Roughly 100 residents avoid being displaced after Madera passes ban on no-fault evictions

The Madera City Council passed on Wednesday a temporary ban on no-fault evictions.

After about 30 tenants received no-fault 60-day eviction notices last month at the 46-unit Laguna Knolls apartment complex in Madera, Councilmember Santos Garcia asked the council to consider an emergency ordinance to ban no-fault evictions.

The measure passed unanimously.

“The only way they can evict somebody now is if they don’t pay the rent or they cause damage to the property,” Garcia said.

Advocates of the ban argue that in the last few weeks, landlords across California have been hiking rent prices and dishing out no-fault eviction notices to make room for new, higher-paying tenants before new tenant protections go into effect.

Starting in 2020, the new law will cap rent hikes at 5% plus inflation annually. Landlords will have to give legitimate reason for evicting tenants or offer relocation help for no-fault evictions.

City Council members agreed the moratorium would address “predatory business people” who took advantage of the time period before the law goes into effect.

“There’s a name for it and they’re called bad actors,” Mayor Andrew Medellin said. “I’m not against free market, either, but I am when it’s at the expense of a resident of Madera.”

Absent from the discussion was Matt Larson, owner of Laguna Knolls. Larson did not respond to requests for comment.

The crowd was comprised of dozens of tenants and community members holding signs with phrases like, “Keep our families home.” Several of the affected residents, all of whom are low-income families, pleaded before the council.

“I literally had to have my doctor take me off of disability to go back to work so I can actually try and afford something,” said Corrina Gutierrez, a Laguna Knolls resident. “But I can’t pay rent and go out there and look for something. It’s hard.”

Fidelina Espinoza, a longtime Madera resident, said field workers were particularly struggling to afford a new place with seasonal jobs having ended.

“Many people are without work,” Espinoza said. “They don’t have money to pay rent, much less to make a deposit.”

Michelle Aguilar said she and her disabled husband spent $200 in gas driving up and down the Central Valley looking for affordable housing.

“There is nothing,” Aguilar said. “So if you guys don’t pass this, we’re going to be on the streets.”

Fresno City Councilmember Esmeralda Soria, who sits on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s homeless task force, estimated over 100 residents from Laguna Knolls would be displaced if the ordinance failed. According to the Fresno Madera Continuum of Care’s 2019 point in time count, 260 people are homeless without shelter in Madera.

Madera’s ordinance is the first of its kind in the Central Valley according to Madeline Harris, a policy advocate at Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability who helped mobilize the tenants.

Similar ordinances have passed in dozens of jurisdictions across the state, including Los Angeles. Stockton passed a similar measure on Nov. 19.

Manuela Tobias is a journalist at The Fresno Bee. This article is part of The California Divide, a collaboration among newsrooms examining income inequity and economic survival in California.

This story was originally published November 20, 2019 at 11:24 PM.