The clock is ticking. Why hasn’t San Diego closed its illegal eviction loophole?

Nearly eight months have passed since inewsource revealed a glaring loophole in San Diego law that allows property owners to obtain a short-term rental license even after carrying out an illegal eviction.

San Diego City Councilmember Jennifer Campbell, who has taken the lead on fixing the loophole, said she would bring the issue to a committee she controls. But she never did. And now, with less than two months remaining before term limits force her from office, the loophole remains open.

After months of unanswered questions to Campbell’s office, an inewsource reporter contacted every member of the City Council to ask who would take responsibility for closing the loophole after Campbell’s departure. Campbell’s office subsequently responded, but not to the reporter. Instead, the office told her council colleagues she planned to bring proposed amendments to committee Oct. 21. 

That would leave Campbell just 59 days before her departure to address a loophole that allows property owners to turn long-term housing into more profitable short-term rentals following illegal evictions.

The loophole deals with a specific type of action called a no-fault eviction — when a property owner wants to end a lease for reasons unrelated to a tenant’s behavior. State law allows property owners to exit the rental housing business for a number of specific reasons, including a substantial remodel or to allow the owner or their family to move in.

But to terminate a lease for these reasons, property owners need to jump through a series of hoops. For example, if an owner intends to renovate the home, they would have to include the eviction notice with an itemized statement that details the scope of work and copies of the necessary permits. If they want a family member to move in, they would have to move within 90 days and live there as their primary residence for at least 12 consecutive months.

Instead, inewsource reporting has uncovered examples of investors buying multi-family properties, clearing out the long-term tenants with buyouts or no-fault evictions, and posting the units on short-term platforms, such as Airbnb. 

RELATED

Meet the Airbnb activist hunting for San Diego’s ‘apartment hotels’

Armed with housing data and thousands of complaints, a Google engineer who lives in San Diego is looking for apartment complexes converted into short-term rentals.

The proposed amendments have been in the works since February, when Campbell’s chief of staff, Venus Molina, told inewsource she was leading the effort to fix the loophole. Molina initially said the amendments would be ready in July, then pushed the timeline to August before she stopped responding to questions about their status.

The delays followed more than $22,000 in campaign contributions from property owners and managers, short-term rental operators, and Airbnb in support of Molina’s unsuccessful bid to represent District 8 on the City Council. The money flowed while Molina was responsible for bringing amendments to an ordinance regulating some of those same interests.

Molina confirmed the Oct. 21 committee hearing but did not answer questions about her campaign contributions, and continued to ignore questions about how they plan to fix the loophole.

Campbell, who continues to tout the regulation of short-term rentals as one of her signature achievements during her eight years on the City Council, also did not respond to requests for comment.

Since inewsource revealed the loophole in city law, hundreds of San Diegans have been evicted from their homes and the city has no way of knowing whether any of those evictions led to short-term rental licenses.

In a statement, councilmembers Kent Lee and Raul Campillo both said they are encouraged by the news that Campbell intends to bring amendments forward later this month. 

Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera said he is frustrated the issue hasn’t been addressed, adding that his office has asked multiple times for a status update.

“It’s a problem for us as a city because it accelerates cost increases in housing,” Elo-Rivera said in an interview. “It makes it more and more difficult to find housing in neighborhoods that are becoming less and less neighborhoods and more and more places with a bunch of de-facto hotels.”

Council President Joe LaCava said in a statement he is concerned about the loophole but extends courtesy to his council colleague to fix it.

“If those amendments do not materialize or fall short,” LaCava’s spokesperson said in a statement, “he will renew his efforts to address (the short-term rental ordinance) in light of illegal evictions and the conversion of whole apartment buildings to (short-term rentals).”

The remaining four councilmembers — Henry Foster III, Vivian Moreno, Stephen Whitburn and Marni von Wilpert — did not respond to inewsource.