On February 14th, the Concord City Council voted 4-1 to approve a rent stabilization and just cause ordinance. This is a huge victory, and a testament to the power of campaigns that persist and fight on despite short-term defeats and staunch opposition  — it is the result of over seven years of organizing. This campaign holds a special place in my heart, as it was the first organizing campaign I joined in California as a bright-eyed grad student intern working with the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE). Over five years later, it is incredible to see tenant power prevail.

The ordinance will cap annual rent increases at 3%, or 60% of the consumer price index (whichever is lower), and it will only apply to multi-family complexes built before Feb. 1, 1995. The reason for that limitation is not by choice, but because of the notorious restrictions required by Costa-Hawkins.

Costa-Hawkins is a state law passed in 1995 that prohibits cities from establishing rent control for certain kinds of residential units, namely, single-family homes, condos, and any new apartments buildings (‘new’ meaning built after February 1st, 1995). That’s why the Concord ordinance only applies to multi-family properties, and only to those built before Feb 1, 1995.

That restriction is not meant to downplay the victory in Concord at all — these new protections will still apply to about half of the rental units in the city. But it shows the extreme limitations that the state has put on any local rent control efforts.

The other part of the Concord ordinance extends ‘just cause’ protections to single-family homes and condos, which are not covered by state law (‘just cause eviction’ protections limit landlords’ ability to evict tenants). The ordinance also addresses the “owner move-in” loophole, which allows property owners to evict tenants if they say they are moving in. Under the new protections, a tenant could only be evicted when an owner wants to move in if the owner has at least 25% ownership of the property and will live in the unit for at least 24 months.

In addition to needing to address the eviction crisis generally, part of the motivation for these eviction protections comes back to Costa-Hawkins. Costa-Hawkins also prohibits “vacancy control,” which means that you can’t require units to stay rent controlled if the current tenant moves out. After the law was passed, anytime a tenant moved out of a rent-controlled unit, that unit could be rented at any price (i.e. market-rate).

This means that landlords have an incentive to evict tenants if they want to be able to raise the rent. Unsurprisingly, tenants and tenant rights advocates say that this has led to widespread abuse by landlords who use a variety dubious means to evict tenants or cause them to leave (e.g. the aforementioned “owner move-in” loophole, or just plain harassment to make leaving there unbearable).

The housing crisis has led to resurgence in tenant rights activism, including fights for rent control across the state. In the past few years, cities across Southeast Los Angeles (Bell Gardens, Cudahy, and Maywood) passed local rent control laws, largely due to activism spearheaded by women. In 2024, four Bay Area cities will vote on rent control (Larkspur, Pittsburg, San Pablo, and Redwood City), as well as the city of Delano in Kern County.

As you have likely also heard, a statewide ballot initiative to overturn Costa-Hawkins will be back on the November ballot this year (the Justice For Renters Act). This faces a steep and uphill battle. In 2018, a similar measure (Prop 10) lost by 19 points, and in 2020 another attempt (Prop 21) lost by 20 points. And while those outcomes may be discouraging, the recent decision in Concord should remind us that persistence can lead to victory.

Green social housing is a vision for decommodified housing that is not susceptible to profit-driven incentives that motivate landlords. This is an alternative form of housing from what we see in the current speculative real estate market, one that we are committed to cultivating. But part of this fight must also include a commitment to making the current housing landscape more equitable.

Tenant protections like rent control and just cause eviction are crucial anti-displacement tools in the context of climate investments in communities. We know that we need to decarbonize our homes and make huge investments to make our communities more resilient, walkable, shaded, transit-oriented, filled with green space, and beautiful. When we do this, we must put measures in place to ensure that public funds lead to prosperity that benefits the people living there, and doesn’t lead to gentrification or higher profits to landlords. To borrow the motto of the East Oakland Transformative Climate Communities initiative: we need better neighborhoods, same neighbors.