The Half Moon Bay City Council has formally repealed its rent control and rental registry programs, councilmembers decided in a 3-2 vote at their meeting Wednesday despite protests from advocates.
Previously, the city’s rent control ordinance set a maximum annual rent adjustment to the lesser of 3% or an 80% cap in changes to the consumer price index, which continually adjusts and is linked to the price of common goods. It applied to multiunit properties built before Feb. 1, 1995, with a $286 per year fee for each unit to be paid by property owners. Unlike state regulations, which caps rent changes to the lesser of 5% or CPI and are only enforced via private lawsuits, Half Moon Bay’s ordinance was theoretically enforced locally.
Councilmembers took a 3-2 vote, with Robert Brownstone and Deborah Penrose dissenting, to begin repealing the ordinance and reject other options like loosening the rent cap at a prior March meeting.
Now, that ordinance will formally no longer be in effect and the city will no longer require landlords to identify units they own in Half Moon Bay, a decision that supporters say will benefit mom-and-pop landlords struggling to stay in the city.
Original proponents of the ordinance, like Penrose, see the choice differently, denoting it as the city moving away from progressive values that it was proud of only a few years ago.
“This is a very sad day for me and for many people in our community,” she said. “With the repealing of some of those measures which are so forward-looking and cost the city nothing and did no harm, but were looked on as social work that some on our council didn’t approve of, I’m saddened.”
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The city will still focus on connecting tenants with legal and support services, according to a staff report.
Realtor groups and property owners have been actively advocating against the city’s rent control ordinance since its inception, though there wasn’t a large delegation present at the May 5 meeting. Their argument has revolved around the negative impact rent control has on small landlords, who might choose to sell their properties and further impact the rental market in the city.
“I don’t want to push small local landholdings into institutional investors and private equity. I don’t want to push people out of the rental market into big, investor-owned housing situations,” Mayor Debbie Ruddock said previously. “We have a small coastal community here with a lot of small landlords, and that’s what we should try and maintain.”
For those who believe rent control is a tool to help the city’s most vulnerable, like Belinda Hernandez-Arriaga, director of cultural nonprofit Ayudando Latinos A Soñar, the repeal is a blow.
“It’s been a really sad time for the community,” she said. “It feels like this is punishment for a hard-working community that gives back every day. … Are we trying to drive out our workers here? Are we trying to drive out a segment of our community?”
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