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Orozco, Norma From: Maria Ceja <ceja.maria95@gmail.com> Sent: Tuesday, August 17, 2021 1:22 PM To: eComment Subject: Non -agenda Item Public Comment: Support for Rent Stabilization and Just Cause Protections in Santa Ana Dear Mayor and Council Members, As we continue to face the COVID-19 pandemic and cases are on the rise again, Santa Ana's City Council must act now to protect our Santa Ana community in the present and post-Covid-19 anticipated effects through community -based solutions. Our community has just begun the recovery if that has even an option, after the past almost year and a half of health hazards, financial hardships, and increased housing instability that have been worsened by the pandemic. If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is that housing is an important foundation that has power over the vitality to one's quality of life. In the last year, SAUSD had 5,717 students participate in the McKinney-Vento program, a program dedicated to supporting means children and youth who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. Approximately 87.8% of students district -wide are categorized as "socioeconomically disadvantaged". According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's Out of Reach report (2021), people working on minimum wage ($14) would need to work 89 hrs per week to afford a Ibdrm apartment. However, in Santa Ana, minimum wage workers at $14/hr would have to work 104 hrs per week to afford a modest 1 bdrm apartment (based on local rent prices). A high percentage of Santa Ana undocumented residents are making below minimum wage increases the number of hours needed to afford the median rent in the city. The city's priority should be to respond to the current and impending local housing/eviction crisis. Under the state of California's emergency housing policies, we currently have similar just cause protections, but these are set to expire at the end of September. With this in mind and with the knowledge that our community has been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, we respectfully request that the city council act boldly and swiftly to enact rent control and just cause as soon as possible, arriving at a vote on the ordinance by no later than the end of September. This is an urgent matter that must not be put off any longer. Although we applaud your efforts to amend the H.O.O (Housing Opportunity Ordinance) and to bring to Santa Ana more affordable housing these moves are insufficient to ensure housing stability for our most vulnerable residents and to help our community weather the aftermath of COVID19. It's unconscionable that given our demographics Santa Ana doesn't already have rent control like other cities across the state. 18 cities/counties across the state already have their own version of rent control. Renters with rent debt and renters who have exhausted their savings to prevent rent debt cannot shoulder excessive rent increases any longer or they will be permanently displaced from our city. Under the guidance of Tenants United Santa Ana, A coalition of community organizations have proposed to this city council the "City ofSanta Ana Community Preservation, Rent Stabilization and Tenants' Rights Act" which would limit rent increases to a maximum of 3% once a year to residents who lease the land below their mobile homes and residents who rent inside of multi -family building built before 1995. Likewise, this ordinance would extend just cause eviction protections to all renters in the city. Please place the first reading of our proposed ordinance on the agenda in the upcoming September 7th and make an official before emergency protections expire at the state level. This ordinance will be one mechanism by