Councilors press for stronger tenant protections, rental-registry enforcement and more affordable units

Councilors used the manager-evaluation discussion to underscore housing concerns: while they praised recent inclusionary zoning, housing production plans and down-payment programs, several urged more aggressive tenant-protection measures and stricter enforcement of the rental registry.

Councilor Hajjak praised the administration’s support for inclusionary zoning and ADUs, and asked that the Housing Development Incentive Program (HDIP) include affordable housing requirements. “It is my expectation that mister manager, you will continue to be a vocal supporter of strengthening tenant protections by using the rental registry and code enforcement as data gathering and policy tools,” she said.

Councilor Russell and others said they were concerned some large landlords had not registered in the rental-registry rollout and asked the administration to follow up and enforce registration. “I'm concerned that the administration is not following up on that because that's not the message that we should be sending,” Russell said, urging staff to pursue noncompliant property owners.

Several councilors also called for more support for small-scale, deeply affordable housing developers and for the city to consider expanding the responsible development ordinance to include small developers that do not receive public dollars.

Manager O’Neill and staff said housing-built incentives and the housing production plan are priorities, and that they would continue to work with the housing department and state partners. Councilors requested written follow-ups and continued monitoring of registry compliance, code enforcement use and HDIP criteria.