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Politics
Los Angeles

Pasadena to implement city’s first rent control measure

Measure H ties rent increases to 75% of CPI

Pasadena Councilwoman Jess Rivas (City of Pasadena, Getty)
Pasadena Councilwoman Jess Rivas (City of Pasadena, Getty)

Pasadena voters in November passed the city’s first rent control law. But tenant activists say it can’t be enforced soon enough.

The tenants have demanded a prompt start to Measure H, the rent control charter amendment approved by 54 percent of voters, the Pasadena Star-News reported.

They implored city leaders who had once forecast the measure’s downfall to immediately institute tenant protections. City leaders must still fund the Pasadena Fair and Equitable Housing Charter Amendment.

The measure may spark legal challenges that could void some or all of its provisions, according to a city analysis.
The charter amendment will be implemented on Dec. 22 and limit rent hikes to 75 percent of the annual percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for apartments built before Feb. 1, 1995.

The amendment also requires stricter thresholds for eviction and a rent rollback effective Jan. 1, according to campaign organizers. Rents will revert to what tenants paid on May 17, 2021 if they were living in their current unit, or rent they paid on the day they moved in later.

Measure H requires the creation of an 11-member Rental Housing Board to be appointed by the City Council by April 21. Seven board members must be tenants — one from each council district — while the remaining four appointees will serve at-large.

It requires guidelines for “just cause” evictions, and requires a tenant be provided relocation assistance if a landlord is reclaiming an apartment or removing a unit from the rental market.

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An online registry of all rental properties in the city would be created, also listing other data, including any violations of building codes and regulations.
Councilwoman Jess Rivas, the lone elected official to speak at a recent rally, promised to do all she can to bring the eviction safeguards to fruition.

“I look forward to continuing working with residents, and also city staff,” Rivas said, “to ensure the smooth implementation of sorely needed rent control and eviction protections for our city.”

Opponents had said Measure H would put dozens of new bureaucrats on the public payroll and cost the city nearly $6 million a year to pay the members of a new rent board, staff and attorneys.

Mayor Victor Gordo, a landlord and an opponent of the measure, predicted the measure would fail to tally enough votes.

“We need solutions that bring us real affordable housing, not approaches that fail tenants and cities in the long term, as we have seen with San Francisco, Los Angeles and Santa Monica,” Gordo said.

The cities of Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills and West Hollywood have rent control regulations. Last fall, Santa Ana became Orange County’s first city to enact a rent control law. Other jurisdictions have already instituted eviction protections similar to Santa Ana’s, including Los Angeles County, Inglewood and Culver City.

— Dana Bartholomew

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PasadenaPoliticsRent Control