Victory Alert: We Won! Glendale Rejects 4 of 5 Proposed Restrictions on Housing Providers!
On September 17th, the Glendale City Council voted to reject 4 out of 5 of the heinous new, proposed rental housing restrictions that staff had brought forward for consideration. The sole surviving, new proposal is a requirement for any owners considering a substantial remodel at their property that would require owners to indicate whether the project would require relocation of existing renters at the time of pulling permits. However, it would not change any of the existing requirements to grant permits nor allow staff to interfere with the issuance of permits. Instead, city staff would merely have conversations with owners and existing renters as to their existing obligations and rights.
Fortunately, the Council soundly rejected paying for private attorneys for legal representation of renters fighting lawful evictions (a/k/a Right to Counsel), the City Attorney filing lawsuits on behalf of the city against owners, additional notices to the city for evictions, and a permanent landlord/tenant committee to perpetually come up with more restriction proposals.
This huge win for rental housing providers is a clear example of the importance of electing city officials who view their responsibility as representing ALL constituents, including rental housing providers and not just a vocal minority of radical tenant activists. Thank you to all members that sent emails or called in advance of the meeting and that contribute to AAGLA’s PAC to support candidates during elections.
Discussion
Had the Council not rejected 4 of 5 staff proposals, the most damaging of the proposed policies would have been the creation of a Right to Counsel program, which was strongly supported by City Council Member Daniel Brotman and Mayor Elen Asatryan. In fact, Council Member Brotman made the statement, “I believe in Right to Counsel.” Mayor Asatryan stated her belief that renters “need some type of legal assistance” to understand their rights. Such a policy would cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees for private attorneys working for legal aid organizations to fight lawful evictions. It would result in making the eviction process even longer and more expensive than already exists and not remedy the underlying problem of back rent that is owed (non-payment making up 96%+ of all evictions according to L.A. City’s tracker).
Major Asatryan seems to confuse “education” with “representation” referencing the fact that some renters may not understand their rights under existing ordinances. The same could equally be said for some owners. However, a lack of understanding can be addressed simply by utilizing existing City staff via webinars with guest attorneys to answer general questions for both renters and rental housing providers. The City could even record such webinars and leave them on the city’s website for later access by all residents. This would be far less expensive than paying licensed attorneys $250 per hour or more to answer the same questions.
Council Member Brotman continued to peddle the false narrative that there is a “power imbalance” between renters and rental housing providers on legal representation. In fact, anyone is entitled to seek private legal representation and there are many legal aid organizations as well as private law firms as mentioned by Council Member Ara Najarian during his comments. The fact is that many small, mom-and-pop owners would greatly prefer representing themselves in unlawful detainer (eviction) matters, but are prohibited from doing so by state law. If a rental housing provider owns the property in a limited liability company (LLC), then they cannot represent themselves in court (Pro Se) and must hire an attorney. Many small owners have their properties in LLCs in order to protect their personal assets from liability risk due to business issues. This prohibition against rental housing providers representing themselves in eviction cases is the real imbalance and the one that should be remedied by lobbying the state legislature.
On the issue of the City Attorney filing lawsuits directly against rental housing providers, it was soundly defeated by everyone on the dais as an inappropriate expense for the city. Council Member Vartan Gharpetian made the powerful statement, “This industry (rental housing providers) in general is under attack” and that these are small private businesses providing affordable housing in Glendale.
Council Member Brotman also introduced yet another new, but bad idea for creating a new online “portal”. However, it was extremely unclear as to what the portal would do or the purpose it would serve. As Council Member Najarian rightfully pointed out, both the court system and several legal aid societies already have robust online services to assist renters in replying to unlawful detainer actions. This amorphous idea was directed back to staff to figure out what already exists and what, if anything, the city might consider spending taxpayer dollars to create that is not already publicly available via other sources.
During deliberations, Council Member Ardy Kassakhian raised the new idea of a voluntary mediation program to be offered to renters and rental housing providers. Council Member Najarian rightfully pointed out that the court system already offers such mediation at no cost to the city when an unlawful detainer action has been filed. It was further clarified by Council Member Kassakhian that he wanted this voluntary mediation to address disagreements before any legal actions have been filed and that it would be strictly voluntary for both parties as to whether they wished to participate in it. With these clarifications, the Council directed staff to explore the idea as part of its community services. AAGLA supports voluntary mediation, since it allows another forum for mutually amicable resolution of disputes.
Finally, financial assistance from the City to low-income renters is the sole method that directly addresses the root cause of 96%+ of evictions which are due to non-payment of back rent. This was the only policy that AAGLA strongly supported at the meeting and was specifically agendized beforehand. The Council directed staff to investigate additional financial aid for existing programs as part of the discussions with its housing authority (which is composed of the entire City Council plus two appointees). We are hopeful that additional funding will be found to assist low-income renters in paying back rent owed due to short term situations such as sudden job loss, illness or injury. This spending would fully prevent evictions and eliminate the need for any attorney’s fees.
Please be sure to thank the Council Members for their wise decision to dispense with 4 of 5 bad policies and limit the remaining permit process modification to something that is fair and reasonable as well as considering additional financial assistance for low-income renters to pay back rent to avoid evictions.
This article is for informational purposes only. If you have any questions regarding your property or specific tenancies and the requirements of any local law changes described herein, please consult with an attorney.
PERMANENT LANDLORD/TENANT COMMISSION
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Important Call to Action: ATTEND THE MEETING AND EMAIL THE CITY COUNCIL! We urge our members to voice their outrage at these concepts at the meeting on Tuesday April 30 by attending in-person or calling in during the meeting at (818) 937-8100 and emailing the full City Council in advance of the meeting. We strongly recommend that anyone with property in Glendale read the full report (attached) to review all of the policies being recommended. If you are physically unable to attend the meeting or call in, please at least send an email to the full City Council prior to the meeting to tell your story and urge them to reject this item. PLEASE! Support Us! Give Today… If you want to STOP harmful regulations like these from proliferating throughout Southern California in the future, give us the resources we need to support candidates that will bring a fair and balanced approach to policymaking. Make a contribution to the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles’ Political Action Committee TODAY! Make your contribution at: https://aagla.org/candidatespac/. |
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