From the February 2008 Newsletter:

SPOSFI's Sacramento Committee keeps an eye on the Legislature
By David Fix

Since 2003, SPOSFI’s Sacramento Committee has monitored proposed legislation and addressed housing fairness issues at the state level by meeting with legislators and their aides.

The most recent piece of legislation that concerned the Committee was SB 464, authored by State Senator Sheila Kuehl of Santa Monica, a city with very strict rent control. Senator Kuehl has twice tried to gut the Ellis Act’s protections for owners who want to go out of the residential rental business. Her bill, introduced last year, would require three years of ownership before a property owner could use the Ellis Act, and an eviction notice one full year in advance for all tenants in buildings in which any tenant was 62 years or older. Last spring we asked our members to write our state senators and urge them to vote against this bill. It did not pass last year, and Senator Kuehl put it on hold until the 2008 session. She has decided not to reintroduce the bill, but the Committee will continue to watch it closely in case the situation changes.

Last year the Committee met with State Senator Leland Yee, encouraging him to oppose SB 464 and to support small property owners in their efforts to get fair treatment from the state, and to counter overregulation in cities like San Francisco and Santa Monica. The Committee has developed materials that explain how overregulation in cities like San Francisco not only hurts small property owners but also drives up rents and reduces the amount of rental housing stock. We plan to meet with state legislators to present our ideas and concerns.

Legislators have until the end of February to introduce legislation for the current session. The Committee watches newly proposed legislation in both the State Senate and State Assembly in order to identify bills that would be particularly damaging to small property owners. We will notify you if we need you to contact legislators about one of these bills. As always, thank you for your support.

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