well as yourself. We encourage you to be prepared for major disruptions in all markets. You may at some point have situations where tenants have a hard time paying rent, or just not able to pay at all. We urge you to work with your tenants to get through these hard times. If one or more of your tenants finds they have a sharply reduced, or even no, income, we urge you to try to work out an extended payment plan. We hope it will not come to this, but we have to use compassion whenever possible. Remember, they will still owe their rent obligations, we just need to help as much as possible to get past this emergency.
The City has scheduled an emergency meeting for Thursday, March 26, to pass an emergency ordinance imposing a temporary ban on evictions. The ordinance will also impose a temporary ban on rent increases. Your APRA board is monitoring these council actions, and providing as much input as possible to help ensure the interests of all are considered. We have drafted a response to the City Council, urging them to consider the rental providers situation as well as that of our tenants. You will find this response included below. Watch for more information from county and state governmental agencies as this goes forward. Counties are already imposing eviction bans, Alameda County included. The above Albany meeting will be at 4:30, and can be viewed live on YouTube @ www.YouTube.com/AlbanyKALB.
We were pleased that the Mayor of Albany contacted us a couple days ago to let us know this was in the works. We are happy that they think enough of our members to keep us informed on what they are doing when it relates to property maters. Your support as a member is what gives us this recognition by the City. Thank you for your support!
Also, watch for a tenant activist push for more rent control. I believe this will be a natural result of the crisis. APRA will be on the lookout for this, and will do all in our power to thwart these attempts. We can’t afford to let our guard down. Your APRA board will continue to watch for adverse trends, and fight for your interests at every opportunity. A national group has already formed, urging a moratorium on rent. We will keep you informed of this effort by activists as it goes forward.
Thank you again for your support of APRA and what we attempt do on your behalf. It is now more important than ever.
Stay safe out there!
Peter Campbell, President
Albany Property Rights Advocates
Letter to the City of Albany
Dear Mayor Pilch,
Thank you once again for alerting us to the pending action by the City Council, and thank you for considering us a voice for many of the rental property owners in Albany. These are hard times for everyone, and we at APRA realize the stress you must be under as you try to cope with the pandemic. We recognize that it is hard to be fair to all concerned. We just urge you to consider the needs of rental providers as thoroughly as you consider the needs of tenants.
We as rental providers are also under a great deal of stress. Many of the rental providers in Albany are senior citizens, meeting their day to day expenses from Social Security and the income from their rents. Many are literally living pay check to pay check. All rental providers have monthly expenses they must meet, just like everybody else. Like most people, many have mortgage payments they must make. Property tax bills become due and must be paid. The providers have medical bills to pay, groceries to buy, utility bills that must be paid. The point of this is that rental providers are really no different than our tenants.
This discussion is to let you know that we hope the ordinance you are about to pass includes protections for the providers as well as the tenants. Property owners are not interested in evicting tenants. Why would anybody want to evict a tenant when the tenants have lost their income, we hope just temporarily, when there are no other tenants out looking for a new place to live? That just would not make any sense. Even in normal times, owners do not evict tenants for the “fun” of it. It is only done when there is a really good reason, such as destruction of property or creating an extreme safety hazard to other residents in the building. In other words, there has to be a really good reason for an owner to evict a tenant, even in the best of times. In spite of what is considered common knowledge, most owners just don’t evict otherwise. In these hard times, we are urging our members to work with their tenants who have difficulties with their rent obligations. It will not benefit anybody to enter into an adversarial confrontation with our customers, our tenants.
APRA is aware, as are you, that State and County officials are implementing eviction moratoria. We at APRA recognize that everyone is being hurt by the pandemic. We are urging our members to work with their residents who find themselves in financial difficulty. To this end, we do not object to the goals of the proposed emergency ordinance. We have not had a chance to completely review the ordinance, and we hope and trust that it will contain adequate protections for the owners of the properties as well. Just as our residents count on their income to cover their daily expenses, so do the property owners count on their rents to cover their daily expenses, including the costs associated with the operation of rental property.
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter. You have many hard decisions to make. We thank you for all the work you do for the city. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to be of assistance.
Peter Campbell, President
Albany Property Rights Advocates
Stay up to Date with the Albany eNews
These notes are from the latest weekly city of Albany eNews email. Click here to view more issues and to add yourself to the list.
COVID-19 UPDATES
The City of Albany is working closely with Alameda County Public Health to monitor and mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The Albany City Council declared a local emergency at their Council meeting on March 16th, 2020. The City of Albany has activated its Emergency Operations Center (EOC).
Alameda County’s Shelter-in-Place Order remains in effect for all non-essential activities. FAQs regarding the Shelter-in-Place Order are available here.
ESSENTIAL CITY SERVICES WILL REMAIN AVAILABLE
While all non-essential City meetings and events have been cancelled and City facilities are closed to the public, the City of Albany continues to provide essential services and remains available to serve our community, particularly those that may not have easy access to food and other needed services. Many services can be conducted by phone and/or email .
Albany CARES continues to provide food and housing assistance to seniors and unsheltered individuals through their hotline Monday-Friday, 8:30am-5:00pm at 1(510) 524-9122.
Street sweeping operations continue, but parking enforcement for these violations has been suspended during the shelter in place. Officers may address other parking violations that may be deemed necessary for the safety or well-being of the community.
CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING 3-26-20, 4:30PM
The City Council will hold a virtual meeting on Thursday, March 26 at 4:30pm to discuss an urgency ordinance enacting a temporary moratorium on foreclosures, evictions, and rent increases. The public is invited to watch and submit comments.
Tenants Union Forming in Albany
APRA is aware that a “Tenants Union” is forming in Albany that will plan to seek additional tenant protection and support from the City. APRA will closely monitor the situation and provide more information to its members as it becomes more clear what this Tenants Union is planning.
APRA Annual Meeting
On Wednesday, January 15th, APRA hosted its annual meeting and member education session. Jonathan Black, an attorney in Walnut Creek, presented information about the new state rent control law, AB 1482, and answered questions. We recorded this session and have posted it for those of you who weren’t able to attend, and for those of you who want to review what you learned. Apologies for the quality of the sound, it’s the best the old Sony HandyCam could do!
First Half
Second Half
Due to technical issues, Mr. Black couldn’t show his entire slide deck so we’ve provided it here.
New State Rent Control Law, AB 1482
Berkeleyside: Berkeley could ban criminal background checks in rental housing
…some local property owners and other critics said the proposal would strip landlords of the right to protect themselves and their other tenants, censoring information they need to make responsible decisions about their private properties…
reason: California’s Rent Control Advocates Are About To Get What They Want, Good and Hard
Everywhere rent control is tried, the same things happen. Landlords exit the market. Developers stop building apartments. Supply drops significantly….
reason: How Rent Control Laws Hurt Tenants
California is about to get a real world lesson in how rent control laws can’t solve a housing crisis… You get more of what you encourage and less of what you punish. California’s rent crisis is caused by insufficient supply, which is the result of a system that imposes a punishing level of regulation and fees on builders and developers—and now on landlords. It will mean fewer properties for rent and fewer landlords who proudly design the fireplace mantle.
Washington Post: The economists are right: Rent control is bad
…The economists are right, and the populists are wrong. Rent-control laws can be good for some privileged beneficiaries, who are often not the people who really need help. But they are bad for many others….