Laserfiche WebLink
525 Cabrillo Park Drive, Suite 125, Santa Ana, CA 92701 <br />Phone: (714) 245-9500 Fax: (714) 245-9505 <br />www.AAOC.com <br />September 21, 2021 <br />Mayor Vicente Sarmiento and Member of the Santa Ana City Council <br />City of Santa Ana <br />20 Civic Center Plaza <br />Santa Ana, CA 92701 <br />RE: City Council Agenda Item No. 33 (September 21, 2021) <br />Dear Mayor Sarmiento and City Council Members, <br />The Apartment Association of Orange County (AAOC) wishes to register its strong opposition to <br />the proposed "Rent Stabilization Ordinance and Just Cause Eviction Ordinance" that appears on <br />the September 21, 2021 city council agenda. AAOC has represented Orange County rental - <br />housing providers for the past 60 years and has a long history of working with cities and <br />advocating for safe, affordable, and quality rental housing in our communities. <br />While there are many elements of the city's proposal that provide grounds for concern and <br />opposition, there are three that I'd like to address in this letter: <br />1. Rent control efforts have been repeatedly rejected by Santa Ana voters. <br />2. The city did not engage or otherwise seek input from housing industry stakeholders. <br />3. The proposal brought forth by the city is fraught with flaws. <br />AAOC remains committed to being a positive community partner, and advocating for safe, <br />affordable and quality housing in Santa Ana, but this proposal is the wrong path forward. <br />Santa Ana voters have repeatedly rejected rent control efforts <br />Repeated attempts to implement citywide rent control in Santa Ana have failed due to Santa Ana <br />voters not supporting the policy for their city. They have not only rejected recent efforts to place the <br />issue on the ballot, but they have done so with strong and consistent opposition. Simply put, rent <br />control in Santa Ana is undesired and has continued to be unpopular with voters. <br />Each attempt to implement rent control has been brought forth by special interest groups that <br />represent neither the vast majority of Santa Ana residents and voters, nor their interests and <br />needs. This current proposal was similarly brought forth with no interest in involving stakeholders <br />on both sides of the issue, which brings us to our next objection to the proposed ordinance. <br />Process excluded housing industry stakeholders <br />If what the city wanted to accomplish was to create a policy that incorporates the perspectives, <br />experience, and expertise of all potentially impacted parties, then stakeholders from the housing <br />