A rent registry program, in which property owners would have to provide information about evictions, their units’ square footages, rent costs and how those costs have changed over time, has been established by the Concord City Council.
But there are still outstanding questions about the registry, including how much of that information will be available to the general public and how its “public portal” will work. Those particulars will have to be worked out at future council meetings, council members said Tuesday night.
The registry is being formed in response to requests from local renters and their advocates for information that could help show whether evictions are being carried out legally and fairly and, as one renters’ advocate said Tuesday night, show “the real rental landscape” in Concord.
Establishing the new rent registry takes the form of an amendment to the city’s existing Residential Tenant Protection Program Ordinance. That ordinance is the product of several years of work by the city to respond to concerns among renters and their advocates about the city’s rental housing market, including affordability, availability and tenant evictions.
Even after the city’s Residential Rent Review Program was enacted in 2017, those concerns persisted.
The rent registry program will require the owners of all multifamily complexes with four or more units to register with the city (affordable housing complexes will be exempt from the rent registry).
City staff estimates there are about 9,700 units in Concord that are eligible for the registry. The plan is for the registry to go live in July.
While one property owner told the council Tuesday night the fees will be a burden on landlords during the COVID-19 era, and another threatened legal action to protect the release of certain information, others praised the registry.
Debra Ballinger, executive director of the advocacy group Monument Impact, urged that tenants’ race and ethnicity information be tracked on the registry, too.
“We all know that, pre-COVID, the Latinx community faced the most evictions, just as they suffer the highest rate of COVID infections,” said Ballinger, who thanked the City Council for pursuing the registry.
The program will be funded mostly by a fee that would be paid by the property owners. The total proposed cost would be $5.25 per unit per year.
17 comments
The unwilling forced to do the unnecessary and being led by the incompetent.
This folly will cause owners of rental property to sell off. Apartments will be converted to condos and sold separately to those who can afford them.
The final result will be less available rentals at higher rents.
Well done?
There’s two kinds of sense; book sense and common sense. I suspect these fine leaders of yours are among the former group.
So you believe at the moment there are a monumental number of citizens or businesses waiting to buy up rental properties and apartment complexes and what is stopping them from doing so is that renters do not have to report their pricing to a rent registry?
What are you basing that on?
Who elected – Debra Ballinger, executive director of the advocacy group Monument Impact???
She’s should be elected to be telling the council what data to collect with a tax on property owners.
Stop this now!!!
For years Monument Impact has been renting ~2,500 sq ft Keller House from the City of Concord for $100/month. This summer it became a whopping $200/month.
Is it any wonder that Debra Ballinger believes everybody should be entitled to the same perks?
To Tashaj: I’m sure the people of Claycord would like to know more about this rental arrangement. Is this the best use of the people’s property?
@Wesley
Knock yourself out:
https://cityofconcord.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_07292020-742
Page 14-16.
again controlling free people
trying to run a business
but the truth is buried in the lines
(affordable housing complexes will be exempt from the rent registry).
yep so all the illegals they have placed in the affordable housing all at our cost wont be known or seen
but your business and your rights are gone
wow taking away your freedoms are on the fast track now
best part you are paying them to take them away lol
wow … and they are trying to get illegals and criminals to vote
i wonder why …..maybe to take away everything you have legally
well you voted for it ……well probably…well at least your dead relatives did
so there is that at least
Having a low number of rental units is a primary reason why Danville (15.87% renter occupied housing units) has had better schools than Concord (41.1% renter occupied housing units) for a very long time. It’s not just income, although they are related, of course (but less related as time passes.) The elimination of low-end housing units can do nothing but help Concord, or any city for that matter. If the owners convert their apts. to condos, it could be a blessing in disguise.
As your comment suggests, this sort of policy will make the rental housing shortage worse.
Just another reason to leave this shi—y city and the state of California.
Not the Twilight Zone. It’s the already Democrat-controlled cities transforming into Democrat Socialist-controlled cities.
Raise rent $52.50 for each unit they own, that will cover the cost and time needed to do this for the owners. So in my opinion its just Concord is just raising the rents of citizens (and non-citizens) who rent.
Assuming the Concord city leaders realize any costs they impose on landlords will be automatically passed on to their renters is a bad bet. They most likely assume the landlords will eat the new fee or simply don’t care. This is how socialists think.
Concord making itself more and more crappy. Wish I could see into the future and observe how intrusive the committees like this become. Time for me to leave CA. Not just because of this, but because of all of it.
So true. So very true.
It’ll never work….
I see this whole thing going to court for years to come. (I hope)
What business is it of the city who I rent to and what I rent the unit for.
Also on the matter of evictions, I believe you need a court order to evict someone in this state and a judge is the one that signs off on it.
The city has no say so on who can be evicted.
And as far as the city wanting to know the race of the people I rent to. I believe you can’t ask the question on any rental application.
ITS RACIST !!!
I think the owners need to start their own coalition and go after the city for another stupid ordinance.
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