Promoting a more equitable Fairfax community.
If this is your first time here, see our Summary page to see why we think extra rent control without a vote of the people, is a bad idea.
Rent Control Soundly Rejected in Marin!
Please see MarinResidents.org main page for the recent article.
We need your help to continue fighting for protections for mom & pop housing providers which are the backbone of rental housing in Fairfax and are being hurt by extra rent control regulations.
The campaign to save neighborhood rental housing is ON!
Here are some facts about extra rent control.
There are two halves to rent control. One is “Rent Stabilizaton” (the yearly rent cap), and the other is “Just Cause”, which governs housing provider – tenant interactions.
Rent Stabilization:
- The State already has in place comprehensive regulations that protect tenants from excessive rent increases. Annual rent increases are limited to 5% plus the cost of living. Given the Fed target of 2% this would equate to a maximum increase of 7%. Few owners would even raise to this level, but it does prevent any excessive rent increase to tenants.
- The Fairfax ordinance limits rent increases to 75% of the cost of living (25% BELOW inflation). At the 2% Fed target, this would be an annual increase of only 1.5%. This does not cover increases in taxes, utilities, or insurance. There will be no money left for maintenance and upgrades. Our town will soon decay into a blight on our neighborhoods.
- Yes, single family homes and ADUs are exempt from rent control. However, if Proposition 33 passes (repeal of Costa Hawkins), single family homes will also be included in the Fairfax Ordinance.
“Just Cause” Tenant Protections:
- The State already has in place Tenant Protections in the Tenant Protection Act of 2019. Tenants can only be evicted for Just Cause, like non-payment of rent. They cannot be arbitrarily evicted – which is fine.
- The State law exempts single family homes and only applies to tenants in place for more than 12 months. This is an important safeguard. It gives time for that problem tenant to show their real side.
- San Anselmo Law applies also to single family homes and does not have the 12-month safety valve.
- Fairfax Law gives tenants the right to have a pet. Not all rentals are suitable for pets. Housing providers that allow pets usually have some restrictions on the size or breed of pets. This is not provided for in the Fairfax Law.
- Fairfax Law allows tenants to sublet to a replacement tenant even over the objection of the owner. Owner cannot deny a sub-tenant because of credit unworthiness or criminal history.
- If you or someone who buys your home wants to move out and rent for a period of time, you may find it nearly impossible to get your home back. You will find it equally difficult to evict any problem tenant.
- If an rental owner needs to sell, they may have to wait up to a year to have the tenant leave or only sell after the school year, if the tenant meets certain criteria.
In General:
- The DSA (Democratic Socialists of America – the pro-extra rent control people) has claimed that all the owners of 5+ unit buildings in Fairfax are all corporations and out of state owners. That is not the case. There are 20, 5+ unit buildings in Fairfax. One is low income and not counted. Of the others, one is owned by a local Marin County corporation that owns other Marin buildings. One is owned by someone in Berkeley, one out of state and all the rest are “Mom and Pop” individuals living in Marin.
- The DSA also climes that out of town and corporate landlords own 62% of the rental units in Fairfax. This is not true. There are 324 rental properties in Fairfax. Only 5 have out-of-state owners. Another 25 have California owners living outside of Marin County. Over 90% of the rental units in Fairfax are owned by Marin “Mom and Pop” owners relying on this income to live on.
- While people are sympathetic to the needs of renters and think that these ordinances do not affect them as an owner of a single-family home – they do. When it comes time to sell their home, these ordinances will affect the new buyer, and they will not pay the same price for your home with the restrictions in place as they would have without them. All property values in Fairfax are diminished.
- Rent control and tenant protection needs to be done evenly at the State level, not mixed confusing local ordinances. The State has it in place and is constantly reviewing it for any needed change. Let the State do their job.
Another site for the “YES on I” campaign is keepfairfaxfair.com which has complete information on how to volunteer and help save neighborhood rental housing.
History and Background:
The MarinResidents.org will be walking in the Saturday June 8, Fairfax Festival Parade! Just like last year, we will have tee shirts for the first 20 people to walk with us and a fun info booth during the festival! Come out and support our efforts to “Make Marin Affordable” and to protect mom & pop housing providers, homeowners and renters!
May 12, 2024
We are starting to see an influx of big political money into the effort to keep the current extra rent control ordinances. The DSA, Democratic Party, Berkeley Rent people or the “Save Fairfax Rent Control” organization whomever they are, has started to spend money on yard signs, ads and websites. Where we welcome the opposition’s foray into the marketplace of ideas, we have noticed that some of their information is factually inaccurate. Whether this is intentional or stems from a lack of knowledge, it will be called out whenever it appears.
We value and honor the tradition of trying to resolve local issues with local advocates, but when these national political parties start interfering in our beloved Town, the MarinResidents.org and FairfaxResidents.org will fight hard to protect local mom & pop housing providers, homeowners and renters from onerous extra rent control regulations. We owe our Town and its residents that much.
