Alameda renters urge for a moratorium on evictions
before the Nov. 22 council meeting at City Hall.
PHOTO/Zac Goldstein

ALAMEDA CITY COUNCIL |
A push by an Alameda renters group urging for a moratorium on evictions during the holidays isn’t needed, says Alameda’s city manager, because the rent stabilization ordinance passed last March is working.

Between April—when the ordinance was approved by the Alameda City Council—through September of this year, the Housing Authority was notified of 17 evictions, according to a memo sent by City Manager Jill Keimach last week to the Alameda Renters Coalition.

In each instance, relocation payments were given by the property owner to the displaced tenants, as outlined in the rent ordinance.

“While we understand the very real hardship these terminations cause Alameda residents and families, the data we have does not provide overwhelming evidence of widespread displacement supporting a serious health and safety issue,” said Keimach.

Members of the Alameda Renters Coalition urged the City Council to enact a 90-day moratorium on evictions during a meeting on Nov. 22. A similar holiday moratorium was issued last year, although before the rent stabilization ordinance was finalized.

Despite calls for another moratorium, one Alameda council member told the East Bay Citizen that the votes were not likely there for such a resolution, anyway.

The call to action by the Alameda Renters Coalition comes after an election that provided them with mixed results.

Although its bid for rent control was overwhelmingly voted down by Alameda voters on Nov. 8, the two council candidates most sympathetic to greater restrictions for renters–incumbent Councilmember Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft and Malia Vella–easily won the two available seats.

In addition, according to Keimach, the city was begin to examine whether unspecified tweaks could be made to the existing rent stabilization ordinance in coming months.

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