Did you see, this morning, from Hosam at the Voice of OC: OC Cities Grapple with Rising Rents? He links to the Tenants United Anaheim website, and he quotes our own Kenneth Batiste speaking at a recent Council meeting:
Batiste, a resident, said if officials don’t stand up for the interests of renters, they will stand up for themselves. “We were hoping that our city council, who is supposed to be looking out for us, would put in rent control to stabilize our neighborhoods. We got no-cause evictions. We got people with mold that are afraid to go ahead and report it because they’re afraid that they’re gonna get kicked out,” he said at the Feb. 24 city council meeting. “We’re tired of the rent going up.”
Yay Kenneth! Then Hosam recounts Councilwoman Natalie Rubalcava‘s little remarks at the end of that meeting. We do remember how NR had been talking off and on (over a year ago) about at least having the city ENFORCE California’s weak Tenant Protection Act (which has no enforcement mechanism.) She seemed to lose interest in that issue a long time ago, but then she suddenly brought it up again at that late February meeting. We hope she and the Council do go through with that, because the TPA does need to be enforced, and that will be a little progress. But our ordinance will be 50 times more progress so whatever the Council may do will not slow us down at all.
(NR is already fretting that enforcement may cost a lot, to which a friend of ours responds that OUR bill is self-sustainable – enforcement covered by minimal fees on landlords, costing nothing to taxpayers.)
Then Hosam gets quotes from the OTHER side – the OC Apartment Association’s Chip:
Chip Ahlswede, a vice president for the Apartment Association of OC, said the state law on rent control was a compromise through a collaboration with hundreds of groups, but the initiative being pushed by tenants in Anaheim isn’t being done in the same spirit… “When the state came up with their rules, there were over 200 organizations that came together from both sides to do this. This is a one sided effort. We were never called,” he said in a Friday phone interview. “What Natalie is doing there is probably a much more reasoned approach.”
True all that – the state law was a HUGE compromise with landlord lobbyists,
which is why rents can go up and have gone up as high as 10% a year since it passed, allowing landlords to increase their profits by 5% every year;
which is why the law is NOT enforced and often broken;
which is why the law is sunsetting in less than 4 years (Jan. 1 2030);
and which is why it doesn’t even cover many rental properties including mobile home parks.
Really, we should have approached these apartment owners groups to make SOME MORE COMPROMISES? That is not how this works. A few responses to AAOC Chip:
We have written the policy the way we think is best, and we’re taking it to the People of Anaheim to decide – very different from creating some big Compromise that’ll pass thru the California legislature, MOST OF WHOM TAKE CAMPAIGN MONEY FROM THE APT. OWNER GROUPS!
Our concern is saving people, families and communities from displacement and poverty; the AAOC’s priority is ensuring and INCREASING the PROFITS of landlords – excuse us while we don’t compromise on that.
We actually do have a lot of landlords and realtors in our coalition, who see great value in what we’re doing.
We notice and appreciate that this is the biggest criticism the AAOC can make of our ordinance – nothing substantive, just that we didn’t come to them first to compromise.
Later in the Voice article (after he discusses some goings-on in Costa Mesa) Hosam quotes a couple paragraphs from a recent press release of ours. It would have been nice if he’d reached out to one of us for a quote like he did to Chip, but that’s okay – this was a very good quote from our press release which I believe was written by Duane Roberts:
“Rent stabilization helps keep long‑term residents in their homes, which in turn supports local homeowners by reducing displacement, stabilizing property values, and preserving community cohesion,” reads a Feb. 25 news release from Tenants United. “Small businesses benefit as well, since stable housing costs allow workers and customers alike to remain rooted in the city. Mobilehome park residents—who often face some of the most extreme rent increases—gain critical safeguards that protect their homes and life savings.”
All around, thank you Hosam, this should be helpful. Now who is collecting signatures tonight? The rest of the week? Let me know if you need a walk list and/or package! – Vern vernpnelson@gmail.com; 714-235-8376
Note: The author is an officer of Tenants United Anaheim, but this piece is his own writing, not an official statement of the group. I.E. he has not run it past his comrades!