‘Such a relief.’ Eviction notices to be rescinded for tenants of Sacramento hotel
The roughly 50 tenants of a Sacramento River District hotel woke up to an early Christmas present Wednesday.
Facing strong public scrutiny, the Ezralow Co. is rescinding the eviction notices it sent to the tenants of the Hawthorn Suites on Nov. 16, just a week before Thanksgiving, demanding they leave their rooms by Dec. 15 or Jan. 15.
“Oh my God, such a relief,” Sofia Garcia, who’s been staying at the hotel since January, said Wednesday when she heard the news. “I never thought there were people out there that really cared.”
The decision follows intense pressure by city officials and tenant activist groups, criticizing the company for evicting vulnerable people during the holidays, as coronavirus cases surge and nighttime temperatures dip into the 30s.
Ezralow, based in Calabasas, did not immediately return calls and emails seeking comment for this story.
The Sacramento Eviction Defense Network held a press conference Monday outside City Hall, calling on Ezralow to rescind the notices. By that time, the city attorney’s office had sent two letters to the company saying the company was in violation of the city’s tenant protection program. The letter demanded the company give a 120-day notice to the tenants who had been staying there at least a year. The Ezralow Co., in an email from its attorney, argued that their reading of the city ordinance meant that the hotel was exempt.
On Tuesday, the city attorney sent another letter, demanding Ezralow rescind all of the notices.
“Revocation of the termination of tenancy notices needs to be issued immediately, and any prior tenants who left as a result of the defective notices, need to be contacted immediately and advised of their right to return to their rental units,” the letter read.
Cristina Agra-Hughes, of the Ezralow Co., sent an email Wednesday to the City Attorney’s Office saying the company would comply.
“We will be abiding by your request to revoke all notices issued to the guests at the now closed hotel suites since it was never our intent to displace anyone,” the email read.
No tenants moved out since receiving the notices, the email said.
The city gave Ezralow a deadline of 3 p.m. Thursday, Christmas Eve, to send the current tenants letters officially rescinding the eviction notices.
On Wednesday afternoon, Garcia and other tenants received letters saying the notice had been rescinded, as well as $50 gift certificates to nearby restaurant Maya Traditional Mexican Cuisine, Garcia said.
In addition, the company now plans to find new housing for all the tenants, which includes financial assistance.
“We would be happy to work with any group or city agency that can act as a liaison to meet with the occupants and help them find alternative housing with our financial help,” Agra-Hughes’ email read.
The November eviction notices offered a month of waived rent for tenants who had been staying there a year, or the equivalent amount in cash, but no financial assistance for the rest of the tenants — the majority.
That worried tenants like Garcia, who has no rental history in California, and no credit — the reason she was living in a hotel in the first place, for about $65 a day, she said. If evicted, she was planning to sleep in her truck.
During the Jan. 5 council meeting, Sacramento City Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela said she wanted to discuss ways the city could improve its tenant protection ordinance, as well as the possibility of adding protections for renters during the coronavirus pandemic. A state eviction moratorium is in place, but only applies to renters who are being evicted due to nonpayment of rent, and is set to expire Feb. 1.
“In this case, the landlord decided to do the right thing, but it could’ve ended up worse,” said Valenzuela, a renter who was sworn on to the council last week representing the central city and Land Park. “This is just the first of what we can expect to be many cases of tenants being put in bad situations.”
Mayor Darrell Steinberg, who had urged Ezralow to cancel the evictions, has said he would be open to discussing amendments to the tenant protection program.
The next city council meeting is scheduled for 5 p.m. Jan. 5. It will be livestreamed on the city’s website.
This story was originally published December 23, 2020 at 4:23 PM.
