Tenants and organizers with the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment protest conditions of a Richmond apartment building in front of their landlord's home in July 2022. (Courtesy of Edith Pastrano)
Homeowners account for more than half of Richmond’s housing occupancy, but tenants now make up 80% of the city’s five-seat Rent Board — a dramatic power shift since the governing body’s inception.
That discrepancy divided the Richmond City Council on Tuesday, as elected officials weighed whether they should fill three vacancies with more voices from renters — a historically marginalized community — or push for a more balanced representation of the city’s 116,000 residents.
In a 4-2-1 vote just before midnight on Tuesday, the council’s progressive majority bloc narrowly appointed Sara Cantor, Tomasa Espinoza and Karina Guadalupe to the Rent Board. Councilmember Soheila Bana voted no, while Councilmembers Doria Robinson and Cesar Zepeda abstained.
Voters approved the “Richmond Fair Rent, Just Cause for Eviction and Homeowner Protection Ordinance” more than six years ago — the first of its kind in Contra Costa County. The 2016 ballot measure formed the Rent Board to help protect tenants from no-cause evictions, administer the city’s rent controlled units and hear grievances from both sides.
The program was a major victory to the nearly half of city residents who spent 35% or more of their income on rent, according to census data. Unsurprisingly, landlords and property owners have not been as enthusiastic about the policies.
Prior to the council’s vote, only three total tenants had previously been appointed to the board since its inception in 2017, according to Shiva Mishek, chief of staff for Mayor Eduardo Martinez.
Additionally, Mishek said the board’s only provision regulating membership is limiting landlords to a maximum of two seats. No homeowners who are also landlords are currently serving on the Rent Board.
But a handful of elected officials and residents were not convinced that Richmond should risk polarizing the board in favor of compensating past inequities.
Councilmember Bana unsuccessfully requested that the mayor only approve two tenants Tuesday and seek out another homeowner to appoint at a later date, saying she wanted to better represent local mom-and-pop landlords who rely on rental property for day-to-day income.
“I think it’s important to have representation of the people in this city based on the ratio in this society,” Bana said. “I’m confident you (Mayor Martinez) can find one more person in the city of Richmond who is a homeowner, and yet just and knowledgeable.”
Martinez denied that request and stuck with the three residents he vetted, arguing that they will fairly hear all sides of an issue.
“I’m not appointing rabid rent advocates,” Martinez said during Tuesday’s meeting. “I’m appointing people who are reasonable, who are just and who know the law.”
Sara Cantor, an accountant and five-year resident, has been a renter and rented out to a tenant. Tomasa Espinoza is a housewife and community volunteer who has lived in Richmond for nearly two decades, hoping to represent the city’s large population of Spanish-speaking, low-income renters like herself. And after more than 20 years living in Richmond, Karina Guadalupe applied to the Rent Board to help fellow renters better understand the resources available to them.
Citing first-hand experience, Jamin Pursell — a small business owner, volunteer on several city boards and operations manager for the Richmond Progressive Alliance — said it’s been a continually difficult task trying to help local renters understand the basic benefits and programs offered by the Rent Board.
While a majority of residents voted in 2022 to lower the maximum rate that landlords can hike costs each year — capped at either 60% of the Consumer Price Index or 3% of a controlled unit’s current rate, whichever is lower — Pursell said more tenants are still needed on city boards and commissions to make significant progress helping renters reside and survive in Richmond.
Council gadfly Don Gosney agreed that it was not fair and equal that not enough tenants have historically served on the board, but he said during Tuesday’s meeting that shifting the balance in the opposite direction would only be “fair and equal like Fox News.”
Beyond political optics, longtime Richmond resident Lisa Johnson shared her concerns that not having representative voices from homeowners — especially those who are not already landlords — will continue decreasing the city’s housing supply and driving up rents for everyone.
“Many homeowners are sitting on the side not renting their properties because of the policies that are being passed not just in Richmond, but in other areas,” Johnson said. “If we don’t have people help looking out for homeowners, it’s not helping the tenants in the end.”
Originally published at Katie Lauer