After years of debate and revisions, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors approved new tenant protection legislation on Tuesday that extends "just cause eviction" requirements and increases renter safeguards in the county's unincorporated areas. The ordinance, set to take effect on March 6, was previously discussed in an article by CBS News San Francisco, which highlighted the culmination of attempts dating back to 2018 to establish stronger protections against unjust evictions.

According to the new rules, landlords in these areas will now have to provide 90-day eviction notices in cases where a household member is under 18, disabled, elderly, or qualifies as lower income. Additionally, landlords will need to pay the equivalent of two months' rent in "no fault" evictions, where the state law only requires one. Supervisor Nate Miley described the process as a "tortured journey," as per CBS News San Francisco's report.

The ordinance's passage marks an extended conflict between the urgent needs of tenants and the concerns of property owners. Supervisor Elisa Marquez expressed her discontent, saying, "I’m not happy with this ordinance. I am going to be supporting it, but it’s nowhere near what we initially discussed when I joined this board," and lamented the prolonged policy-making process, according to Silicon Valley Business Journal. Marquez replaced former Supervisor Richard Valle in 2023 after Valle passed away.

Despite unanimous approval, the ordinance faced significant headwinds, including disruptions caused by the pandemic-era eviction moratorium, which delayed the need for enhanced tenant protections for roughly three years. Critics of the ordinance, such as Supervisor David Haubert, have stressed the importance of balancing the property rights needs of people who have invested their life savings. He and others believe that imposing overly stringent regulations might do more harm than good, possibly leading to increased vacancies and homelessness, as discussed in the Silicon Valley Business Journal.