(A) Some rental units in Oxnard have severe code violations that threaten the health and safety of occupants, and require the units or rooms to be vacated to allow for extensive repairs.
(B) Such code violations are often caused by deferred maintenance, and may breach the landlord’s implied warranty of habitability and sometimes constitute constructive eviction of the tenant household from its residence.
(C) Cal. Health and Safety Code, Section 17975 requires the property owner to pay relocation payments to the tenant where the need to relocate arises from violations so extensive and of such a nature that the immediate health and safety of the residents is endangered.
(D) Financial hardship arises because the tenant generally needs a large sum of money to relocate, often including first and last month’s rent, deposits, moving expenses and utility deposits for a new residence. Low-income tenants are generally unable to obtain such sums and, as a result, are at great risk of becoming homeless.
(E) Cal. Health and Safety Code, Sections 17975.1 and 17975.2 specify the timing and level of payments to be provided by the property owner. If a tenant is entitled to relocation benefits, the building official or designee provides written notice to the tenant of his/her entitlement to the benefits. Written notice may be satisfied by posting notice on the premises, stating that tenants may be entitled to relocation benefits.
(F) Cal. Health and Safety Code Section 17975.5 authorizes the city to adopt an ordinance that allows the city to advance relocation payments to tenants where the landlord fails, neglects, or refuses to pay the displaced tenant and to later collect the amount paid to the displaced tenant, along with a penalty, from the property owner.
(G) This article is adopted pursuant to Cal. Health and Safety Code, Sections 17975 et seq.
(Ord. No. 2946)