It has been more than one month since the City of San Diego’s new Residential Tenant Protection Ordinance went into effect on June 24, 2023. The goal of the ordinance is to cut down on no-fault evictions and homelessness by providing more rights for renters.
One of those renters is Conrad Steinbrueck. He has been living in University Heights for five years and is currently the only tenant on a property with multiple units that are undergoing renovations.
“This is a multi-family home, so there were actually five families living in this space,” Steinbrueck said. “The last window of our lives has been pretty disruptive.”
According to Steinbrueck, it all started a couple of months ago.
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“We were informed, we actually had some walkthroughs and inspections, and they turned out to be prospective buyers coming in to take over the space,” he said.
The property was officially handed over to the new owner last week, but before that happened, Steinbrueck said, all of the tenants including himself were given an option to leave.
“We actually had some conversations with the previous landlord and the current landlord, and all that sort of stuff off paper, around like, ‘hey if you guys are able to leave around certain dates, there will be some incentives to be able to do that,” he said.
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Steinbrueck told NBC 7 he was the only tenant that refused the offer and chose to stay. But, now he is left to deal with what he calls his "new normal."
“Just having construction all around us is really disruptive,” he said.
In light of the situation, Steinbrueck decided to look into what resources and protections are offered for tenants in the city of San Diego.
“Nobody was ever actually evicted and I think what’s really interesting now is city council has been trying to help tenants from situations like this, but the resources are not entirely accessible,” he said
Steinbrueck explained he tried to find what is available for tenants through the city, including a basic explanation of both renter and tenant rights, but felt he came up short. Steinbrueck also shared that he reached out for legal help through one city resource file he did find, but never heard back.
“It really is pretty ambiguous and without legal counsel, it’s impossible to know like what your rights are or not,” he mentioned.
NBC 7 reached out to Steinbrueck’s new property owners for comment, but they declined.
