June 29, 2022
Comment re Housing Element Public Hearing
Planning Commission
Dear Planning Commission Members,
f'ECEI 'ED
2022 JUN 30 AN 9: I I
My name is Allison Henry. I am a long-time tenant resident of district 3, a tenant organizer, member of the Garfield Heights Neighborhood Association, and member of Mayor Gordo's Housing Task Force. I want to thank city staff and my fellow task force members for the time devoted to meetings and consideration of the Housing Element. I am submitting my own comments on the housing element.
Before I present specific policies (below), I want to make an observation about the housing element. Pasadena's Housing Element has many strengths, and I am grateful to staff for their work. But the element overall feels like there is more preservation of buildings rather than the people in them. Housing is for people. I hope that is always considered in this discussion.
Rent Stabilization
I want to highlight the urgency and need for rent stabilization and stronger tenant protections- "The Fierce Urgency of Now" as Dr. King said. The 6th Cycle Housing Element is indeed the best documentation of why NOW is the time to protect tenants and want to encourage the Planning Commission to consider the recommendation of the Housing Task Force re that timeline. Tenants cannot wait! We know from the data in the housing element that those being pushed to the street are seniors, families, and tenants already burdened with housing costs.
The 6th Cycle Housing Element lays out the best case for the city to enact rent stabilization and just cause ordinances immediately. we have heard first hand of legal rent increases that jeopardize housing and stability for tenants. The legal increase are still too high! The state rent cap is still too high at 5%+CPI, which for this year in LA County was 8.6% for properties that qualified. A local city stabilization ordinance should consider 2%-3% given the already high cost of rental housing in Pasadena.
That instability has implications for all of the community such as school district enrollment; employee retention; ability to participate in democracy; more tents and humans on the streets of Pasadena.
Those implications cost the community and only add to the urgency of immediate action now for Pasadena tenants and residents. Other jurisdictions have included rent stabilization in their elements (Pomona, Victorville) while others have brought in rent stabilization through council-led legislation (Culver City, Baldwin Park, Oxnard).
The Pasadena Housing Element states that 50% of Pasadena renter households over-pay for housing (Appendix A, p A-6), with 77% of lower income households (those at 80% AMI and lower) overpaying for housing.
See Table A-6 Below:
07/18/2022
Item 7