SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento could soon join the list of cities in California to have some sort of rent control.
The Sacramento City Council will decide whether to approve the Tenant Protection and Relief Act at their Aug. 13 meeting.
The proposal emerged after nearly a year of talks between Mayor Darrell Steinberg, Councilmembers Steve Hansen, Eric Guerra and Rick Jennings, and a coalition of labor unions and non-profit advocacy groups, according to a city news release.
Hansen said the ordinance would prevent rent gauging by limiting rent increases. He said in any year, rent can be increased no more than 6% plus the cost of living increase, which is usually about 2.5% in Sacramento. But it caps out at 10% total, according to Hansen.
Currently, only about 20 cities in the state have a rent control law, according to the Nolo Network.
Hansen told ABC10 the ordinance would also prevent unfair evictions.
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"If you've been in your apartment for more than 13 months, if you haven't failed to pay rent, if you haven't broken the law, and you haven't violated your lease – you can't be kicked out," Hansen said.
Under the proposal, landlords would need to give tenants a 4-month notice if they need the tenants out of their property to move a family member into the unit, make repairs, or just take it off the market.
"It provides some stability and some security for renters as they are bringing up their families in this city," said Margarita Maldonado, an affordable housing advocate with Housing 4 Sacramento.
Advocates were planning on putting a rent control measure that they qualified for on the 2020 ballot. However, they agreed not to pursue that initiative if the city council approved the Tenant Protection and Relief Act.
"I'm looking at this ordinance as a great first step in dealing with the major housing crisis that we have in this city," Maldonado said.
If the ordinance gets approved, it would go into effect in two months. It would only apply to units built before 1995. There are approximately 30,000 of those units in Sacramento, according to Hansen.
City councilmembers are voting on Tuesday at 2 p.m. at Sacramento City Hall's council chambers.