General
Public Comment
From:Aimee Inglis <aimee.inglis@gmail.com>
Sent:Saturday, July
To:Public Comment
Subject:\[EXTERNAL\] Comment for Aug 9 on proposed Charter Amendment on rent
Warning: This email originated from outside the City of Anaheim. Do not click links or open
attachments unless you recognize the sender and are expecting the message.
As a resident of Anaheim, born and raised, I’m writing to dissuade the City Council from placing a Charter
Amendment on the ballot to, as Mayor Pro Tem O’Neil requested, “allow property owners to establish over the price
for which their property is sold, leased, rented, transferred, or exchanged” on the assumption that this is an attempt
to undermine the extremely modest statewide rent-gouging law that was passed a few years ago.
There is not currently an issue for property owners that would justify the expense and labor of passing such a
Charter Amendment. Landlords have the ability to set the rent for every new tenant, as California does not have a
vacancy control law. As well, an annual increase of 10% outpaces inflation and increased costs for landlords, as
well as being much greater than the average annual wage increase in Anaheim. The rent-gouging law also does not
cover all rental properties, leaving many landlords exempt.
Anaheim is now a majority-renter city, and those 52% of Anaheim residents are already paying more than a third of
their income in rent every month, according to ACS data on the city of Anaheim. Increased housing costs are
directly related to the rise in homelessness, which the City Council has a responsibility to prevent. The state law as it
exists already does very little to keep rental housing costs in check, as it was intended to prevent the most
egregious of rent increases, not to control rents. There is no need for this Charter Amendment and it is an affront to
the majority of Anaheim residents to consider putting it on the ballot.
Thank you,
Aimee Inglis
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