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t IOCC( October 4, 2021 Re: October 5, 2021, Santa Ana City Council Meeting Agenda Item #9 Dear Members of the Santa Ana City Council and Mayor Vicente Sarmiento, On behalf of Orange County Communities Organized for Responsible Development (OCCORD) and the city of Santa Ana residents we represent, we urge you to vote in favor of agenda item 9, the enactment of rent stabilization and just cause eviction protections. This proposed ordinance will protect the most vulnerable working-class tenants in our community. On September 21, 2021, the City Council held the first reading of this proposed ordinance that was approved by a vote of 4-3. We urge Councilmembers Bacerra, Mendoza and Penaloza to reconsider their dissent and vote in favor of this ordinance on October 5, 2021. Many Santa Ana renters continue to face unjust evictions and predatory rent hikes, all while accumulating rent debt. It is unconscionable that as renters recover from this devastating pandemic, they are simultaneously subject to predatory rent hikes. Especially preposterous when residents making minimum wage of $14 an hour are expected to work 104 hours per week to afford a 1-bedroom apartment. Now more than ever, it is imperative that we enact REAL permanent renter protections in our city. This ordinance would provide a cap on rent increases so that rent cannot be increased more than 3% per year and extend just -cause eviction protections for most renters in the city. California housing costs have spiraled out of control. The state has the highest poverty rate in the country due to the high cost of housing. Santa Ana residents are spending over 40%of their income on rent, unregulated rent increases particularly put our community members at risk of becoming Houseless. Santa Ana residents are being forced to choose between a home and food, healthcare, childcare, and their jobs. The City Council must do better to protect its residents. If we don't act boldly now to protect renters, thousands will be displaced from our city or pushed into even denser living arrangements. Because renters can't keep up with debt repayment alongside unregulated rent hikes, they will be forced to leave the city or move in with family members to weather difficult times together. Seniors who have used their life savings to pay off the mortgages on their mobile homes, will be subject to losing everything when their fixed incomes can no longer accommodate mounting rent increases on the land below their homes. At this moment of compounding crises, you as our Councilmembers have a unique opportunity to put policies in place that will aid COVID-19 recovery and protect us from future threats to our health and livelihood. As residents of Santa Ana, and as messengers of the tenants with whom we have worked, it is our sincere desire that residents who have called Santa Ana their home for generations can continue to call Santa Ana home. To ensure our collective future --we urge you to enact rent control and just cause eviction protections now! Sincerely, .64 7 Ely Flores Executive Director Orange County Communities Organized for Responsible Development (OCCORD)