Editorial News Alert: Pomona Passes Permanent Rent Stabilization
Editorial News Alert
Pomona Passes Permanent Rent Stabilization
By Janet M. Gagnon
Chief Corporate Affairs Officer & SVP Government Relations
On November 17th, the Pomona City Council voted 5-to-1 with one council member being absent to pass a new permanent rent stabilization ordinance. Council Member Debra Martin was the sole opposing vote stating that she supported stronger code enforcement instead of a permanent rent stabilization ordinance. The new ordinance replaces the two existing urgency ordinances and is effective as of January 1, 2026.
The good news is that the new permanent ordinance raises the fixed annual allowable increase from 4% to 5%. However, it is still not tied to the Consumer Price Index. Therefore, when inflation hits more than 5%, owners will not be allowed to stay current with costs. This will force many small owners out of business during times of high inflation and will force their renters to find new market rate housing when the properties are demolished and replaced with luxury for-sale housing. The City Council continues to be extremely shortsighted on this very obvious major flaw.
Another major flaw is that the permanent ordinance now adopts the astronomically high and unworkable relocation fee amounts carried over from the urgency ordinances. AAGLA raised this issue to the City Council on multiple occasions (as the only organization representing rental housing providers attending the meetings) since they were known to be excessively high when originally passed in 2022 by a different composition of City Council members. Mayor Tim Sandoval commented at that time that they were “very high” but city staff was supposed to come back with a cost study to re-adjust them.
The cost study was never and no adjustments to the relocation fees have been made. The relocation amounts were based on rents from Los Angeles County that were 34% higher than Pomona. Today, the difference is even worse, as they are based upon rents in the City of Los Angeles City that are 37% higher than in Pomona. Yet even the new City Council refused to correct the relocation fee amounts and instead doubled down on these completely unrealistic fees by making them part of the new permanent ordinance. Vice Mayor Steve Lustro stated that he was comfortable with continuing these abusively high relocation fees because there is a sunset provision for the ordinance of December 31, 2026. This is little solace for mom-and-pop owners that have been prevented from making necessary, major system repairs for over 3 years and will now face at least one additional year of further deferral due to such abusive relocation fee requirements.
Major system repairs, including electrical, mechanical, foundation, and plumbing as well as hazardous materials removal, cannot be done safely with the renter in place and take 30 days or longer to complete. Such system repairs are not merely cosmetic in nature. As small owners cannot afford to relocate these renters under the current relocation fees, it means that owners are forced to sell the property “as is” for demolition, resulting in ALL renters having to find new housing rather than a handful that are needed to vacate to conduct the needed major repairs. The only other alternative is for owners to further delay these major repairs and thus forcing existing renters to live in properties experiencing decay due to deferred major repairs.
In either case, renters are harmed by City constructively prohibiting owners from conducting the major repairs that are needed. The City should be encouraging and supporting responsible rental housing providers in making these major repairs, not preventing them. We can only hope that at some point the City Council will do the responsible thing and bring this issue back to be properly addressed in setting appropriate and realistic relocation fees based on existing rents in Pomona and not those in other cities.
Alarmingly, Mayor Sandoval stated that he again wants to bring back the issue of creating an extremely costly and unnecessary rental registry when the City is already facing a severe budget crisis. He doesn’t seem to understand that this is a wild goose chase in that NO DATA has been provided by the City showing that existing rental providers are not following the existing rent stabilization urgency ordinances. Instead of facts, he seems to only care about catering to Pomona United for Stable Housing’s (PUSH) wish list copied from outside tenant unions and grant funders without regard as to whether it is appropriate for Pomona.
As always, we will keep our members updated should a rental registry or other harmful policies appear on a future agenda.
This article is for informational purposes only. If you have any questions regarding your property or specific leasing issues and the requirements of any legal changes described herein, please consult with an attorney.