What is SB 464, and Why Do We Need It?

At a time when fewer California seniors and working families can find affordable housing, thousands of rental units are being withdrawn from the market, torn down, and converted into high-cost condominiums at huge profit.  This outrage is possible because California’s Ellis Act allows landlords to bypass local renter protection laws, and evict all the tenants in a building if he states he is getting out of the rental business.  In Los Angeles alone, 11,000 units were taken off the  market over the past 5 years.  

Ellis Act evictions are most frequently done in rent-controlled buildings, often occupied by tenants who are older,  with disabilities, and poor. 60% of San Francisco buildings emptied using the Ellis Act involved displacing a senior or person with disabilities.

Typically, real estate speculators evict tenants within a couple of years of buying the building. In Los Angeles, for example, 65% of Ellis Act Evictions were within 2 years of purchase by the new owner.

SB 464 would afford a partial protection of renters and rental housing by (1) prohibiting new buyers of buildings from using the Ellis Act to evict tenants for 3 years after purchase,  (2) prohibiting a buyer from requiring the current owner to use the Ellis Act to remove all tenants as a condition of sale, and (3) requiring that in cases where using the Ellis Act to clear a building would displace any senior or person with disabilities, all the building’s tenants be given a 1-year relocation period instead of the current 4 months.

Read BeyondChron article on SB 464's progress despite strong realtor opposition.

Read letters about SB 464

Read letters CARA has written about SB 464 here and here.

Download a letter on SB 464 in MS Word format that you can use as a template for your own letter.

More information about SB 464

See the CARA Legislative Committee tracking report on Calif bills.

Read LegInfo, the official legislative website, on SB 464.

(Leginfo, the Official California Legislative Information website, describes Senate and Assembly bills, with texts, current status, analyses comparing the current situation with changes a bill would make, anticipated fiscal impacts, supporting and opposing arguments and organizations, and other valuable information.)

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