SACRAMENTO, CA – Assemblymember Matt Haney’s (D-San Francisco) AB 2216 is now one step closer to becoming law after passing out of the Assembly Judiciary Committee. It’s now headed to the Assembly Floor.
AB 2216 will require landlords to have reasonable reason(s) for not allowing a pet in a rental unit and only allows landlords to ask about pet ownership after a tenant’s application has been approved.
“One of our main strategies to address the housing crisis has been building more housing,” said Assemblymember Haney. “We have to keep building housing, and much faster, but we won’t be able to solve this crisis if 12 million people across the state are being denied access to that housing because they have a companion pet. The majority of renters in our state, pet owners, are denied access to the majority of rental units. That makes no sense at all and it’s dramatically exacerbating the housing crisis.”
California has the second highest number of tenants in the country, with 17 million families and individuals renting — close to 12 million, or 70% of these renters, are pet owners. Unfortunately under current law only 30% of available rentals in any given city are pet friendly. In San Francisco, only 21% of the available rentals currently on the market allow for pets. Similarly, despite having close to 3 million pet owning renters, only 26% of Los Angeles rentals allow for pets.
The lack of pet friendly housing is causing more than 829,000 tenants to have pets in their units without the knowledge of their landlord. This leaves landlords without adequate coverage for potential damages that could be mitigated if they knew their tenants had a pet such as pet insurance, or reasonable pet restrictions.
Previous:
- Feb 20 – Bill Stops Landlords from Denying Housing to Tenants with Pets
- Feb 14, 2024 – Concord City Council Votes to Introduce Ordinance on Rent Stabilization, Just Cause
- Oct 11, 2023 – Bill to Ban Expensive Security Deposits Signed by Governor
- Sept. 23, 2023 – New California Renters’ Caucus Gets all Five of its Priority Bills to Governor’s Desk
- Aug 24, 2023 – Antioch City Council Approves Rent Stabilization Ordinance
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