News: San Diego
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Starting in 2019, all rental property owners in the city of San Diego will be required to accept Section 8 housing vouchers.
The mandate comes under an ordinance approved Tuesday by the San Diego City Council. The policy change requires landlords to consider for tenancy all people with the ability to pay for a given unit, including those who would pay rent using Section 8.
While the California Apartment Association encourages voluntary acceptance of federal housing vouchers, it opposes legislation that mandates their acceptance.
An initiative that would bring rent control to National City, a municipality in San Diego County, has qualified for November’s ballot.
The San Diego County Registrar of Voters confirmed this week that the National City Rent Control and Community Stabilization Ordinance (accessible here) will be officially slated for November’s ballot. The push for rent control in National City is being driven by the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment.
The California Apartment Association is fully engaged in a campaign to defeat the measure and has retained a campaign consultant with expertise specific to National City.
“Along with coalition partners, ranging… Read More
Rent control activists in National City on Thursday submitted signatures in hopes of placing a rent control measure before voters this November.
Signatures filed at City Hall numbered more than 3,500, more than enough to qualify the initiative.
The petition must now undergo a signature count and verification process. If enough valid voter signatures were collected, the National City Rent Control and Community Stabilization Ordinance (accessible here) will be officially slated for November’s ballot.
The ballot measure would create a rent board funded by annual landlord fees, cap annual rent increases based on the rate of inflation and impose “just… Read More
Although not on the agenda, arguments over rent control dominated the discussion Wednesday at a San Diego City Council committee meeting.
Scores of public speakers – both for and against rent control – appeared before the Smart Growth and Land Use Committee, which includes four City Council members.
The meeting was designed to focus on anti-displacement, Section 8 vouchers and issues surrounding the expiration of San Diego’s affordable housing stock.
That didn’t matter to San Diego Tenants United, a media-savvy but hastily organized tenant-advocacy group that took an aggressive stance in hijacking part of Wednesday’s discussion.
An effort to place rent control before National City voters this November has entered the signature-gathering phase.
The city attorney for National City recently gave petitioners the green light to begin circulating a petition for a measure titled the National City Rent Control and Community Stabilization Ordinance.
Tagged: Rent Control San Diego
Despite strong support from the California Apartment Association, San Diego City Council candidate Ricardo Flores lost his bid for council Seat 9 in the Nov. 8 election.
Flores, who recieved financial backing from CAA’s political action committee, garnered 47.5 percent of the vote, while his opponent, Georgette Gomez, received 52.5 percent.
During her campaign, Gomez said she would make addressing the city’s high cost of housing a priority.
CAA San Diego believes that increasing the housing supply is the best way to moderate prices, and the Association looks forward to working with Gomez to generate more rental housing in San… Read More
The California Apartment Association is closely monitoring increased activity by tenant activists in San Diego following a string of media reports about rising rents in the area.
Tagged: Rent Control San Diego
During an interview this week about rising rents in San Diego, Whitney Benzian of CAA pointed to a lack of housing supply.
The CAA executive also pointed to excessive government regulations and fees, which makes development more costly to builders, and ultimately, so residents.
“Costs for permits, water, development impact fees — things like that are burdensome,” Benzian, vice president of public affairs for CAA San Diego, told CW6 News reporter Gary Buzel.
He also pointed to the recent trend of building micro-apartments as a less costly option that can work especially well for college students.
“There’s a housing supply… Read More