Mayor's Message | AB 1482 Protections Must Be Expanded to Prevent Homelessness in Santa Cruz

Reader’s Note: Mayor Fred Keeley is the first mayor of the City of Santa Cruz to serve four years in the role. In the spirit of collaboration, Mayor Keeley will share the monthly Mayor’s Message column with other members of the Santa Cruz City Council throughout the year.

Housing affordability is a major issue in Santa Cruz, where the cost of housing continues to threaten the stability of our community. I am proud to participate in the City Council’s recent introduction of an ordinance to extend rent increase protections under AB 1482 to tenants in government-assisted housing developments whose affordable rent restrictions are set to expire.

AB 1482, also known as the Tenant Protection Act of 2019, was a landmark law designed to curb excessive rent increases and prevent unfair evictions across the state. Under the law, annual rent increases are capped at 5% plus inflation, or 10%—whichever is lower. While the bill provides protections for tenants in most rental properties, it has a major loophole: units in assisted living communities that have affordable rental restrictions set to expire. Once those restrictions expire, landlords can raise rents to market rates, resulting in significant and unaffordable increases for existing tenants. The ordinance introduced by the Santa Cruz City Council at its September 10 meeting closes this loophole in AB 1482, ensuring that tenants in these properties are protected from large rent increases.

Without this order, members of our community will be pushed out of their homes and face the prospect of homelessness. Consider the 71 tenants of the St. George Apartments. These longtime residents, many of whom are seniors living on fixed incomes and some who also have disabilities, are currently facing rent increases of up to 100% or more due to the expiration of their affordable rental restrictions—an insurmountable financial burden for most. Given the limited supply of affordable rental housing in Santa Cruz, these residents could easily lose access to shelter and end up homeless while waiting months or even years for other affordable housing to become available.

The proposed ordinance will help prevent such a tragic event from happening. It is a proactive measure that will keep people housed by limiting rent increases to between 5 and 10 per cent at properties like the St. George and, as a result, will allow our community members to remain housed and continue to contribute to their neighbourhoods.

Strengthening homelessness prevention efforts has been a major focus of the city this year. In March, the City Council directed that a portion of the proceeds from the sale of land and future transient occupancy tax revenues for a proposed downtown hotel project be used to increase the income threshold for the Emergency Eviction Prevention Program (the current income threshold for a family of four is $82,000) and the assistance received by program recipients (the current maximum is $5,000). The program helps low-income community members maintain their housing through short-term financial assistance in the form of a one-time eviction prevention payment. The proposed ordinance complements that measure.

However, no single policy can solve our housing challenges. We need a multi-pronged approach that also includes, among other strategies, building new affordable housing with creative solutions to prevent homelessness—something we continue to work on. Extending AB 1482’s protections to public housing projects whose affordable rent restrictions are set to expire is just one piece of the puzzle, but it is an important one.

Santa Cruz’s housing crisis requires urgent and sustained action, and this ordinance represents a critical intervention to prevent homelessness in our community. It demonstrates that the City Council understands the stakes: housing stability is the cornerstone of a healthy and thriving community. I support expanding these protections and will continue to push for policies that prioritize homelessness prevention and long-term affordability.

We are far from solving the housing crisis, but with policies like this, we are moving in the right direction. As the saying goes, prevention is better than cure.

Fred Keeley is the mayor of Santa Cruz. This column was written by City Councilman Scott Newsome.

Originally published: September 21, 2024 at 1:13 p.m.