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Pasadena rent control advocates declare victory

Measure H ties rent hikes to a fraction of inflation and creates an independent board

(Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)
(Illustration by The Real Deal with Getty)

With vote counts showing a widening lead, supporters of Pasadena’s rent control Measure H have declared victory.

“This is a win for every renter, and every resident in Pasadena who is tired of watching their longtime neighbors getting priced out,” Bee Rooney, a field director of the measure, said on Tuesday.

The rent control measure is a first for Pasadena, an expensive city that in recent years has often been at the forefront of the region’s wider tensions over housing affordability and an even broader clash between state and local control over development decisions. Earlier this year, Mayor Victor Gordo was involved in a protracted dispute with the California attorney general related to the city’s response to the state housing law SB 9; after months of legal threats and tense discourse, the state authority ultimately recognized the city’s right to declare certain exemptions to the controversial law.

As of late Tuesday, Measure H was leading by a relatively slight margin, with roughly 19,000 votes in favor and 17,500 opposed, for a margin of 52 percent to 48 percent. But more recent returns have widened the gap, leading backers to declare the race decided on Tuesday afternoon. A majority of the votes in L.A. County have now been counted, although thousands still remain.

The measure, which takes the form of a new city charter amendment, is likely to apply in full to about 25,000 apartment units in the city, representing a major disruption to its rental landscape.

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The measure creates a new independent rental board to oversee the program and a registry to keep track of rent-controlled apartments. For qualifying properties, it will restrict annual rent increases to three quarters of the inflation rate and implement just cause eviction protections and relocation assistance mandates.

The legislative effort was financially backed by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and labor groups and also championed by a wide umbrella of housing and progressive groups, including the ACLU, L.A. County Democratic Party, Abundant Housing LA and the Pasadena Tenants Union.

It was also bitterly opposed by landlord advocates, local residential brokers and other real estate industry players. In a statement on its website earlier this summer, the California Apartment Association called the measure “draconian” and blasted it for creating what the organization characterized as millions of dollars of government waste.

“We all agree that Measure H is the least effective way to ease the cost of housing, particularly for our lower- and middle-income households,” added one association representative.

Earlier this week backers of Measure ULA, a major City of L.A. transfer tax initiative that was also aggressively fought by industry players, also declared victory.

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PasadenaRent Control