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November 5, 2019 Latino Health Mayor Pulido and Members of the City Council Access City of Santa Ana L;j 20 Civic Center Plaza .d (cars P.O. Bo 1988, M31 Santa Ana, CA 92701 RE: 856: Support —Urgency Ordinance for Tenant Protections 450 West Fourth Street Suite 130 Dear Santa Ana City Council and Mayor, Santa Ana, CA 92701 Ph: 714.542-7792 Latino Health Access is writing this letter in strong support of a temporary Urgency Fax: 714-542-4853 Ordinance for Tenant Protections while we await the implementation of the statewide lotinoheolthoccess.org Tenant's Protection Act (AB1482) to go into effect January 2020. The Urgency Ordinance establishes that rent increases in the city not exceed the local CPI of 3.3% from the date of signature of AB1482, October 8, 2019, to December 31, 2019. It also protects against evictions without just cause through December 31, 2019. The state law will provide protections from evictions without cause and excessive rent increases as of January 1, 2020. However, there is a 3-month gap between when the law was signed and when it goes into effect that has left many families in Santa Ana vulnerable to evictions without cause and excessive rent increases. Unfortunately, many landlords are seeing this window as a last opportunity to capitalize on charging higher rents, including measures to evict long time tenants in order to reset the amount of rent they can charge as of January. In the last 2 weeks, we have contacted 2,613 voters throughout the city, 1,273 feel that their local officials need to identify a solution to this problem, and 55% of those that are tenants told us they have experienced at least one rent increase in the last year. In our door-to-door conversations, we have heard stories of mass evictions and rent increases of over $500 from one month to another. An excessive increase and an eviction, can be destabilize an entire family, and when this becomes a larger scale problem our entire community is destabilized. Over 54% of residents in Santa Ana are tenants and 65% are already rent burdened. This totals 214, S00 of your constituents that are counting on you to protect their right to remain housed. We are just a few days away from Thanksgiving, Christmas and the holidays where families want to spend time with loved ones without the worry or fear of being evicted or not being able to pay rent. The Urgency Ordinance will provide that peace of mind that our families deserve. We urge you to join other cities like Los Angeles and Redwood City that have passed similar ordinances and protect tenants in Santa Ana by supporting the Urgency Ordinance. As there are new protections for Californians as of January 2020, we are simply urging you to close the time gap and move up the date these protections will go into effect in Santa Ana. We are working with attorneys at Public Law Center who have done extensive research on ordinance language, and are ready to work with City staff. Please do not hesitate to contact me at nmeiia@latinohealthacess.org or ext 1021 if you have any questions. Sincerely, YY � , YVAIV— Nancy ejia, MS , PH Director of Comm ty Engagement & Advocacy Programs PREVENTION EDUCATION ACTION