Now is the time for residents, tenants, and property managers to weigh in on Santa Barbara’s proposed ordinance to limit rent increases and amendments for eviction rules.
The public has 30 days to comment on both issues before the Santa Barbara City Council votes on the ordinance and amendments on July 28.
The decision to publish the just cause Ellis Act eviction amendments, which includes rules for property owners evicting tenants in order to pull units from the rental market, came at the eleventh hour of a lengthy city council meeting on Tuesday.
The amendments are separate from the rent stabilization ordinance but will now be considered at the same time. That decision was approved by council members Wendy Santamaria, Meagan Harmon, Kristen Sneddon, and Oscar Gutierrez. Mayor Randy Rowse voted against it and councilmen Eric Friedman and Mike Jordan abstained.
The ordinance details and the Ellis Act amendments will be published on the city’s website, allowing for public comment from June 10 through July 10.
The proposed ordinance limits how much landlords can raise rents, creates a rental property registry, and forms a rent stabilization board to oversee the program.
Rent increases would be limited to one time within a 12-month period at 60% of Consumer Price Index (CPI), with a maximum of 3%, whichever is lower.
The ordinance wouldn’t apply to units built after Feb. 1, 1995; single family homes; condos and townhomes; owner-occupied duplexes; mobile home parks; government owned and operated units; or deed-restricted affordable housing.
Landlords can petition to increase the rent higher than that if they made a major repair or improvement to the unit or if the annual rent adjustment doesn’t provide a fair return on investment. Tenants can petition to lower rent due to habitability issues, reduced housing services, or if a landlord charges more rent than what is legally allowed.
The ordinance currently calculates a fair return based on gross rental income minus operating expenses.
During Tuesday’s discussion, Santamaria said there should be more flexibility and allow the rent board to determine returns based on individual cases.
“The rent board should be able to take individual considerations into account because if we say this is what we think is a reasonable rate of return for a small landlord and we apply that across the board, well the larger landlords are not really going to get what proportionally they needed,” Santamaria said.
However, city staff cautioned against giving the board more power as it could complicate issues usually ruled on by the City Council.
The ordinance would create a rent stabilization board with seven members appointed by the City Council to provide oversight, hear appeals of petition decisions, and making program recommendations.
The board would have two members who are rental tenants, two local landlords or property managers, and three members with no financial interest or ownership of rental housing. The board will be separate from the existing rental housing mediation board.
Santamaria suggested that the board should be more reflective of the city’s population.
“The city’s population is roughly 60% of tenants, that should be reflected in the board,” Santamaria said.
Many tenants spoke during public comment to advocate for a “strong rent board” to enforce the ordinance and deal with violations.
“We need a rent board with the absolute most enforcement power,” said Faith Ellington-Baker. “If the laws are not enforced then they effectively mean nothing and if you guys do not uphold our tenant protections then we will protect ourselves.”
The program also includes a rental registry in which landlords will have to register each qualified unit by Jan. 1, 2027, or within 30 days of registration forms being made available, whichever is later.
Registration has to include the unit address, the number of bathrooms and bedrooms, landlord contact information, date of ownership, current rent, the date and amount of the last rent increase, and the tenant’s move-in date.
Landlords that don’t register their units won’t be allowed to collect rent, evict tenants, advertise units for rent, or petition for higher rents, according to the city staff report.
Rob Hunter, a landlord who said he typically only raised rent every few years, worried about keeping up with the new regulations.
“Not only the 60% cap on the CPI and the registration fee, it’s just all adding to a point where you can’t even keep up with the cost of living,” Hunter said.
The program is expected to cost the city $2 million a year to administer, covering about 13,000 housing units, according to research from RSG Solutions.
That would cover the cost of staffing, enforcement, developing the rental registry, petition fees, the appeals process, outreach and data collection.
City staff still needs to conduct a fee study to determine the amount of money per unit needed to cover program administration, at which point the council will determine how the fee is broken down between the property owner and tenants.
