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Housing Committee reports 2024 accomplishments, recommends rental rehab and tenant stabilization priorities for 2025
Summary
The Housing Committee told the council it overcame high turnover to approve program guidelines, recommended changes to a first‑time homebuyer program and new accessibility funding, and prioritized continuing work in 2025 on BMR rules, tenant stabilization and rental rehab guidelines.
The City of Emeryville Housing Committee presented a report Tuesday reviewing 2024 accomplishments and outlining priorities for 2025, including continued revisions to below‑market‑rate (BMR) rental guidelines, a rental rehabilitation program, and tenant stabilization measures.
Valerie Bernardo, Economic Development and Housing Manager and the committee’s secretary, told the council the committee recommended and the council approved multiple program guides in 2024: the Housing Successor annual reports for 2022–2023, the housing element annual report, revised guidelines for the First Home Emeryville first‑time buyer assistance program (funded by the Measure C housing bond), and the Emeryville Accessible Living Initiative (EALI), funded by a state Pro Housing Implementation Pilot Program grant. Bernardo said the First Home Emeryville program had issued only one loan in the prior decade before the committee’s guideline changes; the revised program launched in September 2024.
The committee reported substantial membership turnover in 2024 — seven members left — which prevented it from meeting in the latter half of the year; the council approved reducing committee size from nine to seven and increasing meeting frequency from bimonthly to monthly to keep work on track. Committee priorities for 2025 include finishing revisions to BMR rental guidelines (tenant income thresholds, recertification rules, capping unbundled parking fees, waitlist management), drafting a rental‑rehab loan program to help owners renovate multifamily rental properties, and completing tenant stabilization work (eviction trend analysis, modifications to the residential landlord–tenant ordinance, tenants’ right to organize, and expansion of BMR tenant protections).
Bernardo clarified that rental‑rehab funds would typically be loans made to property owners (not direct tenant grants) and that tenants would need to work through owners or property managers to have repairs funded. Committee members raised the possibility of owner‑tenant engagement processes to surface tenant needs for renovation applications.
The committee also said it will continue compiling Measure C spending reports, produce the FY25 housing affordability table, and advance the tenant rights agenda. Council members thanked committee members and staff for continuing to meet and to revamp committee composition and schedule.
No council vote was required; the Housing Committee report was presented and accepted for discussion. The committee’s ongoing work includes an item on tenant recertification scheduled for the committee meeting the following night.
