Your Advocacy Made an Impact at City Council – Rental Price Gouging Ordinance
SCRHA would like to thank all the members who showed up to city council or called in to speak, and those that called or wrote councilmembers. With your help, we were able to generate hundreds of messages. Your concerns were mirrored in the comments of several councilmembers.
While there was no vote yesterday on the Residential Rental Price Gouging, Fee Exploitation, and Cost Transparency Ordinance, the meeting was an important opportunity to express opposition to the proposal so that parameters can be established. Councilmembers Elo-Rivera and Foster brought the ordinance forward and acknowledged they don’t want to do anything to harm new home construction but seemed to be indifferent to the problems with the rest of the regulations. The other councilmembers present were unanimous in their support for transparency; however, they recognized the draft ordinance goes far beyond that. They expressed concerns with more regulation impacting “mom and pop” providers, negatively impacting development, arbitrarily capping fees, and increasing rents overall because fees would be folded into base rent. Specifically, Councilmembers Campillo and Whitburn stated concern that rents will rise to address fee caps and impact all renters, even if they are not the users of fee-related amenities, which would also mean less transparency.
The ordinance is expected to come back in September for an initial vote. SCRHA has been supportive of transparency since the ordinance was first discussed and will work with the council to affect that. However, SCRHA will be working diligently in the interim to remove or improve the more offensive parts of the ordinance, such as a ban on screening, fee caps, late fee restrictions, and the ban on certain fees.
Related Reading
As the City Council continues considering this ordinance, it's also worth noting the broader market conditions affecting rental housing. A recent San Diego Union-Tribune article reports that apartment vacancies in San Diego County have reached their highest level this century, adding important context to the ongoing conversation about housing policy and affordability. Thank you to SCRHA Past President Lucinda Lilley for sharing her expertise. Start reading.