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Local Advocacy Update
Councilmember Lee spoke to the impacts on rental housing providers who are now in danger of losing their properties and the consequences that that will have on the City’s rental housing and rental rates. Councilmember Buscaino also highlighted the changes that have occurred since the declaration of local emergency and referenced the CAO report that he requested in November but has not received. Councilmember Buscaino’s vote came as no surprise as he stated in November, when the City Council approved the last extension, that that was to be the last time that he would vote for the continuation of the local emergency. It is too early to tell whether this recent shift is an indication of further changes to come in the New Year.
Los Angeles County Extends Annual Rent Stabilization Ordinance (RSO) Rent Registration Waiver
At the November 30th Los Angeles Board of Supervisors meeting, the Board extended the waiver for payment of the RSO annual registration fee through June 30, 2022, for rental housing providers with rental units in the County’s unincorporated areas, who register in the County’s Rental Registry System on or before April 30, 2022. This is the third time that the Board of Supervisors has approved an extension of the County’s RSO fees.
The annual rental registration fee is $90 per unit for rental units subject to both the County’s Rent Stabilization Ordinance (RSO) and Just-Cause provisions (“Fully Covered Units”) and $30 per unit for rental units subject to the County’s Just-Cause provisions but exempt from the County’s RSO (“Just-Cause Only Units”) in the County’s unincorporated areas. To obtain more information on the County’s rent registry and to register via the County’s online rent registry, please go to the Los Angeles County Consumer & Business Affairs website at https:\\dcba. lacounty.gov/rentregistry/
Baldwin Park City Council Increases City’s Annual Rent Increase Limitation
At the December 1st Baldwin Park City Council meeting, the Council adopted amendments to the City’s Rent Stabilization Ordinance (RSO) which included increases to
the City’s rent “cap” from a maximum increase of 3% based on the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) per 12-month period to a maximum of 5% per 12-month period based on the CPI-U. This increase to the annual allowable rent limitation is a meaningful change, particularly considering the original proposed amendments would have resulted in further significant reductions in the annual allowable rent increase from a maximum of 3% per 12-month period to 3% or 80% of the change in the CPI-U whichever is less, and if the CPI-U is zero or negative, no rent increase would have been permissible.
Prior to the initial City Council meeting, the Association submitted a letter in strong opposition to the City’s proposed amendments and reiterated our opposition and concerns during the meeting’s public comment period. Due to our strong advocacy efforts, the Council changed course and increased rather than decreased the City’s RSO rent increase limitations and maintained the 1% rent increase floor. While the adopted RSO amendments expanded the ordinance’s applicability, the amendments that would have substantially reduced the already limited annual rent increases were rejected.
Bell Gardens Conducts a Rent Control Workshop
On December 9th, the Bell Gardens Rent Control Ad Hoc Committee held a public workshop to discuss a potential local rent control ordinance and the related components. The Committee indicated that they had received thirty-two proposals from non-profit organizations and have focused on five of the proposals, as set forth below:
• Establishment of a rent increase limit which would permit one increase per year based on 50% of the Consumer Price Index (CPI), with the maximum allowable increase set at 3%.
• The proposed local ordinance would apply to apartment buildings, townhouses, duplexes, two or more single family homes on the same lot, rooms in hotels, motels, rooming houses or boarding houses
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42 JANUARY 2022 • WWW.AAGLA.ORG
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