The East Bay Express reports on the Oakland City Counsel’s proposed amendment to the rent ordinance, which would expand the payment of relocation assistance when tenants are displaced by the Ellis Act. Currently, only low income tenants receive relocation assistance of roughly $8,000 per unit (plus $2,500 for homes with minors, seniors and disabled tenants). The amendment would expand this payment to apply to all displaced tenants, regardless of income level.
This expansion would track a 2003 amendment to the Ellis Act. As the First District Court of Appeals noted, in the case Pieri v. City and County of San Francisco, this amendment removed the limitation that these payments only be given to low income tenants. In that case, the Pieri court upheld a San Francisco ordinance, similarly expanding the required relocation payments to all tenants displaced by the Ellis Act, finding the amount of that payment “reasonable”.
And, while there are certainly limits on what constitutes a “reasonable” relocation payment, the East Bay Express notes that the legislative intent is to allow “displaced renters cover the first and last month’s rent for new apartments . . . and help with other fees and expenses associated with moving in to a new place”. Where Oakland is now the fourth most expensive rental market in the country, these dollar amounts seem to stand a good chance of being “Pieri reasonable”.
