Rebecca Kaplan supports bringing just cause protections to unincorporated Alameda County

New Oakland City Council candidate emerges in District 4

Oakland Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan

ELECTION 2022

ALAMEDA COUNTY SUPERVISOR - DISTRICT 3

—D3 SUPES AND JUST CAUSE—An eviction moratorium in Alameda County is still effect after more than two years, and it could be ending soon. The pause is a reminder that Alameda County’s unincorporated areas surprisingly do not have just cause protections for its renters. There is little recourse for a renter to avoid eviction if a landlords truly desires it.

—The Alameda County Board of Supervisors race in District 3 is also a reminder that although it includes Alameda, San Leandro, and a portion of Oakland, the true power of the seat rests in the unincorporated areas of San Lorenzo and nearby hamlets where the District 3 supervisor is the de-facto mayor and city council.

—Last weekend, the four candidates hoping to replace the late Wilma Chan in District 3–Rebecca Kaplan, Lena Tam, Surlene Grant, and David Kakishiba were asked about how they would bring tenant protections to the district and, specifically, unincorporated Alameda County. The answers were, at times, bold and specific, while others times they were maddeningly vague.

—Kaplan was clear she would move to enact just cause protections in unincorporated Alameda County. It’s an idea her potential colleague in the unincorporated areas, Supervisor Nate Miley, has repeatedly resisted.

“We need to ensure that tenants have those rights protected so they are not subjected to wrongful evictions. Some of the horrific cases that have taken place, where there is no right to just cause include landlords approaching a young woman and saying he would evict her if she didn’t have sex with him,” Kaplan told Alameda County Democrats last weekend.

—“When you don’t have just cause they get away with that because there’s no grounds needed, so all kinds of abuses happen. We need a just cause law so that there can be those protections and they can be enforced.”

—Lena Tam, a former Alameda councilmember hedged on full support for just cause, adding rent stabilization should be tailored to individual communities. Some areas like unincorporated Fairview and San Lorenzo have large inventories of single-family housing, Tam said, “which would not be subjected to the kind of rent controls that we would normally see in other jurisdictions.”

—“I don’t think a one-size will fit all. I think it has to be customized for the unincorporated area and I see the Municipal Advisory Council (MAC) taking a very active role in developing the type of protections that will protect the tenants and what is best for the unincorporated area.”

—Using MACs, groups in several unincorporated areas that are appointed solely by the supervisor and offer non-binding recommendations, is a strategy long used by Miley. David Kakishiba, a former Oakland school boardmember, and Surlene Grant, a former San Leandro councilmember, suggested they would follow Miley’s lead.

—Kakishiba said he would organize renters and use their help in formulating board policy around tenant protections and costs control. “The board is flying blind and is very suspect to outside forces that are in opposition to tenant protections,” he said. If elected, Kakishiba said he will hire an experienced tenants’ organizer as a staffer in his office.

—Grant proposed setting up discussions with stakeholders for a “policy that could set in some level of rent control, rent protection.” Grant wants something akin to Universal Basic Income to help some renters struggling month-to-month to get by. “Sometimes just $100 can make a difference for some people. It’s going to be much better than having them be homeless and we have to feed and shelter them in some other alternative way and it is going to cost us much more,” Grant said.