April 26, 2024,
A recall petition of Council Members Hellman and Blash has just been started. It is unfortunate the Fairfax Town Council has lost the trust of the community. Starting with rent control and ending up with spending/wasting Town funds, the Council has not listened to or focused on the concerns of the residents for much too long. And has focused on trying to solve global and national problems on the back of local residents.
Along with Members Coler, Cultrano and Ackerman, who are up for reelection, putting Blash and Hellman on the ballot will enable the citizens to vote on all 5 Members. See the site www.fairfaxlove.com for more information.
February 2024,
In a 5-0 rubber stamp decision the Town Council approved spending up to $57,000 worth of tax payer money to implement the extra rent control ordinances.
This was the lowest cost, initial option, step 1, to full, $100,000-$200,000/year implementation that would become reality if extra rent control is not overturned in Nov of 2024.
The Council seems addicted to spending your money on trying to find a solution to a problem that they created. In another 5-0 vote in 2022, they passed ‘Rent Stabilization’ that created this problem. They passed extra rent control as a solution to create ‘housing affordability’. Whereas housing in Marin is expensive, extra rent control creates less rental options leading to HIGHER rents.
Check out the list of options and their ‘thoughts’ here. The agenda is a list of ways to spend taxpayer money on expensive rent control. Oh, and you don’t get to choose.
Not only will it cost housing providers $1000 each time they want to raise the rent more than 75% of CPI to cover their increasing expenses, all options estimates 25-50% time of a to be hired ‘housing specialist’, and the other options hire an additional person, create a registration database of landlords and tenants, and are even more expensive.
Why didn”t they just go with the sane option: Do Nothing until after the November Vote and save the Town $100,000? Because they don’t care about spending taxpayer money.
The Town Council needs to be reminded that the money belongs to the Town, and it comes from taxpayers who expect the Town to be improved.
Please join you neighbors and the FairfaxResidents.org let the Fairfax Town Council know how you feel.
The DSA Leads the Town Council in a Protest at a local housing provider.
On New Year’s eve, the DSA (Democratic Socialists of America) led some members of the Fairfax Town Council and Leah Simon-Weisberg on a protest against a local housing provider.
Leah Simon-Weisberg, an executive of the Berkeley Rent Board, was the primary author of the Fairfax rent control ordinances, who, in league with the DSA and Council Members Chance Cultrano and Stephanie Hellman, pushed to impose extra rent control on the people of Fairfax.
The pandering of the these Town Council members to the desires of the DSA and Berkeley Rent Board, demonstrates a tremendous error in judgement and poor leadership.
This shows that both Chance Cultrano, and Stephanie Hellman are looking to the DSA to support their further political ambitions. Where there isn’t anything ‘illegal’ about this, it shows how the interests of the people and businesses of Fairfax can be over ridden by the political ambitions of our elected council members.
Whereas Fairfax, San Anselmo and Larkspur housing providers and mom & pop landlords have expressed concerns over the rental cap and the tremendous expense increases they face, they have been ignored. In fact, in a related video, Fairfax Council Member Stephanie Hellman called the owner a ‘bully’. Are housing providers all so terrible to want to stay in business and provide decent housing, a roof over their heads and food for their families? All communities can expect such division if council members don’t stand up to outside political groups like the DSA.
The people of Fairfax want our elected leaders to help alleviate problems in our Town, not escalate tensions and division. This shows tremendous poor judgement, lack of leadership and the unsuitability of these council members to hold office.
But the poor judgement of the council members started long before they imposed onerous ‘Just Cause’ regulations and an annual rent cap of 2.54%. The water bill will go up this year ~10-15%, PGE ~20%, Cable/Internet ~10%, Insurance (if you’re not cancelled) ~20+%, Taxes 2-5%, Trash 4.8%. Many of these costs are borne by the housing provider, yet they can not be passed on to the renter that uses these services because of Chance & Stephanie’s extra rent control and their rent cap of 75% of CPI.
This means that instead of saving for retirement and using the income to keep the rental property up to date, the owner of the rental property will actually be losing money to the tune of 25% below inflation year after year. This economic reality will cause needless suffering to senior rental owners and young families who depend on rental income to stay in this Town.
But you know that and you understand why the Town Council needs a good housecleaning in November.
We urge you to Zoom into the next Town Council meeting on Wednesday Jan 10th starting at 6:30, or show up in person.
The Jan 10 TC meeting agenda packet is here. It includes discussion of a Road Improvement bond estimated to cost each Fairfax median single family residential unit $146.25 per assessed value of $650,000,
Importantly, there will be discussed the very important Cease and Desist letter presented by long time FF resident Mark Bell supporting his claim of violations of the Brown Act (and common sense) by the TC in restricting time of residents to address the TC. His letter brings to light some egregious behavior of the TC in respecting the public’s input. Please be there to support him.
