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DOWDALL LAW OFFICES A PROFESSIONAL CORPORATION ATTORNEYS AT LAW City of Santa Ana August 28, 2023 Page 10 designed to address: a housing shortage." " Numerous studies of the real -world impact of rent control support the position that rent control reduces quantity of available housing. For example, the number of rental units decreased in Cambridge (8%) and Brookline (12%), Massachusetts, during the 1980s after those cities imposed rent control measures, while the number of rental units in neighboring communities increased during the same period.12 Similarly, the number of rental units decreased in Berkeley (14%) and Santa Monica (8%), California, between 1978 and 1990 after those cities imposed rent control measures, while the rental supply rose in nearby cities during the same period. 13 None of this information to refute the allegations set forth in the findings of the proposed ordinance are relevant to the consideration of changing the manner in which ordinances are considered and passed. The findings of the City are irrelevant and do not support the proposal. Further, a recent study of the San Francisco housing market found that rent control reduced the rental supply of small multi -family housing by 15%, which ultimately led to rent increases and increased gentrification.14 Another study concluded that rent control held thousands of units off the rental market in Boston. 15 This information constitutes empirical data which, scientifically, impeaches the validity of the underlying rent control law in its entirety. Not only does the proposal failed to pass muster, but the original rent control law itself is fatally deficient and void for lack of any specific rational basis applicable to Santa Ana. The New York RSL has a similar impact. Data demonstrates that, despite ample zoning capacity, buildings where more than 75% of the units are rent stabilized have a significantly higher share of their zoned capacity available for development than buildings that contain no rent stabilized units. Such buildings have approximately 20% of their zoned capacity available, while " Peter D. Salins, Rent Control's Last Gasp, City Journal (Winter 1997), https:/ / www.city- journal.org/ html/rentcontrol%E2%80%99s-last-gasp-I 1951.html. 12 Goetze, Rent Control: Affordable Housing for the Privileged, Not the Poor (1994). 13 St. John & Associates, Rent Control in Perspective: Impacts on Citizens and Housing in Berkeley and Santa Monica Twelve Years Rater, Pacific Legal Foundation (1993). 14 Rebecca Diamond, Tim McQuade, & Franklin Qian, The Effects of Rent Control Expansion on Tenants, Landlords, and Inequality: Evidence from San Francisco, 109 Am. Econ. Rev. 3365 (2019) 15 David P. Sims, Out of Control: What Can We Learn from the End of Massachusetts Rent Control?, 61 J. Urb. Econ. 129 (2007). -10-