SANTA ANA, Calif. (KNX) — Orange County’s first-ever rent control program will remain in place after a repeal campaign dropped its effort to put the ordinance to the ballot.
The Santa Ana City Council voted four to three on Oct. 19 to approve two laws that capped rents and limited eviction circumstances — a move the California Apartment Association, criticized as "an extreme policy that will end up hurting the families it is intended to benefit."
The rent-cap law limits rent hikes within city limits at 3% annually or 80% of inflation, whichever is less, for buildings built before 1996, and for mobile home parks built before 1991. The eviction-reform law protects tenants from removal without just cause, such as material breach of the lease, or committing a crime on the premises. Both laws took effect Friday.
The CAA sought to have Santa Ana residents vote on whether the laws should remain in place.
The CAA had until 5 p.m. on Monday to submit 12,548 signatures for a referendum on the laws. (Ten percent of the city's 125,479 total registered voters.) But statement released Monday by the CAA said that the campaign had "ended its effort togather signatures for a referendum on Santa Ana's rent control ordinance," but did not offer specific reasoning.
Victor Cao, a spokesperson for Santa Ana Fair and Equitable Housing, a coalition of local hosing providers and advocates led by the CAA and other housing organizations in Orange County, accused proponents of rent control in city government of engaging in "harassment of voters and canvassers, and numerous other violations of state and local campaign and ethics laws." He said those allegations would be "detailed in the weeks ahead."
Cao said the group was in the process of reviewing "multiple complaints" of voter intimidation, Brown Act violations, and use of official city resources for campaigning by members of the Santa Ana City Council.
The CAA declined to comment further on how it plans to act on the allegations.
Related