It’s Fiscal Irresponsibility Time Again!
On Dec 6, the Town Council postponed discussing spending your tax payer dollars on an extra rent control boondoggle!
| Registration system platform | $25,000 set up costs, + $25,000/yr |
| Staff to review/approve registration platform submissions, manage program contractors, provide Town expertise | New staff is needed for this program, but it is unclear how many staff are needed at this time. (~ $40,000/yr ed.) |
| Landlord/Tenant Informational Service | $36,000/yr (currently additional to be allocated Dec 6) |
| Legal Aid of Marin | $0 for first 18 months (~$40,000/yr after. ed.) |
| Contract Hearing Officers to conduct hearings | $40,000 annually (not to exceed) |
| Mailings, office furniture and supplies | Estimates not yet known. (~$10,000/yr ed.) |
Soon, they may be voting on allocating the first $36,000 for a tenant-landlord question line. This is crazy!
We all have lists of pot holes and other worthy investments that could use $36,000 now – today.
What is even worse, is that this is just the beginning of the expenses to cover this Council’s agenda. Adding up the costs, it comes out to $191,000 a year just to implement extra rent control on all Fairfax housing providers. This is insane!
It’s time to write the Town Council and stop their irresponsibility. Be there in person or Zoom in on Dec 6. To see the full staff report, click here.
We look forward to seeing you at the meeting and standing up for sanity.
It’s Job Performance Evaluation Time!
We compiled the survey results and comments on the job performance of our Fairfax Town Council. Check out the results on our job survey page.
Latest
What Happened Aug 2?
The Town Council Meeting August 2, was interesting. We were celebrating the win for the residents of Fairfax to be able to get their chance to vote on extra rent control. Unfortunately, democracy delayed is democracy denied. In a not-unexpected move, in a 4-1 vote, the ballot measure went on the Nov 2024 general election vs a sooner special election. This means that the residents will have to endure the Town Council spending taxpayer money to implement extra rent control and the homeowners, housing providers and new renters will suffer the financial consequences of these ordinances. Only Council member Barbara Coler had the insight to understand how dragging out a decision for 15 months would affect the residents and the Council members up for reelection at the same time. She voted for a sooner resolution.
As for the second agenda item – the ‘tweaks’ of the ordinances: there were only a few minor changes to the ordinances. One of the most surprising was a ‘tweak’ to the rental cap, going from 60% of CPI to 75% of CPI. This is not a substantial change. To put it into perspective, CA has a 5% + 100% CPI (10% max increase), Larkspur 5% + 100% CPI (7% max increase) rental cap. At the current 3.9 CPI, for a $2000/ mo rental, the increase would now be $58/mo vs $47/mo.
The MarinIJ wrote a very good article here regarding the TC Meeting. However, Mayor Cultrano repeated his incorrect assertion from a recent report that 60% of rental listings in the Spring of 2022, were in violation of AB 1482. He reiterated this at the TC meeting also. However the report from the Terner Center at UC Berkeley that Mayor Cultrano sites, indicates the direct opposite: “our analysis does not show that a large number of rental agreements are violating the terms of the law.” (page 3)
In fact, from the same report (page 6 figure above), vacant ‘Medium Rent’ units only increased 2% and ‘High Rent’ units actually declined in cost. Only ‘Low Rent’ affordable units increased in price when they were relisted, greater than what they would cost if they maintained occupancy.
The Mayor is once again incorrect in his evidence and assertion that we have a crisis in the rental market. Where prices for rent have been high in Marin for the last 60 years, this is not a new crisis that needs to be amplified by the misconception that extra rent control actually brings down rents. In fact, as the report indicates, before CA 1482 CA rent control (Jan 2020), there was less yearly increase in the price of vacant rental units. (Figure 1, page 4). Only after CA rent control did prices for vacant units rise significantly.
We look forward to the candidates that will challenge Mayor Cultrano’s position that extra rent control is benefits everyone, extra rent control is needed, and the decisions regarding extra rent control should not be up to the voters.
So what now?
First, there is a tremendous need in Fairfax for Town Council candidates who put the needs of the Town before their own political agendas and don’t think of the Town Council as a stepping stone to a higher political office. 3 Town Council seats (Mayor Cultrano, and Council members Coler and Akerman) will be open for November 2024, the same election as the vote on extra rent control. As you can see from our job performance survey, there is plenty of opportunity.
For any candidate who desires to get the Town back on the right path, they will find tremendous financial and political support from the business community, the housing provider community, and the community of homeowners and renters who call our Town home.
We strongly encourage all potential candidates to reach out to our organization and express your views on what needs to change in this Town, and how you feel you can add to the Town’s success.
