Everything Under The Sun: Seeking Rent Stabilization

Shireen Daytona (left), with Mayor Meghan Sahli-Wells.

It's happening in most large cities and even smaller urban area. It's a phenomenon known as gentrification. Wealthy individuals come into urban areas, buy up distressed properties and turn them into modern dwellings that have a wide range of amenities and are priced too high for the poor to afford. It results in more homelessness as marginalized residents are displaced, with very little hope of ever being able to get a permanent residence in that area again.

Gentrification can also lead to increased rents in buildings already in existence, sometimes doubling and tripling in the space of a year. That started happening in Culver City, California, where renters were feeling that they had very few rights. That's when tenant-activist Shireen Daytona started a rent control movement, that remains active today, CULVER CITY (CA) RENT CONTROL/STABILIZATION PROJECT.

The group's first action was to submit a petition with 500 signatures calling for rent control statutes. At first, the petition was thought to apply to the small 12-unit complex where Ms. Daytona resides, so the City Council referred them to the Landlord Tenant Mediation Board, whose members came mostly from the financial and real estate industries. Well, you know whose interests that Board favored, so they only decreed 60 days-worth of a stabilized rent for only one tenant. Shireen said, "We tried the mediation, it didn't work....It didn't do anything because everyone had to leave." The rents still became unaffordable.

Ms. Daytona was aware of the specific problem, "The trouble is the laws are behind the landlords, and that limits the effectiveness of the [city's] Landlord Tenant Mediation Board. The landlords know what the laws are and that they don't have to pay" for relocation of their tenants. Local government officials weren't seeing a need to act for a change, either.

These days, the Project helps those interested in seeing rent stabilization established, to apply for membership on the Landlord Tenant Mediation Board. They publicize the number of openings and make the application forms available through online links. They have also publicized their agenda, which includes "*A cap on the percentage of allowable rent increase, tied to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), *A prohibition of more than one rental increase per year, *Only just cause evictions will be permitted, [and] *That relocation fees be paid by the Landlord in the event that tenants are required to move through no fault of their own".

A packed City Council meeting, where rent control was discussed.

The Project also keeps its public informed of the issues by citing articles in various publications and maintaining a platform for interested parties to remain involved. There are also stories about how various tenants have been affected by the current system. Sometimes it takes a period of years to get one's issues noted and regulated in some form, showing that an organization devoted to that issue is necessary to keep it on the radar.