A Boldt of leadership for renters in San Leandro

Alameda candidate says Hatch Act precludes him from seeking partisan endorsements; Oakland union put $150k into IE to support councilmember's re-election

San Leandro City Council candidate Dylan Boldt at a candidate forum last weekend.

ELECTION 2024

53 days to Election Day

—NEXT GEN—There’s a good reason for San Leandro City Council candidate Dylan Boldt’s unequivocal support for rent stabilization. He’s lived housing insecurity as both a homeowner and renter in the city.

“I grew up on government assistance. I lived at an apartment on Doolittle Drive,” Boldt said. “There were absolutely no rules back then and I saw my father struggle. He always made sure we had a roof over our head, but it was tough.”

Boldt lost his home during the Great Recession. The experience of losing a home he only purchased two years informs his stance on renters’ protections. Seemingly overnight his mortgage payment increased by $600.

“I know what people are going through when they get that hit,” Boldt said. “There were zero protections for anybody at that time who invested in a home. Why are we saying protections are only for the investor and zero for the renter?”

“When they say investors need their protections. I don’t know one investment in America that is guaranteed, but all of a sudden, we’re guaranteeing investments in property,” he said. “When people are building homes for profit for investors and rent just keeps getting jacked up, to me, that is not okay.”

As a business agent for Sprinkler Fitters Union Local 483, Boldt said he sees rising rents greatly affecting his membership, in many cases, forcing them to move further away from the Greater Bay Area.

Boldt is born and raised in San Leandro, and attended Garfield Elementary. Fun fact: Eleven-year-old Dylan’s DARE officer was Pete Ballew, the former San Leandro police officer that Boldt hopes to replace on the city council. Ballew is termed out of office this year.

Boldt later graduated from San Leandro High before joining the military. Boldt served in then-hotspots in Bosnia and Kosovo in the late 1990s, and then Guantanamo Bay following 9/11.

Starting nearly a decade ago, the fight for renters’ protections was the rage for many East Bay cities, but for some reason, not San Leandro, which still doesn’t have its own tenant protection ordinance.

Boldt believes landlord/tenant controversies and large developments in neighboring communities took the spotlight away from San Leandro, at the time.

The city council needs to do more, Boldt said. A proposed rent stabilization ordinance has languished at the committee level for more than a year without much momentum.

“I don’t think we’re drilling down to the nuts and bolts,” he said. “I do believe building more helps, but we also need to put a cap on the amount of rent people can increase.”

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