The city’s Rent Control Board approved the annual general rent adjustment for 2003/2004. Amazingly, it’s another regressive rent hike.
The RCB just approved an annual increase of 3 percent with a minimum adjustment of $15 and a maximum top end of $30. The adjustment specifies the amount a landlord can hike rent on an occupied, rent controlled apartment.
While renters in the cheapest units, such as a $300 studio, face much bigger hikes percentage wise, those paying more than $1,000 a month get a break. For example, a tenant in a $3,000 per month unit faces a $30 hike or a 1 percent increase.
All of the Rent Control Board commissioners are members of Santa Monicans for Renters Rights. This powerful political organization claims they’re for the disenfranchised and those on the lowest rungs of the socio-economic ladder.
So why is the RCB giving high rent tenants a break again this year? Last year, it approved a straight across-the-board $11 increase. Over two years, tenants in apartments costing more than $1,000 a month have had their rent hiked by only $41! Sweet!
Sounds like all the SMRR talk about “protecting the poor” is a crock of hypocrisy to me. It all rings of George W. Bush, whose economic policy somehow seems to benefit just those in the upper incomes.
Two weeks before the last election, I received a “Yes on S” political mailer supporting the school parcel tax. It was co-signed by Betty Mueller, chair of the Rent Control Board. It said, “It (the parcel tax) will only cost the average renter less than $3 per month.”
OOPS. The RCB hadn’t officially decided whether landlords could pass along the costs. The matter still hasn’t even been agendized. It appears as if Mueller jumped the gun when she implied that the pass along was a fait accompli and that renters would pay the cost of the tax for sure.
A couple Santa Monica landlords informed me that SMRR had approached landlord organizations and suggested if they supported the school tax measure, the RCB would allow a pass-along to tenants.
The Apartment Owners Association of Los Angeles was a prominent endorsee on “Yes on S” campaign materials.
While I can’t say for sure that a deal was cut, the circumstantial evidence is strong. SMRR co-chair, Denny Zane, members of SMRR’s steering committee and numerous SMRR activists like Mueller strongly supported the measure.
The Rent Control Board historically approves pass-alongs of taxes and bond costs. It’s a very sweet deal for landlords, who pay nothing, and a sour deal for renters, who pay everything.
Between the unfair rent hikes and pass alongs, SMRR seems to be using renters as pawns in a game of power-grabbing, influence-peddling and muscle-flexing.
Zane has told his political allies he’s thinking about running for Fran Pavley’s Assembly seat. Between Zane’s political ambitions and next year’s municipal elections, it’s good business for the SMRR co-chair and his organization to make as many friends as possible — especially with high income, market rate renters and homeowners with kids in school.
In other matters, according to the SMDP on June 18, Robert Bisno, a local developer and businessman is suing the RCB for “class discrimination.” He says the new city ordinance that allows landlords to raise rents on apartments not used as a tenant’s primary residence is illegal.
If City Hall has the power to pass laws discriminating against a person for the amount of time that individual is in or using their place of residence, watch out, “Big Brother” is here.
Inviting landlords to spy on tenants and determine if they are improperly using their apartment by not spending enough time in them as grounds to hike rents or evict is an unwarranted intrusion by landlord and government alike. Those who think that red light cameras are an invasion of privacy should be in shock.
The reason for the ordinance is that the city (SMRR, once again) wants to fill these units with renters and SMRR voters. But, who is City Hall to dictate who or what class of people can live on private property?
The next thing you know, they’ll be ordering single family homeowners to build granny flats and rent them to hotel workers. (Bill Bauer is a longtime Santa Monica resident and a freelance writer.)
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 20, 2003. Read the original PDF.