Monterey City Council to discuss rent stabilization and other housing aid measures.

How stable is your housing? I know many Monterey County residents who answer that question negatively, because I get calls regularly from people who are either on the cusp of losing their housing or have already lost it.

I also hear from renters who live with the anxiety of knowing that at any given time they may be asked to leave or see their rents increase, casting them out into the uncertainty of finding a new place to live. Will they be able to afford a new place? When they go to apply for a rental, will there be a required income level they can’t meet? Will there be enough to show in the bank? Will they be able to  scrape up two months rent plus security deposit?

Pam Marino here, with questions from the housing beat: Does it have to be this way? Can we as a community construct a situation where renters don’t have to live with so much instability and fear and property owners can still be successful? 

Monterey Mayor Tyller Williamson has been asking these questions for a few years now. He and council colleague Alan Haffa managed to get items about rent stabilization measures and a rental registry on the agenda, but those items never got beyond the discussion stage because there weren’t enough votes on the five-member council to approve such measures.

As the saying goes, what a difference an election makes. After the November 2022 election, Williamson and Haffa might now have a majority to pursue initiatives that could make a real difference for renters. At 7pm tonight, April 18, Monterey City Council’s agenda includes a housing discussion with topics such as tenant protections, a vacancy tax and a rental registry. 

Tenant protections on the table include rent control and further building upon the California Tenant Protections Act of 2019, also known as Assembly Bill 1482, which put a cap on rent increases, as well as limiting the reasons landlords may use to evict tenants. 

Vacancy taxes or fees are now being used in many cities in the U.S. and Canada—most notably Vancouver, British Columbia—to either reduce the number of empty homes or at least collect revenue that can then be used to increase housing elsewhere or assist renters. Last fall, San Francisco voters approved new taxes on vacant homes with 54 percent of the vote. A measure in Santa Cruz lost after garnering 46 percent.  

In a city like Monterey where over 60 percent of the residents are renters, a rental registry database tracking units and rent prices could prove valuable. The Salinas City Council successfully passed a rental registry 7-0 on April 4, after a five-year effort. Landlords pay to be a part of the registry—from $20-$350 annually, depending on the number of units—listing the number of units they have and how much they are charging. The revenue generated will pay for the program as well as landlord/tenant mediation services. 

A Monterey staff report estimates that it would cost the city approximately $400,000 a year to operate a rental registry. Additional costs include $100,000 in staff time to start up the registry, plus $25,000 initially to install registry software and another $30,000 for an annual subscription fee. The costs would be covered by landlord fees. 

Williamson says he expects there will be pushback from property owners, property management companies and landlord organizations, but he hopes they won’t come to only complain about any sort of help for tenants. “My hope is people will come with solutions,” he says. 

The mayor says tonight’s discussion is just the first step in what he expects will be a public process that will last several months while the council figures out what’s doable in terms of enacting solutions to the current rental housing situation.

If you want to participate in that process tonight, you can attend in person at Colton Hall (580 Pacific St., Monterey) or via Zoom by clicking here. Tonight’s agenda is available here.