This Bay Area County Approved Sweeping Protections for Disaster-Affected Tenants

Nearly seven years after the Tubbs Fire tore through Northern California wine country, displacing thousands of people, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved stronger tenant protections triggered during natural disasters as part of a wider package of rental laws.

Under the new ordinances, when county officials declare a state of emergency, landlords must accept late rent payments and can only evict in a more limited set of circumstances. The package also expands tenant protections when there is no emergency, widening the pool of tenants eligible for “just cause” eviction protections, among other provisions.

“We’ve learned from Sonoma County’s history of disasters that we can’t afford to wait until the next disaster hits, especially for our undocumented community members, who are among the most marginalized,” said Beatrice Camacho, director of local mutual aid organization UndocuFund.

Advocates and tenant activists said the 2017 Tubbs Fire, along with the COVID-19 pandemic, shaped their “first-in-the-nation” proposal. The fire scorched nearly 37,000 acres across Sonoma and Napa counties, destroyed nearly 5,700 homes and damaged more than 300 others.

Under the new rules, a landlord wanting to evict their tenant during a declared disaster must permanently remove the property from the rental market or demonstrate the tenant poses a health or safety threat.

Tenants also have more leeway if they can’t pay their rent on time. Landlords must wait at least 30 days before deeming it late, as long as tenants can demonstrate they experienced a substantial loss of income or had to pay out-of-pocket expenses associated with the disaster.

However, some landlords took issue with the new rules during the board meeting.

“What that does is that leaves the property owner subject to penalty fees and paying their mortgage late, especially if they depend on that rental income to support their mortgage,” said Jill DeProto, a member of local property management company D&G Equity. “There’s got to be a balance between tenant protection laws and for landlords and property owners.”

In Sonoma County, renters make up almost 40% of households, according to tenants rights organization North Bay Organizing Project. Statewide, renters make up 44% of households, a larger share than other states across the country. More cities, including Antioch, Richmond, Petaluma and Salinas, have passed renter protections in recent years.

In 2019, the California Tenant Protection Act set statewide standards establishing certain “just-cause” eviction protections and limits on rent increases for most multifamily properties built more than 15 years ago, along with some single-family rentals. Those protections limit the reasons landlords can evict tenants, such as late rent payments, public health or safety reasons and violations of the lease.

Under Sonoma County’s new protections, every property rented out has to offer just cause eviction protections. If a landlord decides to evict a tenant without just cause, they have to pay one month’s fair-market rent to relocate the tenant. And renters are also allowed to pay their rent late twice in a year before facing the threat of eviction.

Finally, if a landlord wants to evict a renter during an emergency or otherwise, they have to provide tenants information in both English and Spanish.

“These strong eviction protections transform the immediate crises Sonoma County’s undocumented neighbors face into forward-thinking policies that ensure our government takes responsibility for everyone’s dignity and self-determination in future disasters,” Camacho said. “Because we refuse to let those most impacted be left behind.”

The rules will take effect 30 days after the supervisors’ Tuesday vote.