[UPDATE 7/27: The Santa Ana Rent Control ordinance, which we hope to duplicate in Anaheim, DOES cover Mobile Home Parks – some of the most-abused renters in Anaheim. And it has survived all legal challenges thus far. TAKE NOTE, RANCHO LA PAZ!]

A couple of weeks ago there was an Anaheim Housing Community Forum at the Ponderosa Community Center. Well, here, look at the flyer:

We’ll describe that “town hall” in a bit, but we’re already getting ahead of ourselves – a couple of weeks before THAT, Forbes Magazine released their report “The Best and Worst Cities for Renters,” which rated Anaheim FOURTH WORST out of the nation’s 95 largest cities (better only than New York, Newark and Long Beach, and a little worse than Oakland.) From Forbes:

4. Anaheim, California

“Anaheim’s score: 13.54 out of 100…

“The home of Disneyland ranked as the second-worst city in the affordability category:

• The sixth worst for rental price changes, with average rental prices jumping $105 year over year…
• Seventh-worst for rent as a percentage of income at 25.8% (a tie with Long Beach and Los Angeles) …
• Anaheim is also the second worst city for the number of available rental units per 100,000 households at 7…”

So that’s Forbes, but if you don’t want to believe them, here’s from an actual Anaheim staff report back this past April (on the necessity of an amorphous “housing trust fund”) :

“The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Anaheim is currently $2,055. For individuals working a minimum-wage job, or $16/hour, assuming full time work, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment represents 74 percent of gross earnings. For housing costs to be considered affordable, a household’s total housing costs should not exceed 30 percent of household income, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.”

So, back to the “Community Forum.”

The Ponderosa Community Center was packed that night – mostly with local residents speaking Spanish and/or English and ALL wanting rent control. There were also maybe a dozen of us housing activists, along with folks from the nonprofits at their tables, and our own Mayor Ashleigh Aitken and Mayor Pro-Tem Norma Kurtz, who were “there to listen.” You can watch the whole production here if you have the inclination.

After city staff gave their little spiels, everyone broke out into groups, which discussed their priorities and appointed spokespeople to go up to the mike. Every single spokesperson emphasized the need for rent control. (Us activists also demanded a long-sought “inclusionary housing ordinance,” requiring new developments to include a healthy percentage of affordable homes, as many OC cities have, but that’s a story for another post.)

Community advocate Sofia Romero (left) was especially eloquent as she described her neighbors’ difficulties paying Anaheim’s ever-escalating rents – raised once and sometimes TWICE a year, from $150 to as much as $250 per month. She told of her neighbors being evicted, having to live two families to a unit, having to choose between rent, food and medicine. But I’m sure you’ve heard it all. Haven’t you?

And then it was Mayor Ashleigh‘s turn to wrap things up. She was supposed to be “responding” to us. She spoke a lot of words, because she is an attorney and very good at doing that. She spoke of how hard they are trying, how complicated it all is, and how nobody can even agree on what an “inclusionary housing ordinance” is, or what “affordable” means. Maybe we need to be clearer.

And, even though EVERYONE there spoke of the need for RENT CONTROL in Anaheim, she spoke NOT ONE WORD about that. EVEN THOUGH Duane Roberts specifically asked her if she still stood by her comments in December 2022 to Jill Repogle of the LAist when Jill asked if she would “support a rent control ordinance like the one in Santa Ana?” Mayor Ashleigh’s answer then was, and apparently remains:

“I don’t. We have rent control at the statewide level. I don’t think that’s something that we need to address at a local level.” (LAist Editor’s note: Rent increases are capped at 10% at the state level, but the law does not apply to housing built within the last 15 years, and most condos and single-family homes are exempt.)

“I think rent control, if you look at it long-term, stifles development in the city. In a city of Anaheim’s size, we need to be partnering with developers to build more housing, not putting up obstacles that make it more difficult.“

So, the Mayor “thinks” that rent control would “stifle development.” Because we are a pretty big city. Well, we could debate that all day. But mainly she thinks that the 2019 state law AB 1482 is good enough, and Anaheim renters don’t need anything more than that. Well…

The Thing About AB 1482.

When AB 1482 passed in 2019, it seemed like a big deal – a rent control bill (or, euphemism alert, “rent cap” or “rent stabilization” bill) passed statewide! And it was certainly better than nothing at the time. It included some important protections against no-cause evictions. But here’s the thing – the result of extensive haggling with deep-pocketed apartment-owner lobbyists, it allows rents to increase annually by cost of living (CPI) PLUS FIVE PERCENT – up to a maximum of TEN PERCENT. And it has no enforcement mechanism either.

