In a split vote, the Santa Barbara City Council on Tuesday supported a temporary rent freeze, but it won’t go into effect immediately, city leaders decided after an emotionally charged, lengthy and packed discussion. 

The proposed rent freeze needed five affirmative votes for it to be considered an emergency and go into effect immediately. 

However, it received only four votes in support — from council members Meagan Harmon, Wendy Santamaria, Kristen Sneddon and Oscar Gutierrez.

“This action tonight is about good governance and doing policy the right way,” Harmon said.

Councilmen Eric Friedman and Mike Jordan and Mayor Randy Rowse voted against it.

The four votes meant the rent increase moratorium would have to go through the typical ordinance approval process. It will be up for adoption at the next City Council meeting and, if approved with at least four votes, would go into effect 30 days later.

Rowse said it’s the wrong decision.  

“This is never working anywhere,” he said. “I have people showing me successful cities that have it, but they are the same cities I use to show that it didn’t work.”

The freeze, which would prevent some landlords from raising a unit’s base rent, would expire on Dec. 31 or when a permanent rent stabilization ordinance goes into effect, according to the city staff report.

Base rent is defined as rent that went into effect on Dec. 16, 2025, for tenancies existing on or before that date or the rest established upon initial occupancy for tenancies commencing after that date.

The temporary rent increase moratorium would apply only to units that are subject to local rent regulation under state law. 

It would not apply to housing units built after 1995, single-family homes and most condos, transient occupancies, institutional and government housing, and units subject to rent affordability covenant or Section 8. 

Three-Plus Hours of Public Comment During Packed Meeting

Community members filled the Council Chamber on Tuesday night, with some people left to stand along the walls to hear from staff, council members and three hours worth of public speakers. 

Dozens of residents took to the podium to share their thoughts on both the temporary freeze and amending requirements to just-cause Ellis Act evictions.  

“I work two jobs while going to school just to be able to make ends meet,” resident Elizabeth Newman said. “We are not numbers on a graph depicting profit margins but real-life living and breathing human beings.”

However, mom-and-pop landlords said the rent increase freeze would hurt them because of increasing expenses at their properties.

“Not every landlord is evil, not every landlord is out to move people out. I care very much about each and every tenant because I have children who rent in other cities,” Angela Tasca-Zungri said. 

She urged the council to bring tenants and landlords together to create a solution.

“After awhile, if we don’t have the money, we are not going to do the improvements,” she said.

Some public speakers questioned the authenticity of the council members’ intentions of bringing a proposed rent freeze to the table now, and whether the upcoming election has anything to do with it.

In response, Councilman Friedman was firm that he was not making decisions based on furthering his campaign for mayor.  

“I will never take a vote because I am playing politics to become the next mayor. I will never do that,” he said. 

Tuesday’s meeting came after the City Council discussed developing a rent stabilization ordinance in December and decided to consider a temporary rent freeze in the meantime. 

After Tuesday’s 4-3 vote to approve the rent freeze, the city will work on the stabilization ordinance during the next year. 

The City Council also voted with the same 4-3 split to amend the Santa Barbara Municipal Code by adding requirements for just-cause evictions to permanently remove a unit from the rental market.