The San Diego County Board of Supervisors will vote Tuesday on a proposal to establish a new civil enforcement unit with explicit authority to sue housing providers.
The measure, Item 19 on the March 24 agenda, was introduced by Board Chair Terra Lawson-Remer.
The Consumer Fairness and Public Protection Unit would be housed in the Office of County Counsel and staffed with up to 30 full-time employees within two years. The county would seed the unit with $30 million transferred from a consumer fraud trust fund built largely from opioid litigation settlements, despite the unit’s stated focus on housing providers and business practices. At full operation, the unit is projected to cost $6.2 to $7.4 million per year — expenses it is designed to cover through the civil penalties and settlements it generates.
Housing providers are among the primary enforcement targets named in the staff report. The document lists “deceptive property management practices, unlawful eviction schemes, algorithmic rent-setting, and biased tenant screening tools” among the unit’s enforcement priorities. If approved, the item would also amend the county’s administrative code to give county counsel standing authority to bring lawsuits on behalf of the county.
The California Apartment Association opposes the measure. CAA said the self-funding litigation model — in which the unit sustains itself through the settlements and penalties it secures — creates a structural incentive to file lawsuits rather than educate businesses or resolve disputes collaboratively.
Multiple state and local agencies, including the California attorney general, the San Diego County district attorney and city attorneys, already regulate the rental housing industry. CAA said adding a new county enforcement unit on top of that structure is a costly duplication of existing enforcement authority.
The county should be incentivizing housing production, not creating new legal risks for those who provide it, CAA said. According to the staff report, the cost of living in San Diego County is among the highest in the nation.
The unit draws its legal authority from SB 461, a 2021 state law that authorized county counsels in large counties to bring civil enforcement actions under California’s Unfair Competition Law. Los Angeles and Santa Clara counties have already established similar units under that authority. The San Diego staff report describes the county as “the last major county” in California without one.
Urge the Board to oppose Item 19
The Board of Supervisors will take up the item at its meeting beginning at 9 a.m. Tuesday, March 24, at the County Administration Center, 1600 Pacific Highway, Room 310, San Diego. Free underground parking is available. The meeting can also be watched via livestream.
Members can oppose the measure by attending and offering public comment, submitting written comments to PublicComment@sdcounty.ca.gov, or contacting their supervisor directly through CAA’s action center.
