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Antioch took a step this week toward helping tenants facing large rent hikes by agreeing to craft rules to stabilize rental costs and add other protections.

Though no action was taken at a special meeting Tuesday, council members directed staff to draft a rent stabilization ordinance and bring it back for a vote next month.

Dozens attended the packed meeting where more than 25 spoke about pending rent hikes – some as large as $300 or more a month – that could force some families to move or even wind up on the streets, they said.

Josefina Mercado, a resident of Delta Pines Apartments, said in Spanish that her apartment had cockroaches and that she supported controlling rents and hoped the city would do it quickly.

Dulce Franco of Casa Blanca apartments said she received notice her rent was increasing by 33%, too much for the single mom with two children. The big increase is causing her much “angst and anxiety,” and she will have to move out of the city because rents are too high, she said in Spanish.

Tony Bravo of Monument Impact, said the Concord nonprofit had heard from many facing rent hikes of between $250 and $300 a month at Delta Pines and Casa Blanca apartments in Antioch.

“While many of them are still earning only minimum wage, they ask, ‘How can we continue to receive these increased increases in rent, but many of you have they have habitability issues going unfixed, like roach infestations, lack of smoke detectors.?’”

Tenant rights activist Devon Williams asked the council to define increases at 60% of CPI, capped at 3%, create a “diverse rent board for petition hearings, education and enforcement,” and include a rent rollback to January when councilmembers first asked staff to consider a rent stabilization ordinance. He also wanted exemptions eliminated for those in owner-occupied duplexes and Low-Income Housing Tax Credit affordable housing.

“We really hope that this moves forward in favor of the tenants who have been fighting every day with us,” he  said.

Activist Francisco Torres, tenant organizer for Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), agreed.

“This is one of the most expensive areas in the nation,” he said. “So we need real rent control like we’ve been asking from the beginning. And we want just cause (for evictions), anti-harassment … You need to stand up and be courageous. I know it’s tough. But you have to realize we have people out there that are on the verge of being homeless.”

Vice Mayor Mike Barbanica said that the huge rent increases some tenants mentioned were unacceptable and price gougers should be referred to the DA’s office for prosecution.

“Just coming off COVID, we’re just coming off a state of emergency. Now we have people that are getting a $500 (rental) increase – what’s that equates to a 30 to 40% increase? That’s absolutely ridiculous.”

He also suggested that tenants call the city’s code enforcement officers to deal with habitability issues such as the cockroach infestations and uncleaned feces in common areas that some mentioned.

“The abusive landlords that are doing what is being described here – if that is truly occurring – that has to be put a stop to.”

Antioch City Attorney Thomas Smith told the council it could consider a number of options; however, by law it could not adopt full rent control or set a limit to how much a landlord can charge at the beginning of occupancy. In contrast is rent stabilization, which deals only with increases during a tenancy, which the city could control with some exceptions.

Under the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, some places like single-family homes and units built after Feb. 1, 1995, are exempt from local rent stabilization regulations, Smith said.

Councilwoman Monica Wilson noted that “everybody is struggling” with housing costs and more.

“This is happening across the board and rent is just completely out of whack in comparison to the wages that are being made in the Bay Area,” she said. “… Also, we definitely need to do something because Aug. 1 … is right around the corner, and we need to keep people in their houses.”

Councilwoman Tamisha Torres-Walker said if the city really wants to combat homelessness, it will do something to keep families in their homes.

“Rent stabilization and preventing displacement is so important, and even though we are a general law city, we can stop dragging our feet and do something now to help people stay in their homes,”  she said.

Related Articles Housing | Richmond residents will vote on lower rent control rates in November Housing | Berkeley voters may be asked to expand, strengthen rent control to more tenants in November Housing | Richmond tenants are pushing back against rent hikes, alleging poor living conditions Housing | Mountain View amends mobile home rent control law to prevent park owners from skirting oversight Councilwoman Lori Ogorchock concurred that the council needs to act quickly.

“My heart goes out to you,” she told the tenants. “It truly does. I think that now that we have something to start with, we need to start working on this quickly and make sure that the direction to staff is that we want this brought back at the next meeting.”

Mayor Lamar Thorpe directed staff to draft an ordinance that includes rent stabilization, a rent increase cap, and a phased-in rent control board among others.

But as far as the measure coming before the council at its next meeting, the city attorney said that would be impossible because of the need of advance notice for the public, but a special meeting could be held to speed up the process once the draft is completed.

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