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Title:
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Ordinance amending Administrative Code Chapter 37 "Residential Rent Stabilization
and Arbitration Ordinance," by amending Section 37.3 to add Subsection (f) "Tenant Financial Hardship Applications" to provide tenant relief from Section 37.3 rent increases, with relief determined by whether (1) a tenant is unemployed or has had wages reduced by 20% or more, or only has income from government benefits such as Social Security and has not received a cost of living increase in the past 12 months, and (2) the rent including the increase comprises or will comprise 33% or more of tenant's gross income (including consideration of tenant assets); rent increase stayed pending determination of application; if application is granted, the rent increase will not be in effect for a period of time based on the tenant's circumstances, with a review scheduled at the end of that period; a delayed rent increase later allowed will be effective as of the date the tenant's income or assets changed to permit the increase; hardship applications to be available in multiple languages; multilingual notice of hardship application procedures to be mailed with each Administrative Law Judge or Rent Board decision; Rent Board to implement a process for outreach to landlords and tenants whose primary language is not English regarding availability and use of the hardship application procedure, and report to the Board of Supervisors describing the implementation process and any known results; Section 37.3(f) to sunset and no longer be in effect when the City unemployment rate drops to 5% or less according to the annual average published by the California Employment Development Department "Monthly Labor Force Data for Counties, Annual Average."
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