Costa Mesa officials will not start tracking their rental market through an online registry, citing the move as too costly – along with concerns it could weaken the rental market.
The move would have made Costa Mesa the second city in Orange County after Santa Ana to launch a rental registry and faced pushback from landlords and rental interest groups who raised several concerns about it, including it being a possible first step to rent control.
Landlords will also not be required to report at-fault eviction complaints filed in court, known as unlawful detainers to city leaders.
City officials retreated from both proposals this week after activists demanded Costa Mesa leaders better track evictions amid widespread deportation sweeps that have left some breadwinners afraid to leave their home and go to work.
Renewed calls for local elected leaders to address rising rents are also playing out in Anaheim where a tenant group is gathering signatures to get a rent control ordinance on the ballot this year.
[Read: Orange County Cities Grapple With Rising Rents & Tracking Evictions]
On Tuesday, Costa Mesa City Council members voted 5-2 to get more information on launching a network to educate renters and landlords on their rights instead of looking into starting a rental registry.
Mayor John Stephens said a rental registry would be costly to the city, burden city staff and landlords and discourage rental development in Costa Mesa – a town where around 60% of the 41,000 homes are renter-occupied.
“It creates an undue administration burden on the landlord, undue costs on the landlord, which will be passed on to the tenant resulting in increased rent. It will create a burden on staff to administer the program. The costs to set the program up are too much. We have a tight budget,” said Stephens, along with voicing his own opposition to rent control.
Despite speaking against a registry, Stephens voted in favor of exploring establishing a network of renters’ solutions to help address challenges faced by landlords and tenants.
Councilman Mike Buley, who is running for Mayor, echoed Stephens’ comments, arguing they want to attract developers and “mom and pop” landlords to invest in the city.
“Moving in this direction and telegraphing that we’re moving towards rent control – it discourages new money, new investment, new renovation, not just new buildings, but on our pre-existing stock,” he said at the meeting.
“We need to send the right message to the business community and to the investment community that Costa Mesa is a good place to come and invest.”
Councilwoman Andrea Marr said a registry is a logical straightforward approach to get a better sense of the challenges many residents may face and questioned why the council would back track on the directory.
“We’re not talking about rental control. It’s been a boogeyman as part of this conversation. Collecting data that impacts 60% of our residents is something we should care about and I say that as somebody who has been a landlord in this city,” Marr said.
“I’m just confused about where this council has taken a sharp right turn,” she continued. “The California Apartment Association did not elect me. The residents of district three did, and this is coming from them.”
Councilwoman Arlis Reynolds also said claims that the registry would lead to rent control was a red herring and the registry was about getting more information on renters in the city to make smarter decisions as policy makers.
“To choose to be blind to more structured information – real data – about the experience of the 60% of our residents, it just feels irresponsible,” she said.
Councilman Manuel Chavez said he was never comfortable with the idea of a rental registry especially amid the widespread deportation efforts, publicly raising concerns that such information could be used to aid the federal immigration crackdown.
“I have seen a lot of government lists and agencies be used by a federal administration to target people for immigration actions. I am in no way interested in creating any sort of list in this environment,” he said, adding that he was open to exploring launching a network on renters’ solutions.
Buley and Councilman Jeff Pettis were the dissenting votes, voting against the motion to explore creating a renters’ solution network supported by the rest of their colleagues.
City council members separately voted Tuesday 5-2 to essentially shelve the ordinance aimed at tracking at-fault evictions by requiring landlords to notify city officials after they file unlawful detainers in courts. Marr and Reynolds were the dissenting votes.
[Read: Costa Mesa to Consider Tracking Rental Units and Eviction Disputes]
Stephens said the ordinance would be a burden on staff and landlords, raised privacy concerns and questioned if such a law would be legal.
Marr said she wanted to track the evictions to see how bad of an issue it was in Costa Mesa and suggested they not collect the tenants names.
Last fall, officials directed staff to come back with a proposal for a rental registry and updates to their tenant protection ordinance after voting to launch an immigrant legal defense fund to help local families impacted by ICE raids.
According to a 2021 report by the Southern California Association of Governments, just more than half of the homes in Costa Mesa – 24,987 out of 41,019 homes are renter-occupied.
The median gross rent in Costa Mesa is $2,446 and the median household income is $111,505, according to census data.
According to city staff, about half of tenants pay more than 30% of their income on rent.
Sounding Off on a Rental Registry & Tracking At-Fault Evictions
Local tenants, landlords, activists, students and a couple members of the Apartment Association of Orange County sounded off on the proposed rental registry and ordinance tracking unlawful detainers Tuesday.
Landlords and groups representing their interests raised concerns that a registry would lead to rent control, be costly, create liabilities, be an invasion of privacy and would lead to registry fees being passed on to renters.
“The registry compiles sensitive information, rent levels, occupancy tenancy patterns, into a centralized system that becomes vulnerable to misuse, data breach or other type of outside access, even with safeguard,” said David Cordero, executive director of the Apartment Association of OC.
“If the concern of the council is protecting residents, we should not be creating systems that track them, risk exposing them, and ultimately increase the cost of living for them,” Cordero said.
Activists, students and tenants said a registry would give leaders a better picture of the city’s rental market that would help inform policies to support renters amid rising housing costs and has nothing to do with rent control.
Angely Andrade Vallarta, a planning commissioner running for city council, said rents are going up constantly, but salaries are not, adding a registry could be a tool to protect tenants
“When cities collect data, they can act, and when they act, they protect communities, especially those who live paycheck to paycheck, despite working one or more full time jobs,” she said.
“It would provide you with clear, accessible information to understand what is taking place in the communities you represent.”
Jose Toscano, a candidate for mayor, said tracking at-fault evictions would only increase bureaucratic red tape and not address the root cause of the problem.
“I don’t think collecting data and increasing reporting requirements is what’s going to make housing more affordable or make people keep their homes, if anything, we should be focused on solutions that actually address the root issue, which are increasing the housing supply and reducing the bureaucratic unnecessary barriers,” he said over Zoom.
“When it comes to evictions, we already have state law and we already have an existing local ordinance here in Costa Mesa. “
Roberto Herrera, leadership development director with Resilience OC, said tracking evictions was important to understanding the community elected officials represent especially amid the deportations.
“The immigration raids continue to have an impact on people’s ability to work and pay their rent. Community members are having to dig into their food budget, having to dig into their transportation budget, into their school supplies to be able to meet the rising rent.”
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org.
