The Santa Barbara City Council will consider a temporary rent increase freeze Tuesday that would be in effect while the city works on a rental stabilization ordinance.
The proposed freeze would prevent landlords from raising the base rent of a unit until Dec. 31 or when the permanent rent stabilization ordinance goes into effect, whichever is earlier, according to the city staff report.
The temporary ordinance defines base rent as the cost of rent that was in effect Dec. 16, 2025, for tenancies that started on or before that date, or whatever the cost of rent was during initial start of a lease that began after Dec. 16.
The council will also consider adding two new requirements that landlords will have to follow if they want to remove any units from the rental market.
The first is that if a landlord wanted to remove one rental unit on their property from the market, they would have to remove all the units on that property off the market, according to the city staff report.
The second requirement proposed is that if a landlord does pull their property from the rental market, they can’t put it back on the market for five years.
Landlords would have to give all of the tenants notice of termination at the same time, although the actual eviction dates may vary based on lease requirements, according to the proposed ordinance.
The City Council decided to consider a temporary rent freeze in December when they discussed the rent stabilization ordinance.
The city will be working on the stabilization ordinance over the next year, and if approved it could go into effect in early 2027.
In December, City Administrator Kelly McAdoo explained that the city was set to hire a consultant in January to gather data and ensure the ordinance is tailored to the city’s housing needs. In February, the city plans to hold a number of stakeholder focus groups to help develop the policies in the ordinance.
If all goes according to that schedule, the council will review a draft ordinance in March, have a public review period, and have the council make a final decision in July.
In October, council members Wendy Santamaria and Kristen Sneddon proposed their own rent stabilization ordinance, but it failed to pass due to backlash over the lack of transparency.
The council will discuss the temporary rent freeze and new requirements at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, which starts at 2 p.m. Residents can speak in person during public comment at City Hall, 735 Anacapa St., or on Zoom.
Written comments can be sent to the city clerk at Clerk@SantaBarbaraCA.gov.
