The Santa Rosa City Council will discuss rent control Tuesday, Jan. 26, and hear from a consultant who’s laid out several options for addressing the city’s housing issues.
During the study session, set for 2 p.m. at City Hall, the council will also review a possible just-cause eviction ordinance, which would make it unduly difficult to evict problem tenants, including those suspected of violent crime.
The California Apartment Association’s North Coast division asks that rental housing owners and managers attend and speak out against both of these flawed policies.
Rent control and just cause are among the options that a consultant will present to the council during the study session. Other options include mediation, “soft” rent stabilization and rent stabilization. To view the consultant’s latest report, click here.
As the council members consider these approaches, it’s important that they hear from members of the rental housing industry. Please arrive prior to 2 p.m. to find a seat and fill out a speaker card.
It is important to remind City Council members that:
- Rent control isn’t an affordable housing program; it will NOT build one new unit of housing.
- Rent control provides a subsidy based on how long someone has lived in a unit, not their need for subsidized housing.
- Cities with rent control generally have higher rents than cities that don’t have rent control; rent control won’t bring rents down.
- As members of the community, property owners have invested in Santa Rosa, and the city should not punish them for doing so.
- Residents invested in rental units to save for their retirement and children’s college education; rent control destroys that nest egg.
- The City Council should focus on creating more housing opportunities in Santa Rosa — NOT rent control.
- Rent control does nothing to address the housing shortage; it will not make housing less expensive.
- Rent control will discourage rental property owners from maintaining their properties.
If you are interested in attending this meeting of have any questions, please contact CAA North Coast’s executive director, Mallori Spilker at mspilker@caanet.org.
If you cannot attend, please call or send an email to the Santa Rosa City Council asking its members not to punish rental property owners in their efforts to solve the city’s housing crisis.
Council contacts:
John Sawyer, mayor: 707-578-6006, jsawyer@srcity.org
Chris Coursey, vice mayor: 707-527-6588, ccoursey@srcity.org
Gary Wysocky, council member: 707-575-3820, gwysocky@srcity.org
Erin Carlstrom, council member: 707-321-0278, ecarlstrom@srcity.org
Julie Combs, council member: 707-542-1906, jcombs@srcity.org
Ernesto Olivares, council member: 707-975-0023, eolivares@srcity.org
Tom Schwedhelm, council member: 707-326-4495, tschwedhelm@srcity.org