Business

Oakland City Council Considers Proposal to Limit City’s Highest Annual Rent Hike in History

In Oakland, landlords can raise rents up to 100% of the inflation rate. So, a 6.7% increase in inflation this year means that landlords can raise rents the same percentage. For an apartment rented for $2,000 a month, the 6.7% rent increase would mean that a tenant’s rent would increase more than $100 to $2,134 a month.

Published

2 years ago

May 23, 2022

Oakland Post

By Brandon Patterson

Last month, Oakland housing regulators announced that starting in July, landlords would be permitted to raise rents by up to 6.7% — the highest annual increase in the city’s history. The announcement prompted an outcry from renters at City Council meetings and hearings in recent weeks – and calls to local councilmembers.

Now, City Council is considering a proposal to limit the rent increase and give renters, many of whom are already struggling, some needed relief.

In many Bay Area cities, where housing has been an issue for decades, the amount landlords are allowed to raise rents every year is tied to inflation. This stabilizes rents by limiting increases, ensuring more security for renters’ households.

This deviates from other cities like Berkeley and San Francisco, however, where the annual allowable rent increase is capped at 65% and 60% of inflation, respectively, according to Oaklandside. That means that for the same $2,000 apartment, rents would increase to about $2,087 in Berkeley or $2084 in San Francisco — about $50 less.

Housing justice and tenants’ rights groups have long criticized how differently Oakland calculates its rent hikes from other cities, and earlier this month, District 3 Councilmember Carroll Fife introduced a bill to bring Oakland’s calculator more in line with other cities. The bill would reduce the allowable annual rent increase to just 60% of inflation. It would also cap the allowable rent increase to 3% of the current rent, even if the inflation rate would allow for a higher one.

“I do want to create some security for renters,” Fife told NBC Bay Area in a recent interview. “Oakland is a majority renter city: Over 60% of the residents of the city of Oakland are renters, and it doesn’t make sense to put them in this type of jeopardy.”

“It’s not like we’re coming out of COVID—it’s all around us,” Mark Dias, co-chair of the Oakland Tenants Union, told Oaklandside. “If tenants weren’t able to financially recover from that period of time, they’re also going to be hit with an increase that is legal,” adding that he was “astonished” by the pending rent hike this year.

But some property owners are pushing back, arguing that increases in the cost of operating housing necessitates the higher rent hike. “There has also been an extraordinary increase in everything: water, gas, electric, sewer, repair services, equipment, appliances, plumbing,” Derek Barnes, CEO of the East Bay Rental Housing Association, told NBC Bay Area. “You also have a housing stock that’s older, that really needs a lot of maintenance.”

The law is scheduled for a vote on May 31. If it passes before the current allowable rent hike goes into effect on July 1, then the lower allowable increase will take effect instead.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Up Next

Reparations Task Force: What to Expect in the Committee’s First Report

Don't Miss

Bay Area Health Officers Urge Public to Take Precautions as COVID-19 Levels Rise

Oakland Post

Click to comment

Business

Google’s New Deal with California Lawmakers and Publishers Will Fund Newsrooms, Explore AI

Gov. Gavin Newsom, California lawmakers and some newspaper publishers last week finalized a $172 million deal with tech giant Google to support local news outlets and artificial intelligence innovation. This deal, the first of its kind in the nation, aims to invest in local journalism statewide over the next five years. However, the initiative is different from a bill proposed by two legislators, news publishers and media employee unions requiring tech giants Google and Meta to split a percentage of ad revenue generated from news stories with publishers and media outlets.

Published

3 days ago

October 1, 2024

Oakland Post

iStock

By Bo Tefu, California Black Media

This deal, the first of its kind in the nation, aims to invest in local journalism statewide over the next five years. However, the initiative is different from a bill proposed by two legislators, news publishers and media employee unions requiring tech giants Google and Meta to split a percentage of ad revenue generated from news stories with publishers and media outlets. Under this new deal, Google will commit $55 million over five years into a new fund administered by the University of California, Berkeley to distribute to local newsrooms. In this partnership, the State is expected to provide $70 over five years toward this initiative. Google also has to pay a lump sum of $10 million annually toward existing grant programs that fund local newsrooms.

The State Legislature and the governor will have to approve the state funds each year. Google has agreed to invest an additional $12.5 million each year in an artificial intelligence program. However, labor advocates are concerned about the threat of job losses as a result of AI being used in newsrooms.

Julie Makinen, board chairperson of the California News Publishers Association, acknowledged that the deal is a sign of progress.

“This is a first step toward what we hope will become a comprehensive program to sustain local news in the long term, and we will push to see it grow in future years,” said Makinen.

However, the deal is “not what we had hoped for when set out, but it is a start and it will begin to provide some help to newsrooms across the state,” she said.

Regina Brown Wilson, Executive Director of California Black Media, said the deal is a commendable first step that beats the alternative: litigation, legislation or Google walking from the deal altogether or getting nothing.

“This kind of public-private partnership is unprecedented. California is leading the way by investing in protecting the press and sustaining quality journalism in our state,” said Brown Wilson. “This fund will help news outlets adapt to a changing landscape and provide some relief. This is especially true for ethnic and community media journalists who have strong connections to their communities.”

Although the state partnered with media outlets and publishers to secure the multi-year deal, unions advocating for media workers argued that the news companies and lawmakers were settling for too little.

Sen. Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg) proposed a bill earlier this year that aimed to hold tech companies accountable for money they made off news articles. But big tech companies pushed back on bills that tried to force them to share profits with media companies.

McGuire continues to back efforts that require tech companies to pay media outlets to help save jobs in the news industry. He argued that this new deal, “lacks sufficient funding for newspapers and local media, and doesn’t fully address the inequities facing the industry.”