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<br />Orozco, Norma <br />From:Nathaniel Greensides <mynci90@gmail.com> <br />Sent:Tuesday, October 19, 2021 10:53 AM <br />To:eComment <br />Subject:Agenda Item 7 <br />Dear City Council and the general public, <br />I am a resident of ward 5 and I am in favor of this item. <br /> <br />Below, I address some of the points made by some in opposition. <br />Sincerely, <br />Nathaniel Greensides <br /> <br />“In every locale with rent control, the mobilehome resale prices are higher than before rent control, and those prices <br />accelerate each year, often many times above the true value of the mobilehomes” <br />The park owners/operators are suggesting here that owners of mobile homes shouldn’t be able to sell their <br />mobilehomes for above market prices which is a weird assertion to put forth in my opinion. Their concern that <br />“eventually, home prices will reach levels that put them out of buyers needing affordable housing” is moot. For current <br />residents (i.e. not future residents), the need to purchase affordable home is superceded by the ability to remain a <br />renter with stabilized rents (which can still increase, but with a ceiling – just like with the 2 percent property tax increase <br />ceiling that landowners in California enjoy, or fixed rate mortgages). <br />Additionally, without rent control, the reality for Santa Ana residents (at least those who are younger than 40 years old) <br />has always held that “home prices \[have always been at\] levels that \[are unaffordable\]”. Because of exactly that reason, <br />it is time to stabilize housing costs for low income renters of Santa Ana who have been here and want to remain. While <br />it may be true that in the short term, lack of supply might (not “will”) price out young families or seniors looking for a <br />new place to buy in Santa Ana, rent control does not inhibit increasing the supply of housing in the city. Any "young <br />families or seniors" currently living in Santa Ana and living in a unit subject to rent stabilization will actually be in a better <br />position to save at an even faster rate towards purchasing a place of their own than without rent stabilization. The only <br />reason that Rent Control WILL price out future home buyers (not current renters) is if the supply of housing remains the <br />same or decreases. <br />“With rent control, there is no incentive for park owners and operators to improve communities” <br />I’d argue the incentive is the same if not more with rent stabilization and Just Cause protections (i.e. rent control). The <br />incentive even without rent control is actually pretty big: failing to maintain properties at a basic level will result in those <br />properties falling apart and people losing their homes as well as the housing provider facing not only lost profits, but <br />criminal penalties for willfully failing to adhere to basic health and safety regulations. The difference with Rent <br />Stabilization, Just Cause, and any local agency in charge of enforcement (i.e. rent control) is accountability. Landlords <br />who can prove that an increase above the maximum allowed yearly increase will actually go towards maintenance or <br />improvements will be able to petition for adjustments above the maximum allowed increases. The levels of any <br />incentives for park owners to improve communities remains unchanged. <br />“As demonstrated by the hostilities expressed in your hearings, rent control pulls communities apart. It destroys any <br />incentive that landlords and mobilehome \[park\] owners have to cooperate, dialogue, or work together to maintain and <br />improve mobilehome parks as ‘communities’ and ‘neighborhoods’… you wouldn’t pass a law that so constricts other <br />1 <br /> <br />