Sunnyvale Ups Rental Assistance

Sunnyvale has increased how much money displaced renters will get if evicted.

At its last meeting Feb. 25, the Sunnyvale City Council approved upping no-fault, just-cause evictions from two months rent to three months rent.

“A large part of what we want to do is to make it so that people will stay housed,” said Vice Mayor Linda Sell. “So, if you are on the edge of just making ends meet and all of a sudden you find out that you have this just-cause, no-fault eviction … I would want, if a person in this situation, for them to have the means to find a new place to live and to stay housed.”

The item previously came before the council, and the council asked city employees to examine whether giving such tenants three months of rental assistance instead of two was doable. Sunnyvale’s ordinance already goes a step further than state law, giving renters two months of rent for relocation costs.

Trudi Ryan, community development director, told the council that the city emailed surveys to 650 landlords and conducted social media polls to get a handle on the community response to the proposal. However, the response was low, with only 14 landlord responses and 24 tenant responses.

Marie Bernard, executive director at Sunnyvale Community Services, encouraged the city to be more “proactive” in addressing the needs of renters. Sunnyvale Community Services supported the three-month change.

“Low-income households often struggle to find new affordable housing in Sunnyvale. Sadly, we often have to move them out of Sunnyvale to another community, which also takes more time, and it can also take 30-to-60 days to find housing in Silicon Valley. And during that time, families often deplete any savings they have,” she said.

Jeni Carloni, housing manager, told the council the city has little ability to “reactively” enforce the change. Instead, she said, the city offers draft language to include in leases and general language handouts and “hopes” that landlords include it in their leases.

Many council members pointed to displaced renters needing to provide first month, last month and a deposit for a new apartment. Those costs don’t include the cost of hiring movers, taking time off work or daycare to accommodate the move.

Council Member Alysa Cisneros, who proposed the three-month option, called it “common sense.”

“The burden aside, what I got from the information we collected from the landlords is that they really just kind of don’t mind because if they mind, they would tell us,” she said. “The least we can do is honor the spirit of the relocation assistance and especially help people who really can’t afford this kind of disruption and have played by all the rules.”

Mayor Larry Klein said the evictions in question are the “exception to the rule,” adding that the change was the “empathetic thing to do.”

The motion passed in a 5-2 vote, with Council Members Charlsie Chang and Murali Srinivasan dissenting.

Srinivasan said the council seemed to be trying to fix something that isn’t broken, adding that he worried about the impact on below-market-rate housing.

“I don’t feel there were enough responses to justify what feels to me like a little bit of an arbitrary change,” Chang said.

Consent Calendar Spending

The council approved the following spending in one motion via the consent calendar:

• A $2.5 million contract with Casey Construction, Inc. for sanitary sewer system replacement/repair/rehabilitation.
• A $2.5 million amendment to a purchase agreement with Dell for computers, extending the agreement to June 2028.

The council meets again at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 18 in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 456 W. Olive Ave. in Sunnyvale.

To submit public comments ahead of the meeting, visit http://Sunnyvale.ca.gov/PublicComments; Meeting online link: https://sunnyvale-ca-gov.zoom.us/j/96111580540; meeting call-in telephone number: 833-548-0276, meeting ID: 961 1158 0540.

Contact David Alexander at d.todd.alexander@gmail.com

Other Sunnyvale City Council Meetings:
Sunnyvale City Council Names New Park “Corn Palace Park”
Sunnyvale Updates Zoning Code To Accommodate More Housing
Sunnyvale City Council Approves Severe Weather Program for the Homeless