The public is invited to attend this Thursday’s (April 18) monthly meeting of the El Cerrito Community Council at the College Rolando Library, 6600 Montezuma Road or via Zoom. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. and is scheduled to end at 8:30 p.m.
The main topic will be a discussion on a letter that, if approved by people attending the meeting, the ECCC will send to the San Diego City Council. Attendees are asked to review the draft letter (below in italics) so they can discuss what to include in any final version to the city council.
This letter is based on a presentation at the February community meeting by Ramie Zomisky on the impact of short-term rentals and corporate ownership on the San Diego housing market. If you were not at the February meeting, you can review her presentation at: https://elcerritocommunitycouncil.org/el-cerrito-news/.
ECCC will also have its usual updates from local elected representatives, SDPD community relations, planning groups, and the city’s Parks & Recreation Board as well as an update on the PATH Villas El Cerrito project on El Cajon Boulevard by Megan Colvard, senior director of PATH Enterprises.
The meeting will take place in the Library’s community room and attendees are asked to use the side entrance directly to the community room which can be accessed using the walkway that fronts the library on the parking lot side. Lanterns will guide the way to the open door of the meeting room. The door will be open until meeting time and will remain unlocked for those coming a little late.
The meetings are hybrid in-person and via Zoom, so attend by Zoom if needed.
The Zoom link is: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6192863890.
You can also attend via phone at: 1 669 900 6833; Meeting ID 6192863890.
April 18, 2024
To: The San Diego City Council
From: The El Cerrito Community Council
Re: Solutions to the Current Housing Crisis
The San Diego City Council has maintained for the past few years that the city has an affordable housing crisis. If that is the case, as most research has confirmed, The El Cerrito Community Council requests that the city council officially declare a housing emergency to empower itself to take the following actions to alleviate the crisis immediately and over the long term.
The city needs to pause its Short-Term Residential Occupancy program until the current housing crisis has passed. Doing so could put around 8,000 housing units back on the market for much needed long-term rental or for sale to allow more people to become homeowners in San Diego. This action would go a long way to easing the current housing crisis and housing price inflation in San Diego in the near term.
We also request that the city put a better enforcement structure in place before the program restarts. For instance, 264 Tier 2 licenses are currently held by a single individual, which would appear to violate the express purpose of the program to prevent the concentration of licenses.
Another area of the housing market that the City Council should address that contributes to the lack of availability of affordable housing to rent or buy is the phenomenon of corporate and investor purchasing of property with the intention of flipping it to gain unearned benefit due to inflation. In the pharmaceutical world there is something called the Inflation Penalty.
When a manufacturer increases their prices beyond a reasonable amount, the government imposes an inflation penalty, because healthcare, like housing is a necessity. The San Diego City Council should impose an inflation tax on investor- or corporate-purchased homes which are flipped within a short time to reap excessive profits due to inflation. An inflation penalty tax would stop the price gouging by investors and corporations that buy homes for cash, pushing up the prices for all of us. For example, any company (or sub-company of the same parent) or individual that sells two or more homes in a four-year period would be subject to this tax.
Typical home owners are not buying and selling properties that often. Once identified by doing a simple property owner search by the records departments, the city applies a formula to tax that windfall excess profit. Those funds could then be used to build affordable public housing.
The city might also consider following the lead of the state legislature in curbing corporate ownership of real residential property.
The following bills are working their way through the legislature and provide model language for city council measures:
AB 2584 (Lee D) Single-family residential real property: corporate entity: ownership.
Summary: Current law generally regulates the obligations of owners with respect to real property. This bill would prohibit a business entity that has an interest in more than 1,000 single-family residential properties from purchasing, acquiring, or otherwise obtaining an
interest in another single-family residential property and subsequently leasing the property. The bill would authorize the Attorney General [in the case of San Diego, this would be the City Attorney] to bring a civil action for a violation of these provisions, and would require a court in a civil action in which the Attorney General [in the case of San Diego, this would be the City Attorney] prevails to order specified relief, including that the business entity pay a civil penalty of $100,000 for each violation and that the business entity sell the property to an independent third party within one year of the date that the court enters judgment.
SB 1212 (Skinner D) Investment entities: purchasing and acquisition interests in housing.
Summary: Would, on and after January 1, 2025, prohibit an investment entity, as defined, from purchasing or acquiring an interest, as defined, in a single-family dwelling or other dwelling that consists of one or 2 residential units within this state. The bill would provide that a purchase or acquisition of an interest in housing in violation of this prohibition is void. The bill would define “investment entity” as a real estate investment trust or an entity that manages funds pooled from investors and owes a fiduciary duty to those investors. The bill would exempt nonprofit organizations, entities primarily engaged in the construction of housing, and governmental entities from the definition of “investment entity.” The bill would absolve a seller of housing from liability under these provisions if the seller obtains a written release signed by the buyer stating that the buyer is not an investment entity.
Best regards,
The El Cerrito Community Council
