{"id":213901,"date":"2026-03-10T23:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T23:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/213901\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T23:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T23:52:09","slug":"everybodys-talking-about-rent-control-in-anaheim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/213901\/","title":{"rendered":"Everybody\u2019s Talking About Rent Control in Anaheim\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Did you see, this morning, from Hosam at the Voice of OC:\u00a0OC Cities Grapple with Rising Rents<\/a>? He\u00a0links to the Tenants United Anaheim website<\/a>, and he quotes our own Kenneth Batiste speaking at a recent Council meeting:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Batiste, a resident, said if officials don\u2019t stand up for the interests of renters, they will stand up for themselves.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWe 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\u2019re afraid that they\u2019re gonna get kicked out,\u201d he said at the Feb. 24 city council meeting.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re tired of the rent going up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Yay Kenneth!\u00a0 Then Hosam recounts Councilwoman\u00a0Natalie Rubalcava\u2018s little remarks at the end of that meeting.\u00a0 We do remember how NR had been talking off and on (over a year ago) about at least having the city ENFORCE California\u2019s weak Tenant Protection Act (which has no enforcement mechanism.)\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 But our ordinance will be 50 times more progress so\u00a0whatever the Council may do will not slow us down at all.<\/p>\n

(NR is already fretting that enforcement may cost a lot, to which a friend of ours responds that OUR bill is self-sustainable \u2013 enforcement covered by minimal fees on landlords, costing nothing to taxpayers.)<\/p>\n

Then Hosam gets quotes from the OTHER side \u2013 the\u00a0OC Apartment Association\u2019s Chip:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u2019t being done in the same spirit\u2026\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWhen 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,\u201d he said in a Friday phone interview.\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cWhat Natalie is doing there is probably a much more reasoned approach.\u201d<\/p>\n

True all that \u2013 the state law was a HUGE compromise with landlord lobbyists,\u00a0<\/p>\n

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;<\/p>\n

which is why the law is NOT enforced and often broken;\u00a0<\/p>\n

which is why the law is sunsetting in less than 4 years (Jan.\u00a01 2030);\u00a0<\/p>\n

and which is why it doesn\u2019t even cover many rental properties including mobile home parks.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Really, we should have approached these apartment owners groups to make SOME MORE COMPROMISES?\u00a0 That is not how this works.\u00a0 A few responses to AAOC Chip:<\/p>\n

We have written the policy the way we think is best, and we\u2019re taking it to the People of Anaheim to decide \u2013 very different from creating some big Compromise that\u2019ll pass thru the California legislature, MOST OF WHOM TAKE CAMPAIGN MONEY FROM THE APT. OWNER GROUPS!<\/p>\n

Our concern is saving people, families and communities from displacement and poverty; the AAOC\u2019s priority is ensuring and INCREASING the PROFITS of landlords \u2013 excuse us while we don\u2019t compromise on that.<\/p>\n

We actually do have a lot of landlords and realtors in our coalition, who see great value in what we\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n

We notice and appreciate that\u00a0this is the biggest criticism the AAOC can make of our ordinance\u00a0\u2013 nothing substantive, just that we didn\u2019t come to them first to compromise.<\/p>\n

Later in the\u00a0Voice\u00a0article (after he discusses some goings-on in Costa Mesa) Hosam quotes a couple paragraphs from a recent press release of ours.\u00a0 It would have been nice if he\u2019d reached out to one of us for a quote like he did to Chip, but that\u2019s okay \u2013 this was a very good quote from our press release which I believe was written by Duane Roberts:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cRent stabilization\u00a0helps keep long\u2011term residents in their homes, which in turn supports local homeowners by reducing displacement, stabilizing property values, and preserving community cohesion,\u201d reads a Feb. 25\u00a0news release<\/a>\u00a0from Tenants United.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cSmall businesses benefit as well, since stable housing costs allow workers and customers alike to remain rooted in the city. Mobilehome park residents\u2014who often face some of the most extreme rent increases\u2014gain critical safeguards that protect their homes and life savings.\u201d<\/p>\n

All around, thank you Hosam, this should be helpful.\u00a0\u00a0Now who is collecting signatures tonight?\u00a0 The rest of the week?\u00a0 Let me know if you need a walk list and\/or package!\u00a0 \u2013 Vern vernpnelson@gmail.com<\/a>; 714-235-8376<\/p>\n

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! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Did you see, this morning, from Hosam at the Voice of OC:\u00a0OC Cities Grapple with Rising Rents? He\u00a0links…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213902,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164],"class_list":["post-213901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}