SB City Council amends tenant protection ordinance

Members vote to clarify existing law

By NEIL HARTSTEIN NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

After hearing passionate arguments by both tenants and landlords on both sides of the issue, the Santa Barbara City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to amend the city’s tenant protection ordinance by clarifying the definition of what constitutes a no-fault just cause eviction.

The current ordinance delineates various reasons a landlord can use to evict tenants for no-fault just cause, and the proposed clarifications would affect all of them by requiring landlords to demonstrate “good faith” when evicting a tenant instead of just announcing their “intent” to carry out whatever they say they want to do.

Three of the reasons permitted are the intention of landlords to live in the unit themselves, or have their families live there; to