News Alert: Ventura City Council Moves Towards Right to Counsel & Opens Door to Rent Control
At the August 27th meeting, the Ventura City Council passed a motion to increase funding to the Housing Rights Center (HRC) to begin direct legal representation of renters to fight lawful evictions. Further, the Council directed HRC and City staff to return in January 2025 to seek additional funding to further expand HRC’s legal representation. The City Council also directed staff to hold four community meetings in October and early November to discuss ALL ideas for additional tenant protections, including local rent control, rental registry, additional just cause provisions and full legal representation for all renters facing eviction regardless of income. We need AAGLA members to attend these pivotal city-sponsored community meetings to voice their strong opposition to these extremely detrimental and costly policies.
One small silver lining was that Council members Sanchez-Palacios, Halter, McReynolds, Duran, and Mayor Schroeder specifically requested that HRC return to the Council in January with actual data on the new legal representation, including details on renters that were represented, the types of evictions (non-payment of rent, nuisance, substantial remodel, owner move-in, etc.), and the outcomes of the legal representation. AAGLA advocated zealous in opposition to expanding HRC’s services to include legal representation and instead urged the Council to use the additional $20,000 in funding to provide direct rental assistance to low-income renters facing a sudden job loss, illness or injury. Unfortunately, the Council refused make this change and instead is spending taxpayer dollars on paying private attorneys for renters via HRC.
In addition, the Council discussed the potential of imposing local rent control. While no vote was taken on the matter, the Council instructed staff to hold four community meetings in October and early November for the community to discuss whether rent control, rental registry and full right to counsel (attorneys paid by the City for ALL renters) should be pursued by the Council as well as any other ideas for additional restrictions. This throws wide open the door to radical tenant activists, including Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE), to flood these city-sponsored community meetings (2 in-person and 2-virtual) with paid staff and out-of-town renters to demand rent control and other extreme policies. It is critical that AAGLA members with properties in Ventura County also attend these meetings and to make their voices heard in opposition to these severely detrimental and costly policies!
Further, the Council specifically discussed the creation of a rental registry. As we know, this policy is completely unnecessary unless local rent control is passed. Also, it is extremely costly to implement as it requires substantial upfront capital costs for computer systems, software and additional City staff. Rather than rejecting this item out of hand as grossly premature and excessively expensive, the Council punted it to the community meetings as another potential subject for discussion. Most disturbingly, there were comments from tenant activists suggesting that the rental registry be purposefully misused to fund other unrelated activities including right to counsel. Of course, this would be highly inappropriate and likely illegal as the fee is supposed to related solely to the cost of the rental registry itself. This Trojan Horse by radical activists of a rental registry to fund other extremist policies is a clear signal to the Council that no such registry is actually needed by the community.
Council Member Mike Johnson (who is not running for re-election in November) voiced strong support for increased tenant protections and legal representation, proposing amendments to move forward with these initiatives, though they were ultimately voted down. Council Member Johnson railed against the entire Council demanding immediate action without any cost studies or hard data being present to the Council. In striking contrast, Council Member Doug Halter cautioned against making decisions without adequate data and engagement from both renters and housing providers.
TAKE ACTION TODAY! Send an email to the full City Council and tell them that you strongly OPPOSE local rent control (a/k/a rent stabilization), rental registry, and right to counsel (City-paid legal representation for renters to fight evictions) as well as any other restrictions against private property ownership of rental housing. Attend one of the four community meetings that will be held in October and early November as well! The more times you speak out against these wrongheaded policies that reduce the stock of affordable rental housing, the more likely the Council will listen!
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