But think about it. Raising rent by the CPI is only fair, but why should landlords – whether corporate as most of them are or “mom & pop” – be allowed to INCREASE THEIR PROFITS by 5% every year, on the backs of working folks?. In Anaheim last year, that meant an annual increase of 8.8 PERCENT. Legally. And when a ceiling like that is officially established, that’s what most businessmen will go for.

It’s not hating on landlords to question why they should be allowed, encouraged even, to increase their profits by 5% every year. Some of my best friends are landlords (literally.) We get along fine with our landlord. And I did not write this song, although it is a good time for a musical break:

The Orange Juice Blog does not condone lynching any landlords; instead we support real rent control. But here’s the thing – a lot of apartment owners in Anaheim and elsewhere don’t even follow the law, raising rents more than AB 1482 allows. And tenants often don’t know that their landlord is breaking AB 1482, or don’t know what to do about it, or are afraid to say anything about it – afraid of being evicted, and some of them afraid because they’re undocumented.

Some Anaheim landlords have gotten CREATIVE about getting around the law – for example, we’ve heard of several cases of tenants being told to move out while improvements are being made to the properties, and THEN being replaced with new tenants paying much higher rent.

And as mentioned above, AB 1482 has no “enforcement mechanism.” SOME cities have offices, departments, staff dedicated to helping tenants fight illegal rent hikes. But not Anaheim. Anaheim will tell people to go to the epically overworked Public Law Center with their complaints, and good luck with that.

It should be mentioned, more than once, that nearly everyone on the Anaheim Council was elected with independent expenditures from the Apartment Association of OC and other landlord groups, who are always allied with Anaheim’s other omnipotent special interests – Disney, developers, and the other usual suspects. Could this have anything to do with the Council’s total lack of interest in rent control, or even in helping to enforce state law? Hmmm…

So what the hell can be done, in Anaheim, for renters, who are the MAJORITY in this town, ESPECIALLY in the five flatland districts?

Santa Ana, a Model for Anaheim.

Since 2020, Santa Ana has had a rent control ordinance keeping rent hikes at CPI – cost of living – no more. (There is some allowance for covering necessary repairs and improvements.) Doesn’t that sound reasonable? Of course the Apartment Association raised hell, issued all kinds of warnings, are constantly in court over it, haven’t yet prevailed. They warned (sounding like Mayor Ashleigh) that “development would be stifled” – hasn’t happened. They warned that rent control would actually backfire and cause rents to RISE – an Orwellian head-scratcher which likewise never materialized.

And Santa Ana’s ordinance also created a Rent Board, so unlike in Anaheim, tenants with problem landlords have somewhere to go.

But what I found most helpful to, and hopeful for, Anaheim, was: HOW DID SANTA ANA GET THIS ORDINANCE? The well-organized hard-working TUSA (Tenants United in Santa Ana) came a few hundred signatures short of getting an ordinance on the ballot, so… THEY FOUND COUNCIL CANDIDATES (Mayor Sarmiento, Jessie Lopez, Johnathan Hernandez, and eventually Thai Viet Phan) WHO RAN ON THE ISSUE, AND WON.

And that is how Santa Ana, to this day, has a 4-member progressive, good-government majority that stands up to that town’s big special interests – the police union, developers and landlords. Running on rent control was the ticket.

Can that happen in the Anaheim flatlands? Can rent control be the impetus to a new populist movement here, the first one since we got District Elections? Could Council candidates HERE run on rent control, and FINALLY get us a Council not owned by landlords, Disney, developers, the police and fire unions? It’s probably too late to start that movement, find those candidates, for THIS year. But I know at least one, and you gotta start somewhere:

Francisco Rosas for District 4!

pic by Greg Diamond

Francisco Rosas, a veteran and resident of District 4, infuriated by the Council’s unquestioning unanimous vote for Disneyland Forward and the giveaway of Magic Way, is running against (appointed) councilwoman Norma Kurtz. And he is running on the issues of:

• RENT CONTROL
• Affordable Housing through an inclusionary housing ordinance
• a “Gate Tax” on our entertainment giants
• Real Campaign Finance Reform (and more.)

Where are the Franciscos for Districts 1 and 5? Let’s fight for Rent Control now, and finally take over the Anaheim Council in 2026 with honest candidates who will work for the people, not the Special Interests. IF SANTA ANA DID IT SO CAN WE – SI SE PUEDE!

Vern out.