Watch: Pro-Con Faceoff Over New Eviction Rules Sets Stage for Showdown SB Council Vote
Santa Barbara Council Member Meagan Harmon and Board of Realtors CEO Brian Johnson make their best arguments over pro-tenant rent restriction law, set to be decided on April 8
Written records of disputes between property owners and tenants dates back to cuneiform tablets from ancient Mesopotamia, 6,000 years ago (and, no, we weren’t there to cover them).
In the U.S. the 1934 Federal Housing Act triggered the modern advance of renter’s rights, as the legal power of tenants in property rights conflicts over evictions, rent control, and other issues, increased in the century that followed.
In recent years, tenants have achieved a series of political victories in Santa Barbara, and are set to claim another one on April 8, when the City Council is expected to vote on a controversial amendment to the city’s tangle of rent controls and regulations, this one restricting the size of rent increases for tenants returning to an apartment after being forced to leave because of a “renoviction.”
The city already mandates that landlords and property owners in such cases provide previous tenants the right of first refusal to return, after they’ve been required to vacate because of renovations. If passed by council - as it is expected to be, by a 4-to-3 vote - the new measure would allow tenants to return to their unit at no more than a 10 percent increase in the original rent they were paying.
On this week’s edition of Newsmakers TV, council member Meagan Harmon - a strong proponent of the controversial measure - and Brian Johnson, CEO of the SB Board of Realtors, who opposes it, sit down for a spirited but civil conversation that drilled down into depth and detail on the issue.
“It's going to worsen the housing crisis by making rental housing even riskier and more costly for property owners,” Johnson said.
“The policy is going to limit property rights. It's going to make it harder for landlords to improve housing stock, renovate properties or change rental structures when necessary, it's going to create disincentives for investment rental housing leading to more of the units being sold off or converted into owner occupied units, further shrinking the rental supply,” he added. “If you worry about the corporate takeover of rental housing, this is really going to contribute to it.
“So a better solution would be to incentivize new constructions, make rental housing and ownership more attractive, not less,” Johnson said. “And every other industry, when a product or service is upgraded, the price reflects that. But when a landlord renovates a unit, spending tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, they’re told they can only raise the rent a token amount. That’s like expecting a newly remodeled restuarant to serve you at the old prices. It doesn’t make economic sense.”
But Harmon said the new amendment is necessary in order to close a giant loophole in an ordinance passed last year, providing tenants a “right to return,” a measure approved amid high-volume, high-profile conflicts involving mass “renovictions.”
“In our ‘just cause’ ordinance, the council voted six to one to say that renoviction is not good in our community, renoviction is not allowed here. And that one ‘no’ vote was me because I didn't think that the ordinance went far enough,” Harmon said.
“I bring that up just to say, that was an important step and there was unanimity around the fact that this phenomenon of renoviction is, maybe it's a small problem, but it punches way above its weight in terms of community impact. There is unanimity…on the ideological spectrum that this should be disallowed in the community.
“So what we're really talking about here, and this is getting to where have we failed: I believe that we failed to give this rule the tools that it needed to be affected. We have to have a return (rent) cap. If you don't have that, I mean…it's a loophole so big you can drive a truck through it.
“I want to stop the bleeding today while we work on the cure,” Harmon said. “These stabilization efforts are triage, they’re a hundred percent triage.”
Encouraged, egged on and baited by the genial host, Johnson and Harmon also discussed whether the new rent cap will encourage or discourage corporate “flippers” and predators, like those who evicted hundreds in Isla Vista; protect or force out of business struggling mom and pop landlords; impede or improve the construction of new units in Santa Barbara; and what, exactly, is the definition of “rent control.”
All this and more, right here, right now on Newsmakers TV.
Check out the new episode via YouTube below or by clicking through this link. The podcast is available on Apple, Spotify and on Soundcloud here. TVSB, Channel 17, airs the show every weeknight at 8 p.m., and at 9 a.m. on weekends. KCSB, 91.9 FM, broadcasts the program at 5:30 p.m. on Monday.