The pandemic gave Southern California residents relief from the merciless rise in housing. Numbers from various studies, place the majority of families spending more than 30 percent of their wages on housing and escalation is yet to come.
Numerous California cities are looking at ways to implement a safety net for their residents, but its effectiveness is in limbo.
This situation mostly affects minorities. Bell Gardens, for example, has been held up as an example for the fierce fight that the city council has supported for its residents. Still, about 78% of Bell Gardens’ residents are renters, according to data from the Southern California Assn. of Governments. And about 64% of households in the city spend 30% or more of their gross income on rent.
Among those living in Bell Gardens, about 96% are Latino and at least 26% of the population is in poverty, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
As a low blow, the news was received that the city of Los Angeles will end rent control protection on January 31, which will leave many in financial uncertainty or with alternatives that mean moving or creating other living conditions. .
Rent control has long been a tool to protect people from being priced out of their homes. But with California’s rents rising amid a hot real estate market, more cities are turning to the protections. This has won praise from tenant groups and opposition from apartment owners’ organizations, which have been critical of the Bell Gardens plan.
Last week, the Antioch City Council passed a similar rent control ordinance that caps annual rent increases in the Bay Area city at 60% of the CPI or 3% — whichever is less. On Aug. 1, Pomona’s City Council set a rent cap at 4% or the change in CPI.
Santa Ana adopted a rent control ordinance in November, limiting increases to 3% per year or 80% of the change in the CPI. The city of Oxnard capped rent increases at 4% per year in April. And in November, Pasadena residents will vote on their own rent control measure.
Some California landlords were allowed to bump their rent starting Aug. 1 by as much as 10%, the maximum annual increase under Assembly Bill 1482, a statewide law passed three years ago. But the 10% cap applies only to complexes built before 2007 and those not subject to rent control restrictions, meaning that other landlords can raise their rents even higher.
Cities and counties across California have also passed local ordinances protecting against no-fault evictions. AB 1482 protects tenants who have lived in their apartments for at least a year.
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