Dear council, I am a Menlo Park resident and am so happy that you are considering an urgency ordinance to implement the new statewide renter protections contained in AB 1482. I am writing to encourage you to vote YES on Urgency Ordinance 1063. I am a professor at Stanford Law School and director of the Stanford Community Law Clinic, where I supervise students in the representation of low-income people in housing matters, mostly in the area of eviction defense. In that capacity, I have represented many Menlo Park tenants as well as others in San Mateo County. I have also worked on behalf of and in partnership with numerous tenants' rights groups on legislative and policy issues. Accordingly, I have expertise in the effect of rent stabilization and just cause eviction protections, and know the heartache and confusion that can arise when there is lack of clarity about how a new legal protection interacts with pre-existing law. The gap in time before a rent stabilization and just cause law goes into effect leaves tenants exceptionally vulnerable to no-cause evictions or excessive rent increases that are being undertaken opportunistically because of the imminent new law. Many cities around the state are responding to this risk by passing urgency ordinances to protect the beneficiaries of the new law from this cruel consequence. As a Menlo Park voter, I urge you to vote yes on 1063 to protect our city's tenants and preserve the diversity of our city. Thank you, Juliet M. Brodie 933 Lee Drive Menlo Park, CA 94025 -- For identification purposes only: Professor of Law Director, Community Law Clinic Stanford Law School v: 650-725-9200 f: 650-326-4162 jmbrodie_at_(domainremoved) Received on Sun Nov 10 2019 - 16:43:32 PST
