{"id":9544,"date":"2021-11-01T14:32:53","date_gmt":"2021-11-01T14:32:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/?p=9544"},"modified":"2021-11-01T19:48:30","modified_gmt":"2021-11-01T19:48:30","slug":"santa-fe-realtors-promote-diverse-housing-options-in-housing-strapped-region-2-3-2-2-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/homepage\/success-story\/bridge-im-1121","title":{"rendered":"Bridge Association of REALTORS\u00ae Defeats Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Legislation with Help from Multiple REALTOR\u00ae Party Programs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The way the local REALTOR\u00ae<\/sup> association saw it, the proposed legislation giving tenants in Berkeley, California the rights of first offer and first refusal when a landlord seeks to sell a rental property would be devastating \u2013 not only to private property rights and to the local housing market, but as the likely catalyst of a chain reaction throughout the state and across the nation.\u00a0 They also understood that it would disproportionately harm people of color who have owned multi-unit properties in historically segregated areas of the city for generations.\u00a0 Taking no chances, the Bridge Association of REALTORS\u00ae<\/sup> used several REALTOR\u00ae<\/sup> Party resources to assess the risks of a Tenant Opportunity to Purchase ordinance and prevent its passage.<\/p>\n

The proposed ordinance, explains Government Affairs Director Kiran Shenoy, sought to give tenants the right to purchase a rental property in Berkeley before the owner could sell it on the open market, demolish it, or even withdraw it from the rental market.\u00a0 The significant and unpredictable delays this would involve, as well as the inability to seek full market value for a rental property made this nothing but bad news for property owners.\u00a0 In neighborhoods historically inhabited by owners of color who had been redlined out of areas with single-family zoning, the legislation would have disturbing racial implications.\u00a0 \u201cAfter the struggle of acquiring property the only place their families were allowed to, legacy owners of multi-family properties would lose the ability to transfer their own property to a family member, let alone anyone of their choice outside the family,\u201d says Shenoy, noting that the city hadn\u2019t consulted any homeowners in these neighborhoods for input on the new legislation.<\/p>\n

In 2019, when the Office of the Mayor had first introduced the legislation, the REALTORS\u00ae<\/sup> were at the forefront of the advocacy effort that forestalled it, joining forces with numerous mom & pop property owner groups.\u00a0 When the controversial measure was brought forward again early in 2021, the Bridge Association turned to the REALTOR\u00ae<\/sup> Party for help with some quick polling in the community, and Shenoy submitted the draft ordinance to the REALTOR\u00ae<\/sup> Party for a Land Use Initiative<\/a> review, which helped in developing messaging for an urgent opposition campaign.\u00a0 An Issues Mobilization Grant<\/a> supported targeted mailers to three City Council members who might be swing votes on the issue.\u00a0 The Bridge Association of REALTORS\u00ae<\/sup> also helped with content and talking points for a website created by the Berkeley Property Owners Association, https:\/\/berkeleyrentregulations.com\/the-topa-fight<\/a>, from which the public could send their views directly to city lawmakers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Mayor\u2019s office only released the complete text of the proposed ordinance three days prior to the committee hearing, and because the devil\u2019s in the details, there wasn\u2019t nearly enough time for a thorough public review,\u201d says Shenoy.\u00a0 Through the REALTOR\u00ae<\/sup> Party\u2019s Advocacy Everywhere<\/a> program, an urgent Call For Action went out to all Bridge Association members, who responded in force, urging legislators to delay the hearing until there\u2019d been ample time for the public to weigh in on the divisive proposal, and requesting an equity study, which would have to be added to the municipal budget.\u00a0 The bill is now languishing in committee, an effective victory, although Shenoy will be keeping a close watch on its future viability.<\/p>\n

Defeating the ordinance has been a great relief for the REALTORS\u00ae<\/sup> and their allies, he says.\u00a0 \u201cWe did a lot of heavy lifting, but we couldn\u2019t have done it without a strong coalition of property owners, and certainly not without the REALTOR\u00ae<\/sup> Party. \u00a0They really came through for us on so many fronts, and all the moving parts were managed seamlessly by the respective teams.\u201d\u00a0 The association anticipates having to revisit the issue in Oakland before long, and Shenoy is glad to have the tools and resources of the REALTOR\u00ae<\/sup> Party at the ready.\u00a0 Meanwhile, in Berkeley, they will continue to advocate for more reasonable housing policy, and better use of city resources \u2013 toward funding down-payment assistance programs and homelessness services, for example.<\/p>\n

To learn more about how the Bridge Association of REALTORS\u00ae<\/sup> is protecting the rights of property owners to sell or withdraw a property from the rental market at will, contact Kiran Shenoy, Government Affairs Director, at kiran@bridgeaor.org<\/a> or 510.848.2659.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Berkeley, California, legislation that would wrest control of a rental property\u2019s destiny from its owner was successfully stalled by the Bridge Association of REALTORS\u00ae with a powerful Issues Mobilization campaign and a timely Call For Action. The proposed ordinance, which the REALTORS\u00ae called \u2018eminent domain in disguise,\u2019 was also analyzed through the Land Use Initiative program.","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9561,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,33,296],"tags":[655,1707,1653,381,501],"class_list":["post-9544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-about-us","category-success-stories","category-success-story","tag-advocacy-everywhere","tag-berkeley","tag-bridge-association-of-realtors","tag-california","tag-land-use-initiative"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realtorparty.realtor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}