The council of the city finds and determines that:
A. Some rental units in Sacramento are found to have severe code violations which threaten the life 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, may breach the landlord's implied warranty of habitability and sometimes constitute constructive eviction of the tenant household from its residence.
C. Tenants of substandard residential units or structures suffer financial and other hardship when required to vacate their housing because the owner fails to correct the substandard conditions.
D. It is appropriate to require the owner to mitigate partially the tenant's hardship, since the hardship arises from the owner's failure to comply with the law and fulfill a landlord's obligations to the landlord's tenants.
E. 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.
F. The level of payments provided in this chapter is reflective of actual relocation costs likely to be incurred by displaced household.
G. Delayed payment of relocation benefits may impose extreme hardship upon tenants who then must themselves obtain the large sums necessary to relocate. Delayed payment may also require the city to expend city general funds to provide tenants with financial assistance for relocation. Any requirement to pay relocation benefits should contain disincentives for delayed payment in the form of appropriate penalties. (Prior code § 49.13.1301)