California Democratic Renters Council

03/13/2026

Ellis Act Evictions Continue to Grow, Tenants’ Right to Counsel & CES Acivity in the Community https://conta.cc/4bzu0ha

02/14/2026

Renters Council General Membership Meeting - Sunday, Feb 15, 7-9pm.
Join us for our regional updates, discuss state legislation, as well as a bylaws update to adding two Vice Chairs.

Register/join at

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: CA DEM Renters Council - 2026 Convention Meeting. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.

01/13/2026

Renters Reception at the San Francisco Convention - February 21, 2026

We are planning to hold a Renters Reception near the convention center around noon on Saturday, February 21, during the 2026 CA Dem Convention.

We will be inviting local tenant organizations and pro-tenant elected officials and candidates to speak.

Sponsorships are available at https://secure.actblue.com/donate/carent2026feb
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General Membership Meeting - Sunday, Feb 15

We will be having a General Membership Meeting the Sunday before the 2026 California Democratic Party convention. Meeting will be from 7pm to 9pm. This meeting will be online. Register/join at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/FWc3m74kSSi-GwlU7Chvzg #/registration
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Notice of Proposed Bylaws Amendment

One of the items to be considered at the Membership Meeting will be a bylaws amendment to create two new regional Vice-Chair positions. The Board is recommending that we split the Northern Region into the Bay Area and Northern California regions, and the Central region into the Central Valley and Central Coast regions.

Article III, section 1. b. is to be amended as follows:

b. Five [5] Vice Chairs, as follows:

i. One [1] Southern Vice Chair

A. Southern Region shall consist of Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Ventura County.

ii. One [1] Central Valley Vice Chair

A. Central Valley Region shall consist of Inyo, Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, Mono, San Joaquin, Tulare, and Tuolumne County.

iii. One [1] Central Coast Vice Chair

A. Central Coast Region shall consist of Monterey, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Barbara County.

iv. One [1] Bay Area Vice Chair

A. Bay Area Region shall consist of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma County.

v. One [1] Northern California Vice Chair

A. Northern Region shall consist of all counties not in any of the other regions.

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: CA DEM Renters Council - 2026 Convention Meeting. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.

11/10/2025

Los Angeles City Council will be voting this Wednesday on whether to strengthen rent control and close loopholes - call the councilmembers today and ask them to vote yes!

Membership is open to all registered Democrats, as well as those who intend to register to vote as Democrats when they become eligible.  If you need to re-register to vote as a Democrat, please go to https://registertovote.ca.gov/

10/20/2025

Going to Monterey for the CA Dem E-Board? Join us at the Renters Reception in Monterey this Saturday, October 25, 1-3pm
tinyurl.com/renters2025

10/16/2025

"California renters will soon be able to opt out of paying for broadband plans arranged through bulk billing deals between ISPs and landlords. California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law Friday Assembly Bill 1414, which requires landlords to allow tenants to opt out of such plans starting Jan. 1, 2026. The law applies to wired, cellular, and satellite broadband service offered to tenants as part of their lease agreement."

Many thanks to Assemblymember Rhodesia Ransom for sponsoring this bill! https://broadbandbreakfast.com/california-tenants-can-soon-opt-out-of-bulk-billing-plans/

10/07/2025

The Governor has signed some tenant protection legislation, other bills remain pending: Call and write and ask the Governor to sign at https://www.gov.ca.gov/contact/

Bills Pending:

SB 655 (Stern)
Starts the process for establishing regulations for maximum indoor temperature. While California requires rental housing to have heat, there is currently no requirement for cooling.

AB 1414 (Ransom)
Gives tenants the rights to opt out of a 3rd party internet service subscription.

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Bills signed:
AB 246 (Bryan)
Protects tenants from eviction if they are unable to pay rent due to an interruption in Social Security payments.

AB 628 (McKinnor)
Requires rental housing (other than group housing such as a dorm room) to have a working stove and fridge.

AB 863 (Kalra)
Requires eviction notices in Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, or Korean if lease was in that language or if it is the tenant's primary language.

09/24/2025

Renters Reception at Monterey CA Dem E-Board - Saturday, October 25, 1-3pm

The California Democratic Party 2025 Executive Board Meeting is going to be held at the Monterey Grand Hyatt October 24-26. Please mark your calendars and join us for the CA Democratic Renters Council reception at the conference, on Saturday, October 25th from 1-3 pm.

Monterey County is currently in the spotlight on renter issues with both the Salinas referendum on renter ordinances and a decision before the Marina City Council to revoke a decades long rent control on city owned properties. The county has the highest student homelessness rate in the state at twenty percent.

