In 2024, the City of South Lake Tahoe (“City”) desired to create a local tenant preference policy that prioritizes the waitlist of affordable housing applicants based on a preferred living situation or classification. To create such a policy, the City must comply with the disparate impact doctrine ensuring that policies or practices do not have a discriminatory effect on protected groups, even if there is no explicit discriminatory intent. The City retained RSG to conduct the disparate impact analysis. Our approach included reviewing census data, the City’s Housing Element and other related regional planning documents, rental trends, and economic indicators. RSG assessed policies from comparable jurisdictions and evaluated local tenant displacement risks and impact to protected classes based on demographic trend analysis. RSG compiled the findings into a comprehensive report, presented the proposed local tenant policy and the analysis to the city council, and provided recommendations based on key findings. The policy was ultimately adopted in January 2025.
