Council decides against stricter rent control

DOWNEY - A push by Councilwoman Catherine Alvarez to bring stricter rent control policies to Downey failed to gain any traction at this week’s council meeting, being struck down unanimously in the early morning hours on Wednesday.

Rent control has been a hot stove item in Downey over the last few years, fueled in large part by Alvarez. Alvarez regularly protested on the subject and formed the Downey Tenants Union before campaigning on the platform and ultimately winning her seat on council during last year’s election.

At the Jan. 26 meeting, Alvarez requested that staff bring back a presentation to explore the possibility of bringing stricter rent controls and tenant protections to the city.

“I brought this up to you, to the city council members, and to the public because we’re going through a hardship,” said Alvarez. “A lot of families are going through a lot; right now they’ve lost their jobs.”

On Tuesday, Council heard presentations from Alvarez and staff before fielding a large volume of calls and correspondence, spending around four hours on the item and carrying them past midnight.

During her presentation, Alvarez said that the percentage of tenants in Downey was “very high.”

“We have to understand that tenants are not only the ones who have a contract,” said Alvarez. “There are tenant’s living in the living room, paying for a room or a garage.”

According to her presentation, over 53% of Downey’s 32,073 housing units were occupied by tenants in 2019. Alvarez said that over 53% of those tenants were “cost-burdened,” paying 30% or more of their income towards housing costs.

Staff’s presentation showed similar numbers, however put the majority at slightly over 50% ownership in 2018, with similar trends in 2010 and 2000. It also highlighted a vacancy rate of 3.6% in 2020.

Much of Alvarez’s argument for rent control centered around protecting low-income and vulnerable tenants – such as the disabled, veterans, and elderly – from exaggerated increases in rent or no-fault evictions, and preserving tenants’ rights.

Alvarez also specifically took aim at AB 1482, the Tenant Protection Act signed in 2019, which Downey currently operates under.

“Rent control is different than a rent cap. We need to understand that AB 1482 is a rent cap, it’s not rent protection,” said Alvarez.

AB 1482 prohibits an owner of residential real property from raising rent more than 5% plus increase in cost of living or 10% (whichever is lower), and from evicting a tenant without just cause.

Unfortunately for Alvarez, it became clear quickly that they did not share their enthusiasm for the placement of stricter rent controls.

Councilman Mario Trujillo said that it was important to “distinguish between tenant’s rights, affordable housing, rent control, and rent assistance,” before ultimately concluding that “any additional rent control measures would be redundant and unnecessary.”

“It’s well known that Downey is in the higher end of the rent market for the southeast part of LA County. But when I look at the information presented to us by the staff and I find that the vacancy rate is only 3.6% in Downey, that’s telling me that Downey is still very much desirable.”

“With all due respect to my colleague and many of the callers today, it is my opinion that Downey is still affordable. We’re not having a huge displacement of our people in Downey because of our arguably high rent. It’s just not happening; the figures do not support it.”

He also warned against creating a “false narrative.”

“In none of the callers or emails that I heard today did I hear about a bad landlord; not one,” said Trujillo. “No one can show any data to show that we have the abusive landlords that the rent control movement frequently tries to portray.”

“What we have found in Downey is we have landlords who are willing to work with our residents because they appreciate that these renters take care of their properties.”

Mayor Claudia Marroquin-Frometa mirrored some of these thoughts.

“I have to go back to the numbers that we have,” said Frometa. “When we talk about the vacancy rate in Downey vs the vacancy rate in rent-controlled cities, it leads me to believe that the numbers that we have here in the city of Downey are different. We cannot be swayed by a different narrative of what is happening in other cities. We need to keep our focus in Downey because this is the place that we have been elected to serve.”

“Time and time again, the economic research consistently shows that rent control is not the answer to cities. Rent control does not address the underlying causes of California’s housing problem.”

Mayor Pro Tem Blanca Pacheco said that “the rent control measure has already come up twice.”

California voters have decided on rent control issues twice before, with on Prop 21 in 2020 and Prop 10 in 2018. In both scenarios, Downey voters trended against the ballot measures.

“The voters voted against having any rent control statewide, but more specifically here within our city,” said Pacheco. “The residents of Downey have already voiced their opinion. I’m here to do what the residents of Downey would like me to do which is represent them, and because of that… I don’t feel comfortable proceeding forward with having staff look into having a rent control ordinance here in the city of Downey.”

Surprisingly – despite still showing some signs of fight on the matter – Alvarez would ultimately vote against her own measure, joining her council colleagues in voting to not pursue any further action.

While not pursuing rent control, Councilmembers did indicate that they were open to exploring ways to incorporate more affordable / low-income housing into the city.

“Rent control is counter productive to building more affordable housing,” said Trujillo. “That is my opinion, but I am basing it on the facts that tell us that if you are a rent-controlled environment, developers are not going to come in because there’s no incentives for them to come and build more housing, which is what we need.”

Councilman Sean Ashton said that while affordable housing would not be an immediate fix, it should be done for the “long term.”

“We are in a housing crunch; our city is supposed to plan for 6,650 new homes over the next eight years,” said Ashton. “I don’t know where we’re going to be able to find space to do that at, but it’s going to be something we need to focus hard on doing what we can and finding other resources and other ways to help our residents.”