Executive Director’s Message — Santa Ana Poised to Adopt Local Rent Control, Just Cause Eviction Laws

Santa Ana Poised to Adopt Local Rent Control, Just Cause Eviction Laws

By DaviD J. CorDero exeCutive DireCtor

The Santa Ana City Council took its first step toward adopting local rent control and just cause eviction ordinances after nearly seven hours of public comment and council discussion at its regularly scheduled meeting on September 21, 2021. A mandatory second reading of the ordinances and final council vote is scheduled for October 5, 2021. If approved by the city council, the ordinances would take effect 30 days later.

The proposed rent control ordinance, which is modeled after those in Santa Monica and San Francisco, would likely end up being the most restrictive and punitive in California. Among the key provisions in the ordinances are: • Rent increases capped at 3 percent or 80 percent of the change in the local Consumer Price Index (CPI), whichever is less within the city. • A limited and strict petition process for owners to get a higher rent increase

• Just cause eviction protections that start on the 31st day of tenancy, rather than after 12 months

• Prohibiting evictions of households with students during the school year • Requiring the District Attorney to prosecute an individual in order to evict for criminal activity • Mandating larger relocation assistance payments to households, exceeding current state requirements • Undetermined and unlimited fees on landlords to fund the program development, implementation, and enforcement.

The secretive manner by which the ordinances were not only discussed and developed but also placed on the agenda for city council action was concerning and surprising to AAOC and its housing coalition partners. To say that the process lacked transparency would be an understatement. An ad-hoc committee comprised of Mayor Vicente Sarmiento and Councilmembers Thai Viet Phan and Jessie Lopez had apparently been discussing the matter outside the public eye for some time, as part of an ongoing examination of city housing issues. At some point, city staff was directed to move forward with developing the ordinances and placing them on the September 21 city council agenda as urgency measures so, if approved, they could take effect when the state eviction moratorium expired on September 30.

Aside from the policy proposals themselves and the specific provisions in the ordinances, AAOC and our coalition partners took exception to the fact that neither the ad-hoc committee members nor city staff ever notified or held discussions with rental property owners and operators in the city, or the associations that represent them, about their consideration and development of the ordinances.

To overlook or exclude a key stakeholder group that would be directly impacted by the proposed rent control and just cause eviction ordinances is inexcusable. What’s more, questions have been raised about the legality of the ad-hoc committee directing staff to draft city policy, as the committee did not meet and operate under established open meeting and government transparency laws, under which such discussion and staff direction should have occurred.

The Santa Ana City Council majority has clearly signaled its intention to approve the rent control and just cause eviction ordinances when they are presented for a second reading and vote. AAOC and its housing coalition partners have been discussing the situation and strategizing way to stop the ordinances from being implemented. Litigation is not a viable option, but a referendum is.

For readers who may be unfamiliar, a referendum is a tool under state law that allows citizens 30 days to gather a specified number of eligible voter signatures in opposition to an action of a governing body, and then force that governing body to either rescind the action or place it on the ballot for the voters to decide. Once the Santa Ana City Council approves the rent control and just cause eviction ordinances, this is the course of action that will be taken. Once the referendum has qualified, implementation and enforcement of the ordinances will be placed on hold