Correspondence - #33 - Laserfiche WebLink

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4. EXTREME USE OF RENT CONTROL WITH HALF-BAKED COMPLIANCE MEASURES The Housing Ad Hoc committee has not fully comprehended the impacts of the egregious price control mandated by the proposed rent control ordinance. The proposed ordinance prohibits any rent increase of more than 80% of the change in the consumer price index (CPI), with a ceiling of three percent, thereby ensuring that rents cannot keep up with inflation. The committee gives little consideration to the significant expenses landlords must pay out of their rental income, including mortgages, repair costs, insurance, and property taxes. The price controls would harm teachers, police officers, firefighters, and other public employees who have invested in rental properties to fund their retirement Extreme rent control policies also provide a strong disincentive for landlords to invest in anything more than the bare minimum required to maintain their properties, resulting in the degradation and ultimate loss of older housing stock. The proposed ordinance is lacking in substance. For example, there is no base definition of "rent," a term that is key to compliance with the measure; as a result, it's unclear whether "rent" is simply that amount paid for the use of the rented premises, or also includes other amounts such as charges for utilities, internet, amenities, and other services. The City expects property owners to follow draconian decrees without defining the basic parameters needed for compliance. Under the proposed ordinance, an owner whose rents are too low to keep up with costs would be forced to go through a new bureaucratic appeal process that typically costs other jurisdictions millions in dollars per year to administer. By the staff reports own admission, the Housing Ad Hoc committee seeks to implement a policy before fully weighing the fiscal impacts. The Housing Ad Hoc committee has made a half-baked recommendation for price controls that is harmful to a diverse constituency of stakeholders. 5. CITY COUNCIL SHOULD NOT RUSH TO APPROVE DANGEROUS LOOPHOLES IN THE JUST CAUSE ORDINANCE By conducting diverse community and stakeholder outreach, the Housing Ad Hoc would have learned about the dangerous loopholes in the proposed just cause ordinance that would increase criminal activity in Santa Ana neighborhoods. The criminal activity provisions are if not onerous, then impossible to follow. The ordinance provides a right of return to criminal offenders if the district attorney fails to file charges within the applicable statute of limitations, even if a court of law has found the tenant to have engaged in criminal activity at the eviction hearing. Victims, surrounding tenants, employees, and owners may be left for years anxiously waiting to know whether they will be forced to live alongside the offending tenant. Likewise, the anti -harassment provisions include glaring problems that inhibit even the most basic operations of a rental housing provider. For example, property owners are in a Catch-22 for basic repairs that require a temporary interruption of services, such as a temporary water or electrical shut- off, as the ordinance stipulates that aLi3: interruption in housing services is considered harassment with no exception, even if that interruption is necessary to conduct repairs, maintenance, or upgrades. This restriction is not only patently unreasonable, it also contradicts other provisions of both the just cause ordinance and rent control ordinance that penalize the owner for not conducting necessary repairs. The ordinance also prohibits landlords from entering a dwelling unit "inspections that are not related to necessary repairs or services," despite the fact that state law permits entry for