President’s Message — Are You Up for the Challenge?

Are You Up for the Challenge?

The years of continued legislative attacks on private property rights, combined with the recent turmoil caused by the COVID19 pandemic, along with the media’s generally negative portrayal of rental housing providers, is enough for many of us to want to throw up our hands and quit the business.

But that is not who we are as individuals, as an industry, and certainly not as members of the Apartment Association of Orange County.

Instead, we must continue to fight even harder and with greater conviction, with the AAOC leading the way, to protect and preserve our rights as property and small business owners. It’s not easy. In fact, it’s becoming increasingly difficult and costly to continue the fight, but we do so because our livelihoods and the fruits of our labor and sacrifices remain under constant assault by our “progressive” state legislators.

Against the odds, and with the continued support of its members, the AAOC has scored some victories this year at both the local and state levels, in defense of its members and the greater rental-housing industry.

Keeping Local Rent Control at Bay

Orange County remains free of local rent control ordinances despite the ever-present threat that such a proposal represents. While there is occasionally rent control chatter among tenant activists and others, none of the 34 cities in Orange County have taken steps to actively discuss and advance such a radical, anti-business, anti-property rights policy measure. This is due in large part to AAOC’s efforts, as part of a coalition of Orange County housing associations, to remain actively engaged with our local city council members and other officials, in order to prevent discussions of rent control from gaining traction inside our city halls. The most recent case was in Santa Ana, earlier this summer, where tenant activists were again signaling their desire and intention to have a proposed rent control ordinance placed on the city council agenda for discussion. Thanks to the efforts of AAOC and its coalition partners, this effort fell on deaf ears at city hall and such as discussion was never agendized.

Recent Victories in Sacramento

AAOC also scored some recent victories in Sacramento, having played an instrumental role in helping stop some of the increasingly invasive and prohibitive legislation affecting rental property owners and operators. Here are just a few of the bills that AAOC recently helped defeat.

AB 854 — This bill sought to prevent rental property owners from taking their units off the market, in addition to imposing other requirements and conditions upon owner(s) who sought such an action. AB 854 died in committee.

AB 889 — This bill would have mandated rental housing providers to submit ownership information to the Secretary of State. AB 889 failed to muster the necessary votes to pass out of committee.

AB 1188 — This bill would have required every city and county to create and maintain a publicly accessible rental registry with specific information on the rental units located in the jurisdiction. AB 1188 died in committee.

As California’s legislative majority continues moving to further restrict rental-housing providers’ ability to conduct business in a free and open market, we must remain unified, committed, and focused on the threats and the fights before us.

The AAOC legislative team does an excellent job representing our interests, but our direct involvement as members also makes a significant difference when it comes time for our state legislators to cast their votes on bills that impact our industry. We need to make our voices heard by calling and emailing our legislators, keeping the pressure on them to reject the bills that threaten us and our industry. When we engage as members, we have a fighting chance to defeat at least some of these bills, as illustrated above. Now, more than ever, we need our members to get involved and help fight for our future.

Are you up for the challenge?

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