Residential Hotels (SROs) are an essential component of the City’s supply of Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing (NOAH), as they are a flexible and easily accessible form of housing that provides very low, and extremely low-income residents the ability to remain in Oakland and avoid homelessness. To that end, on December 4, 2018, the Oakland City Council adopted new Planning Code Chapter 17.153, which regulates the conversion, demolition, rehabilitation and sale of Residential Hotels to protect this important type of housing.