Thank you for your views. I appreciate it. Let’s talk tomorrow.
On Thu, Sep 27, 2018 at 10:43 AM Evan Collins wrote:
> Dear Mayor Ohtaki and Members of the City Council,
Carol and I are mom and pop landlords with units on Roble Ave. near University Ave. We believe the Housing Commission’s proposal
is a watered-down version of rent control and just cause eviction. We met with Ms. Grove and had a good discussion. We are
sympathetic with her concerns regarding potential homelessness when tenants are evicted. We may have unintentionally left her with
the impression that we do not oppose this proposal.We do oppose it. What we tried to communicate in our discussion with Ms. Grove
is that this proposal would not materially impact our rental business as we are presently running it.We have only evicted one
tenant without cause over many years and we have not lost any tenants over a rent increase.Although we presently choose to charge
most tenants below market rents and earn less than we could, it does not mean that we wish to surrender the right to earn the
market rent and raise rents accordingly should our circumstances change. Furthermore, we do not wish to have the rights of other
landlord’s restricted just because the proposal may not impact us much. This proposal also puts landlords with older units at a
disadvantage because the additional large relocation expense dramatically increases the cost of keeping older units functional. We
treat our tenants fairly and believe it is unnecessary to have our practices and property rights further regulated.
We urge the City Council to reject this proposal.
Finally, we are not opposed to a relocation program that is triggered when units are permanently removed from the market or
vacated for redevelopment.
Regards, Carol and Evan Collins
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Best regards,
Kirsten Keith,
Councilmember and former Mayor, City of Menlo Park
