Many unsuspecting Culver City residents have been hit with rent hikes. Some have survived them by adjusting their lifestyle. Maybe they’re having fewer dinners out, or fewer trips to the mall, maybe one less vacation. Or maybe it’s more like belt-tightening, more like staying up at night figuring out which bill/s not to pay, how in the world to make ends meet. And many have not survived the rent hike. The day they get the notice sets off a period of instability that will inevitably, perhaps dramatically affect the lives of every family member.
Some people will say there’s nothing we can do about it, and that it’s too just too bad for these families. They can move somewhere else where they can afford to live and work to make it as good a place as Culver City is, they say. Perhaps it’s because these people own their home and no longer remember the insecurity that renting brings.
But the reality is that 45% of our community rents. And every time a new renter moves out, another one who can afford the current rent moves in. And they feel secure because they’ve signed a lease. And maybe because they don’t know that once their lease expires and they move to a month-to-month arrangement, there aren’t rules in our City that protect them from a rent hike. They too might be forced to alter their economics or decide to move out.
Maybe they’ve heard that the candidates endorsed by the Chamber of Commerce and the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles (Eriksson, Wyant and Tiggs) have been speaking out against rent control. Maybe they don’t realize this is a red herring, because cities in California have been highly discouraged from passing rent control, as California state law (the Costa Hawkins Act of 1995) prohibits its application to properties built after 1995.
The Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles (arguing that most landlords in Culver City are mom and pop operations) has been keeping the myth of rent control being around the corner going, and this has had two important effects on our community. First, it has led to more rent hikes, because when landlords believe rent control is coming, they figure they should increase their rent, before they no longer can. Second, it has distracted the conversation in this election away from the real problem of rent hikes.
What we need are City Council members who are willing to engage in this conversation, and talk honestly about how the City can enact protections for renters. And as importantly, we need to elect leaders who understand that we need to build more housing, affordable for all different income levels. Leaders that get that as long as our housing supply is low, rents are going to continue sky rocketing. If you are a landlord, this is great. And as rents increase, property values will also increase.
But we all know that rising property values cannot be the only measure of our community’s well being. We have to consider the many impacts of having our community no longer being affordable to families of many income levels.
So, when we go vote, we have to consider who endorses the candidates we vote for and what they stand for. We are better off voting for the candidates who are endorsed by the Culver City Democratic Club and the Sierra Club, who consider both the entire community and the environment. That is Meghan Sahli-Wells, Daniel Lee and Thomas Small.