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Advancing social justice and building power with working-class Vietnamese and immigrant communities in Orange County. V Garden Grove,CA 92843 W W W.nY.1�1. I.Q.4 m, m ill{s> p„ rmn �pm;g @vietriseoc September 6, 2022 Via email To Mayor Sarmiento and Santa Ana City Council Members: My name is Tracy La, and I am the Executive Director of VietRISE, a community non-profit organization based in Orange County.VietRISE advances social justice and builds power with working-class Vietnamese and immigrant communities in Orange County. On behalf of VietRISE, we are writing to address item #26 on the agenda and are in support of the city of Santa Ana establishing a rental registry and Rent Board as part of the long-term implementation plan for the Rent Stabilization and Just Cause Eviction ordinances that were passed in 2021. In late 2021,VietRISE held several community meetings with renters and mobile home residents in the city to discuss the impact that exorbitant rent increases have had on their mental and physical health and wellbeing in the last several years. The residents,many of whom are Vietnamese and Latino immigrant and refugee seniors,live on fixed incomes, are disabled, and are being slowly priced out of the homes they live in with nowhere to go. Together, our organization and these senior residents came together with a multigenerational coalition of Vietnamese and Latino residents in the city to successfully advocate for the passing of the Rent Stabilization and Just Cause Evictions ordinances to mitigate the displacement of them and other residents in the city from their homes due to these rent increases. There is no argument to be made about how significantly the ongoing housing crisis has affected Santa Ana residents over the last several decades and how much the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated these inequities and injustice which disproportionately affects working class communities of color in our city. Establishing the Rent Stabilization and Just Cause Eviction ordinances was a crucial,groundbreaking step in protecting tenants.With these housing inequities continuing to persist,we must ensure that these ordinances are strengthened by enacting a rental registry and a rent board that can oversee their implementation and increase transparency,renter protection, and accountability within the city's rental properties. VietRISE urges the city of Santa Ana to implement a rental registry that includes the following information: • Unit address • Number of bedrooms • Current rent • Date of the last rent increase • Move-in date of the current tenant • A general description of the amenities (i.e. a parking spot, a storage space, etc.) • The date of the last inspection by a City's Code The City's registry should also be publicly searchable,which will allow community stakeholders and public officials to more readily identify shifts in the housing market, identify bad actors, and make it convenient for tenants to check if rent increases are legal. Several rent-controlled jurisdictions throughout the state, such as