We, the undersigned, support the creation of a Rental Registry for the City of Hayward.

If the City of Hayward is serious about protecting renters, racial justice, preventing homelessness, and addressing the housing crisis, it needs meaningful data and rules to ensure that landlords comply with current and future housing laws.

A rental registry is a simple and cost-effective database that cities use to enforce safe living conditions and prevent illegal rent increases and evictions. A registry takes a more “upstream” approach to renter protections by requiring data like rent increases and evictions to be reported to the city, ensuring they’re legal without getting the courts involved. Studies show that registries reduce the number of absentee landlords and help code enforcement investigate building violations more efficiently. In short, better data means better behavior.

Please direct staff to begin immediate development of a rental registry ordinance as part of the City's strategic roadmap that is:

1. Enforceable: Has the appropriate rules and penalties in place to ensure landlords comply with reporting requirements. Data shows that stronger enforcement leads to higher compliance rates in other cities compared to cities with weaker enforcement.

2. Fully-funded: We understand that this registry may be funded by a fee increase. Landlords should cover this fee exclusively to protect cost-burdened renters in Hayward.

3. Useful: The registry must collect enough information to make it useful to staff, policymakers, renters and mobile home residents while being sensitive to privacy concerns.

We ask that the City of Hayward join cities like Alameda, Berkeley, Concord, Mountain View, Oakland, Palo Alto, and San Jose in creating a rental registry to better protect our most vulnerable residents and the 63,000 renters across our city. Thank you for your attention to this important piece of city infrastructure.