Steve Hansen Is No Friend of Ours
If you live in Sacramento’s District 4, chances are you’ve received mail from the campaign of Steve Hansen. We recently received one, paid for by Steve’s campaign, which called him a “Champion for Renters.”
Now we were understandably confused, given that during Steve’s tenure as Sacramento City District 4 councilmember, life for renters in has gone from untenable to downright hellish. With friends like Steve, who needs enemies?
One of the primary missions of the Sacramento Tenants Union is to educate tenants in order to help them organize for a better future. With this in mind, we’re going to give you the truth about Steve Hansen’s latest mailer and his much-touted Tenant Protection and Relief Act (TPRA).
Protects Renters: Steve would have you believe that he is interested in keeping your rent down. This, however, is demonstrably false. Yes, it is true that for 5 years, the TPRA will cap rent increases at a maximum of 5% + CPI, but even claiming credit for that is disingenuous.
Originally, the TPRA capped rent increases at 6% + CPI, and was only lowered to 5% AFTER the Governor signed into law a lower statewide rent cap.
Also, it is critical to remember that for the vast majority of Steve Hansen’s tenure, he did absolutely nothing to limit rent increases. Indeed, rent went up nearly 70% in Sacramento while our “champion for renters” sat idly by.
The fact is these increases, while disastrous for his tenant constituents, were actually very good for Steve. As rents skyrocketed and landlords lined their pockets, contributions and favors from the real estate class poured into his campaign coffers.
The TPRA’s rent cap does nothing but give the illusion of protection — and nowhere is it referred to as rent control (big surprise the Sacramento Bee got this wrong). Think for a moment: how many tenants receive an 8.3% pay raise every single year? Also, consider that between 2017 and 2019 median rent in Sacramento increased by 14%. During roughly that same time period, homelessness increased by 19%. In other words, for every 1% increase in rent, homelessness increased 1.4%.
The Sacramento Community Stabilization and Fair Rent Charter Amendment, which is supported by 47,000 Sacramentans — as well as district 4 Candidate Katie Valenzuela — would cap rents at CPI, meaning many more tenants in Sacramento would’t have to fear losing their housing at the end of each lease. Given our current crisis and the fact that Californians cite homelessness as the number 1 issue, why is it Steve Hansen is perfectly alright with even more Sacramentans losing their housing due to increasing prices in the coming years?
Prohibits Evictions: A few very lucky tenants will get added just cause protections thanks to Steve’s TPRA. However, what he fails to mention is that this provision is shot through with loopholes galore, all of which play into the hands of landlords.
For example, have you lived in your apartment for 365 days or less? Well then, you’re not covered. Do you live in an apartment built between 1995 and today? Again, the TPRA does not cover you. Do you live in a single family home? Sorry, no just cause for you.
In some cases, you may be covered by AB 1482, and we encourage tenants to educate themselves on this law using the Tenants Together toolkit. However, Steve doesn’t get to take credit for a piece of hard-won statewide legislation, and he certainly doesn’t get to pretend all tenants in Sacramento are covered by the TPRA.
For comparison, the Sacramento Community Stabilization and Fair Rent Charter Amendment would offer many tenants just cause protections on day 1 of their tenancy. But Steve doesn’t want you to have that.
Outlaws Rent Increases: For those tenants who are covered by the TPRA, their rent is capped at a maximum of 10%. However, as we discussed above, even a modest rent increase will have a devastating impact on the poorest and most housing insecure tenants.
Say, for example, your rent this year for a 1 bedroom is $1,000 per month (yeah we wish). Well, in 5 years you could be paying as much as $1610. Add on to that how much more you’ll be paying for utilities, and the fact your landlord likely now charges you separately for water, garbage, and parking (because of course they will), and Steve’s “championing” suddenly looks pretty pathetic.
Now remember that in 5 years the TPRA expires, and by then Steve will have moved on to some lucrative lobbyist position to set himself up for a run at the State Assembly or whatever. What are the odds he’ll give a single shit about you as he sits in his corner office plotting his next ski weekend?
To reiterate, the Sacramento Community Stabilization and Fair Rent Charter Amendment would cap rent increases at CPI and nothing more, meaning more money in tenants’ pockets, and fewer people pushed to the streets. Steve thinks this would be bad.
Empowers Renters: The TPRA does include provisions to hire city staff who are charged with ensuring landlords adhere to the new ordinance. If you ask tenants, though, they will tell you that results with this staff are mixed at best.
We’ve heard from tenants who contacted the city and received no response at all. We’ve heard from tenants who were given entirely incorrect information. And we know of one tenant who after following-up repeatedly was finally able to overturn an illegal rent increase their landlord issued them.
The fact is, the TPRA was passed not in an effort to empower tenants, but in order to shut them up. The Sacramento Community Stabilization and Fair Rent Charter Amendment would establish a democratically-elected rent board made up of people like you. This board would then adjudicate complaints and disputes between tenants and landlords. Now ask yourself, who’s more likely to “empower” you: Sacramento City Hall, or your neighbors, colleagues, and friends?
Requires Landlords: This part of the mailer is just a repeat of “Prohibits Evictions.” Refer to above to see why this is a load of bull.
Ensures Robust Enforcement: This is a repeat of the “Empowers Renters” portion of the flyer. We all know what it’s like when you need to rephrase things in order to hit the minimum word count.
So, to summarize: Steve Hansen, despite what his campaign says, is no champion for renters in District 4. For nearly 8 years, he has dodged tenants’ rights activists, fought against our interests as he made sweetheart deals with the richest and most powerful people in California, and when it came time to finally listen to 47K of us, he cut a shady deal with a few power brokers behind our backs less than a year before his election. Now he wants to pretend he’s your friend, because Steve knows what we know: that his district is majority tenant, and he will have to answer to us.
So when you go to vote this Tuesday, remember all the times we walked home from city hall empty handed thanks to Steve and his wealthy donors. Remember all of your friends who’ve bounced from bedroom to couch to shed trying to keep a roof over their head as Steve sat around smiling at photo ops. Remember the thousands of our unhoused neighbors who sleep rough on our streets every night because Steve is beholden to landlords.
On Tuesday, March 3, know that Steve Hansen is the wrong choice for the unhoused, the poor, the working class, the tenants of Sacramento. Talk to your neighbors, get organized, and vote Katie Valenzuela for Sacramento City Council District 4.
