On July 11, 2019, the City Council adopted the Tenant Relocation Assistance Ordinance (ORD-19-0014) as Chapter 8.97 of the Long Beach Municipal Code. The Ordinance requires landlords of residential rental units to provide relocation assistance payments of up to $4,500 to tenants displaced through no fault of their own.

On April 2, 2019, the City Council received and filed the 2018 Report on Tenant Assistance Policies and adopted various changes to staff’s recommendations as a part of their actions. The baseline recommendations from staff can be found linked below in the Presentation to City Council and City Council Staff Report. Policy changes adopted by City Council can be found in the Final Adopted Motion.

The City Council directed the City Attorney to prepare a Tenant Relocation Assistance Ordinance based on the adopted policy recommendations and directed the City Manager to take necessary steps to implement the recommendations as presented by staff. The Ordinance still requires approval before it is effective and will be brought before the City Council for first and second reading. 

On January 16, 2018, the City Council requested the City Manager to present research and findings on potential policies to support tenants, protections for senior renters, rental assistance programs, and support for renters to move into homeownership.  Policy considerations were to include:

1. A “Seniors First”  policy to ensure that vulnerable seniors receive priority in rental assistance and relocation assistance.
2. Options for new and/or expanded rental assistance and relocation programs.
3. Tenant support policies in other cities.
4. Input from local housing and property owner organizations, including a “meeting of the minds” between the groups.
5. Resources and enforcement tools to pursue negligent landlords (persistent code violators).
6. Options for maintaining restrictive covenants in place (affordable housing preservation).  The City Council also asked for a report on citywide rental rates.