Outside of Fairfax.
Both San Anselmo and Marin County will be dealing with extra rent control regulations in the next year. San Anselmo has scheduled their first community input session on Sept 14.
It is important to realize that all local Marin communities look at each other to see how their citizens feel about an issue. We feel that Fairfax has gone about the issue of extra rent control that has caused discord in the Town, and other communities are eyeing our Town warily. At these sessions, the Town Council wants to hear about your experience so that they do not repeat the same mistakes. Writing an email or speaking at the sessions will help them understand their choices.
FairfaxResidents.org and MarinResidents.org will help keep you informed.
Thank you.
Great Coverage in the Marin IJ!
On June 13, we read a very accurate article in the Marin IJ concerning extra rent control in Fairfax and our success with the petition.
A group of Fairfax residents has filed a draft ballot initiative attempting to repeal the town’s tenant protection ordinances.
Signatories said they’ve been pleading with the Town Council to rescind the rent control and just-cause-for-eviction ordinances since they were approved in November. The signatories said they’ve reached a breaking point.
“What made people mad is that we did not get a vote on this,” said Michael Sexton, a petition organizer and landlord. “The petition is an attempt by the residents for us to take back control from the Town Council, and bring this to a vote of the people.”
Sexton started the political action committee websites Fairfaxresidents.org and Marinresidents.org to raise funds for a local broadcast commercial against rent control in Marin.
Deborah London, a downtown business owner, landlord and petitioner, called the ordinances “extreme and paralyzing.”
“Housing providers and homeowners knew nothing about the process and the perception is they purposefully excluded us,” London said of the Town Council. (Please click on the link to read the rest of the article.)
Thank you so much for being engaged!
But because we are a residents supported group, we are always in need of financial support to continue our outreach. We ask that if you understand how the extra rent control regulation will negatively affect homeowners, renters and housing providers, that you support us in our efforts. Thank you for your support.
MarinResidents.org in the Pacific Sun Newspaper and the Marin IJ
4/12/23. We had good coverage in the weekly Pacific Sun newspaper. The author also wrote another article re the history of the Fairfax rental ordinances.
MarinResidents.org in the IJ
4/10/2023. Today we had some good coverage in the Marin IJ! Read the article here. After being misrepresented by an opinion columnist earlier, we are glad to see that our message of the need to get back to the existing, reasonable protections for homeowners, housing providers and renters is resonating with a broad audience.
Although the article was focused on our efforts here in Fairfax, we are working with the residents of several towns in Marin, to help their town councils understand the negative, unintended consequences of extra rent control.
We are proud to show off our first TV ad. With your ongoing support from the past month, we’ve put together some ads that we are showing on Comcast throughout Marin to help communicate that extra rent control hurts those in our community that we care about.
We hope that we can have your continued support our outreach to people who need to understand what has happened. Please consider supporting us again help keep up this media campaign.
Extra rent control? You know that in 2019, Gov. Newsom helped pass AB 1482 – statewide rent control. Whereas there are problems with that law in that it affords housing providers very little protection, it currently governs how housing providers and tenants interact. Enough already! Any extra rent control affects homeowners, housing providers and renters alike. There is a feeling that the Town Council is starting to understand this, and how unpopular and burdensome their ordinances are.
All well-appointed yards need a sign this summer! Email us, include your home address and we’ll get one out to you ASAP!
To keep up this momentum, we ask for you to contribute to our efforts to “Help Make Marin Affordable” and pause then repeal the extra rent control ordinances in Fairfax.
Also, see our Experiences page to see the latest anecdotal evidence of the negative consequences of Rent Control in Fairfax.
Please see our Resources page for the basics of these ordinances and their negative consequences, or for an in depth analysis, see the video below.
Add your email to the list! – We promise not to spam you and only send you info regarding Fairfax and housing. (Promise! You know where we live…)
We, the citizens of Fairfax have an amazing and powerful voice when we come together to express our desire for a functioning government that is responsive to the people. It is the desire of everyone to keep the character of Fairfax alive and well. Whether a renter, home owner or a housing provider, we all have a desire and a responsibility to not only make a great home for ourselves, but to help others enjoy the best of our community.
Email your Town Council now. Let the Town Council know how you feel – they love community input. Since you didn’t have a vote on the ordinances, express your opinion by email!
A special thank you to The Coffee Roastery for showing community support by hosting gatherings and displaying informational messages. We urge you to show your support for them (and all local businesses) by visiting and enjoying some locally roasted, very good local coffee.
We believe that these current ordinances need to be delayed from implementation and voted on by the residents of Fairfax at the next election. Please visit our Resources page for emails, and information about these ordinances and our Scenarios page for situations to watch out for.
If you have relevant news or perspective or an event that is of importance to the housing community in Fairfax, please email this site. info@fairfaxresidents.org