Last August you answered SMRR’s Call to Action and urged Council to EXPAND renter protections as proposed by Councilmember Caroline Torosis. As a result of your voices, the full Council directed staff to draft an ordinance to do just that.
On Tuesday, January 23rd, Council will vote whether or not to adopt the staff drafted ordinance EXPANDING renter protections. It is critical that you write to Council NOW and urge them to VOTE YES! Please include your individual stories about the need for robust renter protections.
The new renter protections will:
- ensure tenants who receive a bad faith excessive rent increase (i.e. a rent increase imposed with the intent of influencing the tenant to vacate and to get around a just cause eviction requirement) have a defense to any eviction based on a failure to pay that bad faith rent increase;
- mandate permanent relocation financial assistance for tenants in rent controlled or non-rent controlled units who are facing constructive evictions and are forced to vacate involuntarily;
- provide additional examples of prohibited coercion and intimidation in the Tenant Harassment Ordinance and increase the maximum potential penalty;
- increase oversight of, and requirements for, tenant buyout agreements;
prevent housing discrimination based on housing status.
You can read the entire agenda item here.
SMRR leadership supports this ordinance because it gives renters more power to protect their tenancies, their finances, and their future.
If you care about your family, your neighbors and yourself, please immediately contact all City Councilmembers and urge them to VOTE YES to ADOPT THE EXPANSION of renter protections! Here’s how:
Please write to City Councilmembers directly using your own email before their Tuesday night (January 23) meeting. You can copy and paste Council’s email addresses from this text:
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected]
and tell them:
Dear Councilmembers:
I am writing to urge you to vote YES to formally adopt Item 10-B. I support this ordinance because it gives renters more power to protect their tenancies, their finances, and their future. Since the adoption of Rent Control in 1979, Santa Monica has worked hard to protect our renter residents against displacement. Santa Monica must continue to be second to none in renter protections, and at a minimum should enact the new protections that the City and County of Los Angeles have recently adopted. Please VOTE YES to FORMALLY ADOPT the EXPANSION OF RENTER PROTECTIONS ORDINANCE as fully prescribed in Item 10-B. Thank you.
Please add your own personal stories to the email!
Please tell your family, friends and neighbors about this community mobilization effort and ask them to join us to TELL COUNCILMEMBERS to VOTE YES to ADOPT THE EXPANSION OF RENTER PROTECTIONS NOW!
Thank you for your support.
The SMRR Team
www.smrr.org