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File Number: 17-533 <br />Rental Housing Counseling: Using City General Funds, the City contracted with ECHO <br />Housing for Rental Housing Counseling services to help keep people in their housing. Information <br />and referral services were provided to 129 landlords and tenants. (Note that this data reflects only <br />through the third quarter; fourth quarter data was not available at the time that this report was <br />published.) In FY 2016-2017, ECHO Housing handled 49 cases related to eviction and <br />succeeded in preventing 8 households from being evicted. Staff also assisted with 12 <br />landlord-tenant inquiries related to repairs, 13 cases regarding security deposits, 19 instances <br />involving rent increases, 2 occurrences of unlawful entry by the landlord, and 4 cases involving <br />retaliation by the landlord. There were also 46 miscellaneous inquiries (e.g. information on rental <br />contracts and unlawful detainers, providing general information on tenant and landlord rights with <br />referrals to attorneys, Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO), Eviction Defense, <br />small claims court, and mediation services). ECHO Housing staff assisted 7 households with <br />conciliation/mediation services including successfully conciliating 19 rent increases cases and <br />the aforementioned 8 eviction cases that were successfully conciliated as well. Lastly, ECHO staff <br />referred 14 households to attorneys or small claims court. <br />Additionally, the City provided City General Funds to ECHO Housing to assist staff in <br />administering the City's Rent Review Program, which provides a non-binding arbitration board <br />review of eligible rent increase cases in San Leandro. ECHO Housing and City staff addressed <br />a total of 132 inquiries (83 tenant and 49 landlord) relating to the City's policies on rent increases <br />and its Rent Review Program. There were 41 renters who applied for Rent Review Board <br />hearings. <br />Of these 41 hearing requests: <br />·13, or 32% of cases were ineligible for a rent review hearing; <br />·5, or 12% of cases required landlords to properly re-notice their tenants as required by the <br />ordinance; <br />·3, or 7% of cases were scheduled for a hearing after June 30, 2017; <br />·10, or 24% of cases were settled prior to a scheduled hearing; and <br />·13, or 32% of cases were heard by the Rent Review Board. Of the 13 cases heard by the <br />Rent Review Board: <br />§12, or 92% of, cases were settled mutually settled. <br />Current Agency Policies <br />Current Council Policy is defined by the FY 2015-2019 Consolidated Plan, which included the FY <br />2016-2017 Annual Action Plan, adopted by Resolution No. 2016-046 on May 2, 2016. This FY <br />2016-2017 CAPER covers the second year of the FY 2015-2019 Consolidated Plan cycle. <br />Previous Actions <br />The Action Plan containing the programs and activities carried out during FY 2016-2017 was <br />approved, by the City Council on May 2, 2016. <br />Applicable General Plan Policies <br />Page 6 City of San Leandro Printed on 9/12/2017