The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday adopted a “just cause for residential eviction” ordinance that will implement additional tenant protections, in response to mass “renovictions” of an Isla Vista apartment complex.
Hundreds of tenants living in CBC & The Sweeps apartments received eviction notices after Chicago-based Core Spaces purchased the apartment buildings with plans to renovate them, evicting all residents while work is being done.
The new ordinance requires landlords to offer tenants a one-year residential lease; requires landlords to offer no-fault eviction tenants (like those evicted for substantial remodels or an owner/family move-in) the first right of refusal to re-lease the unit if it comes back on the rental market.
The law also defines substantial remodel as work done to bring a property in compliance with health-and-safety codes, not just cosmetic improvements.
Tenant advocates asked the county to limit how much rent the landlords could charge returning tenants, but the ordinance does not include that.
The supervisors adopted the ordinance on a 3-2 vote. Das Williams, Laura Capps and Joan Hartmann voted in favor, and Steve Lavagnino and Bob Nelson were opposed.
The ordinance takes effect in mid-August, 30 days after adoption.
Second District Supervisor Capps said the ordinance is aimed at corporations targeting low-income housing stock, such as the county has already seen in Isla Vista.
Fifth District Supervisor Lavagnino said there’s a difference in how people rent in the North County – with multiple rooms of homes leased to different people – compared to the South Coast.
He and Nelson said the ordinance could cause unintended consequences for landlords, and they didn’t support it.
“When I represented Guadalupe, I had several constituents thrown out of rooms they rented overnight, and those renters need protection as much as they do in the south,” Third District Supervisor Hartmann said.
The Core Spaces website shows a list of student housing properties in communities near California universities.
It includes CBC & The Sweeps in Isla Vista – which does not exclusively house college students – and properties in Berkeley, two complexes in Los Angeles, and one in San Diego.
Core Spaces paid $91.6 million for the 239-unit CBC & The Sweeps apartments this year, which is $383,577 per unit.
According to the Real Deal, Core Spaces and investors paid $21.5 million last year for a Berkeley property where the city approved a 232-bed student housing project.
Scroll down to view the just cause for residential eviction ordinance.