Renters are voters and the California Democratic Renters Council is the voice of renters in our state party. We need them to feel heard by the party for us to get EVERY SINGLE VOTE for Prop 50 and the coming midterm election.

We hope to see you on October 25th for snacks, refreshments and mingling with our board members, our supporters, fellow advocates, local renters, nonprofits and elected officials. And please consider a sponsorship donation to help us make this event a huge success! If you would like to send a check, please contact us at [email protected]

Special Thanks to our Reception Sponsors
Betty Yee - Candidate for California Governor
Berkeley City Councilmember Igor Tregub
Join our sponsor list at https://secure.actblue.com/donate/carent2025october

09/15/2025

Ask the Governor to sign Tenant Protection Legislation
Five important pro-tenant bills are at the Governor's desk! Call and write and ask the Governor to sign at https://www.gov.ca.gov/contact/

SB 655 (Stern)
Starts the process for establishing regulations for maximum indoor temperature. While California requires rental housing to have heat, there is currently no requirement for cooling.

AB 246 (Bryan)
Protects tenants from eviction if they are unable to pay rent due to an interruption in Social Security payments.

AB 628 (McKinnor)
Requires rental housing (other than group housing such as a dorm room) to have a working stove and fridge.

AB 863 (Kalra)
Requires eviction notices in Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, or Korean if lease was in that language or if it is the tenant's primary language.

AB 1414 (Ransom)
Gives tenants the rights to opt out of a 3rd party internet service subscription.

08/05/2025

Renters Council August 4, 2025 Newsletter

California Democratic Party Executive Board Meeting - August 18-23, Online
The California Democratic Party Executive Board Conference coming up - a tentative schedule of events is now available on the E-board website at https://cadem.org/executive-board/. Since this conference is online, most of the events are in the evening the week of August 18-23, with some events during the day on Saturday 8/23. The party will take positions on resolutions and legislation at this meeting. Caucus and committee meetings are open to all Democrats, no ticket required.
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Renters Council Membership Meeting - Sunday, August 10, 7pm
Ahead of the conference, the Renters Council will be meeting online. We will have regional updates, legislation updates, and announcements.

Sunday, August 10, at 7-8:30pm. Register for the Zoom meeting at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/KFxLZMtoQkOKTxu99cbroQ
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Legislation Update
We have requested that the California Democratic Party support the following bills as a priority. The CADEM Legislation Committee will be voting on this, we'll let you know when and how to give comment. In the meantime, if you personally know any of the committee members, please reach out to them.
Please also call your Assemblymember to support the SB's, and your Senator to support the AB's.

SB 52 (Perez)
Bans the use of nonpublic data in a pricing algorithm. Landlords could still use public data or their own data, but not that of competitors.

SB 522 (Wahab)
Applies the state tenant protections against eviction without good cause to rebuilt housing after a disaster, if the previous building was covered by the law.

SB 655 (Stern)
Starts the process for establishing regulations for maximum indoor temperature. While California requires rental housing to have heat, there is currently no requirement for cooling.

SB 749 (Allen)
This bill would require a mobile home park owner that wants to close a park to first offer it for sale, at market value, to a nonprofit or government that wants to preserve it as housing.

AB 246 (Bryan)
Protects tenants from eviction if they are unable to pay rent due to an interruption in Social Security payments.

AB 380 (Mark Gonzalez)
Strengthens enforcement of the ban on price gouging after a disaster.

AB 628 (McKinnor)
Requires rental housing (other than group housing such as a dorm room) to have a working stove and fridge.

AB 736 (Wicks)
Affordable Housing Bond.

AB 863 (Kalra)
Requires eviction notices in Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, or Korean if lease was in that language or if it is the tenant's primary language.

AB 878 (Kalra)
Strengthens rental housing protections for survivors of domestic violence, abuse, and other serious crimes, closing loopholes in the existing laws that provide tenants the right to break a lease or protections from eviction.
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2026 is coming up - voting will start for 2026 primary election in about 9 months, which will feature Congressional, State, and county elections. Make a plan to register renters to vote in your community! For example, in the New York City Democratic primary earlier this year, increased renter voter turnout was decisive in Zohran Mamdani's victory, and was a central part of his campaign strategy.
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Central Valley update
Our Central Valley Vice Chair Arturo Rodriguez has written and article in the Porterville Recorder on the impacts of federal legislation on immigrants, many of who are renters in the Central Valley, https://www.recorderonline.com/news/how-immigration-legislation-is-dangerous-to-immigrants/article_593aebec-cbfc-429c-acb8-1fb129f836db.html