With the possibility of mass evictions now looming in Santa Barbara — as throughout the state and nation — because of COVID-19, Santa Barbara city councilmembers Kristen Sneddon and Meagan Harmon have launched a public conversation about what they are terming a “Community Stabilization Initiative” to limit how much rents can be increased by in Santa Barbara.
In a memo delivered last week to City Administrator Paul Casey, Mayor Cathy Murillo, and the rest of the council, Sneddon and Harmon argued that Santa Barbara’s rental situation had grown so dire for so many households that the community needed the protection of a vacancy decontrol measure stricter than the one approved statewide last year.
If acted upon, their initiative would allow landlords to increase their rents by no more than 2 percent per year on their existing tenants. Once those tenants move out — voluntarily — they added, landlords would be allowed to raise the rents to whatever the market would bear, but with a few provisos. In no event, the councilmembers suggested, could rents be allowed to be raised by more than 10 percent in any 12-month period, nor could they be increased by more than 30 percent over any five-year period.