Redwood City rental housing providers are urged to contact city officials before Monday evening, when the City Council is scheduled to review a report on a proposed rent and eviction control initiative headed for the November election.

The council will meet at 6 p.m. Monday, June 8, to consider Item 8A, which includes accepting certification of the initiative, receiving an Elections Code Section 9212 report on the measure’s impacts, and taking action under Elections Code Section 9215. Under that law, the council may adopt the proposed ordinance without alteration or call an election to submit the measure to voters at the Nov. 3, 2026, statewide general election.

The California Apartment Association is asking members to respectfully urge the City Council to require a supplemental Section 9212 analysis before taking further action on the measure. The preliminary report provides information about the initiative’s rent control provisions, but CAA is concerned that it does not provide a comparable analysis of the measure’s broader regulatory requirements.

Those non-rent-control provisions include expanded just-cause eviction mandates, relocation assistance requirements with minimum payments of $12,000 to $18,000, depending on the tenant household, and no maximum cap, right-to-return provisions, anti-harassment regulations, tenant safety plan requirements and buyout restrictions. CAA is asking the council to direct staff and its consultant to evaluate those provisions using the same analytical framework applied to the measure’s rent cap provisions.

The proposed initiative, known as the Fair and Affordable Housing Ordinance, would impose stricter local rent and eviction limits in Redwood City if enacted. As CAA previously reported, the measure would cap annual rent increases for many pre-1995 rental housing units at 60% of the local Consumer Price Index, with a maximum increase of 5%. It also would create a city-administered rent program funded through annual landlord fees.

Many of the initiative’s non-rent-control mandates would apply across much of Redwood City’s rental housing stock, including single-family rentals, post-1995 multifamily housing, accessory dwelling units, affordable housing and other properties that may be exempt from rent control. CAA contends additional analysis is needed so elected officials, voters and the public can understand the measure’s full economic, fiscal, housing, land use, affordable housing and operational impacts.

Questions? Contact Rhovy Lyn Antonio at rantonio@caanet.org.