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EL CENTRO <br />IQ� CULTURAL <br />�- DE WXICO <br />837 N Ross S4. Sama Am, Ca. K70i <br />October 5, 2021 <br />Mayor Sarmiento and City Council Members <br />City of Santa Ana <br />20 Civic Center Plaza <br />Santa Ana, CA 92701 <br />Re: Support to adopt Agenda Item 9, City of Santa Ana Community Preservation, <br />Rent Stabilization, Tenants' Rights Act <br />Dear Mayor Vicente Sarmiento and the City Council Members of Santa Ana, <br />On behalf of El Centro Cultural de Mexico, I am writing in support for the adoption of <br />Agenda Item #9, and thereby helping to enact rent stabilization and just cause <br />eviction protections in Santa Ana. Correspondingly, we urge you to take the <br />necessary steps to create a rent board to help enforce these protections after they <br />become law. This ordinance was drafted by, and for residents of Santa Ana with <br />the goal of protecting the most vulnerable working-class tenants in our community <br />Founded in 1994, El Centro is a synergistic, cultural organization and space that emphasizes the <br />empowering effect of identity and collective work, particularly for immigrant youth and families <br />in our city, Santa Ana, California. <br />Federal and state COVID-19 related eviction moratoriums and additional <br />protections are ending or have ended already. The federal unemployment benefit <br />programs under the CARES Act ended on September 4th, 2021. The COVID-19 <br />pandemic is far from over; the City of Santa Ana has been the hardest hit in all of <br />Orange County, with almost 900 COVID-19 confirmed deaths and over 48,000 <br />confirmed COVID-19 cases to date. Yet, renters are being unjustly evicted and <br />facing predatory rent increases, all while accumulating rent debt which they are <br />still liable for. Figures show 89% of rental assistance funds have not been <br />distributed at the federal level. In Santa Ana, minimum wage workers earning $14 <br />an hour would have to work 104 hours a week to afford a modest 1-bedroom <br />apartment. Renters with rent debt and renters who have exhausted their savings to <br />avoid rent debt cannot continue to face excessive and unpredictable rent increases <br />otherwise they will be permanently displaced from our city. Now more than ever, <br />Santa Ana needs REAL renter protections to safeguard our community. <br />