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Latino Health Access LATINO HEALTH ACCESS October 5, 2021 Mayor Sarmiento and City Council Members City of Santa Ana 20 Civic Center Plaza Santa Ana, CA 92701 450 W. Fourth Street, Suite 130 Santa Ana, CA 92701 714-542-7792 www.latinoheaIthaccess.org RE: Support to adopt Agenda Item 9, City of Santa Ana Community Preservation, Rent Stabilization, and Tenants' Rights Act Dear Mayor Vicente Sarmiento and City Council Members of Santa Ana, Latino Health Access has been proudly working alongside community residents for over 27 years to improve the social determinants of health in our city. We provide services that address immediate health needs while providing information and facilitating opportunities to increase civic participation and impact policies that will improve those social determinants in the long term. Therefore, we urge you to support the adoption of Agenda Item #9, the City of Santa Ana Community Preservation, Rent Stabilization, and Tenants' Rights Act. The COVID-19 pandemic has altered everyday life across the globe. Beyond the disastrous health consequences, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the global economy with soaring income loss, underemployment, and unemployment rates. An impact that has worsened and aggravated the living conditions for many residents across the City of Santa Ana due to its majority population being tenants. The lack of affordable housing and increasing rent costs for our low-income residents has forced people into overcrowded living conditions and rent -burden. According to the City's local data, 80% of Santa Ana renters are moderate, low, and very low-income and 84% of residents hold low-income occupations that pay less than $53,500 per year. As a result, the financial hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has led a large percentage of tenants to accumulate rental arrears or housing situations that could be cause for evictions. We, therefore, foresee that the end of state COVID-19 related eviction moratoriums will continue to negatively impact the city's tenants. This impact will not only leave Santa Ana families in a vulnerable housing crisis and at risk of homelessness, but will also lead many families to acquire more financial hardships beyond the financial challenges they experienced due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As the COVID-19 pandemic progresses and COVID-19 infection continues to rise once again in Santa Ana, we urge you to protect tenants from being unjustly evicted and facing predatory rent increases, all while accumulating rent debt. Tenants with rent debt and tenants who have exhausted their savings to avoid PREVENTION EDUCATION ACTION