Pasadena Rent Control Almost Made It With 10,224 Signatures

Pasadena City Hall (Photo – Staff).

On Thursday, May 24th, 2018 the Pasadena Fair and Equitable Housing Coalition for Rent Control and Just Cause final signature count was 10,224.

By News Desk

While short 2,112 of the required signatures the Pasadena Fair and Equitable Housing Coalition considers the citizen led volunteer signature gathering efforts a success.

Nicole Hodgson, a Pasadena Tenants Union organizer, said:

We are proud of the number of signatures we were able to get. It goes to show that residents of Pasadena are eager to get the dialogue centering around Pasadena’s housing crisis.

The Pasadena Fair and Equitable Housing Coalition stated that “from 12 individuals, which included tenants, homeowners and one landlord, meeting on November 29^th, 2016 to being 300 plus strong today the goal is and will continue to be to bring awareness and action regarding the rental housing crisis and tenant displacement in Pasadena.”

Thousands of volunteers

The Pasadena Fair and Equitable Housing Coalition thanked the hundreds of volunteers who juggled multiple life duties while gathering signatures. More than 80% of signature gathering was volunteer base and 20% of canvassing was from in-kind donations from community members and housing rights advocates to hire local canvassers on a livable hourly wage who otherwise would not be able to participate in canvassing due to economic circumstances. The community responded in many ways. Thousands of Pasadenans opened their doors, and provided water on hot days, hot tea on cold days, and were eager to have a dialogue on the City’s housing crisis.

The Pasadena Fair and Equitable Housing Coalition had the support of the following coalition members and supporters:

• Affordable Housing Services
• All Saints Economic Justice
• Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE)
• American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Pasadena-Foothill Area; SC (Southern California)
• Coalition for Affordable Housing
• Clergy & Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE) Pasadena
• Democratic Socialist of America (DSA) Pasadena and Los Angeles
• Glendale Tenants Union (GTU)
• Greater Pasadena Affordable Housing Group (GPAHG)
• LA Voice
• League of Women Voters (LWV-PA) Pasadena Area
• Liberty Hill
• Long Beach Tenants Union
• Los Angeles Tenants Union (LATU)
• Pasadena Tenants Union (PTU)
• Pasadena Unified School District School Board (PUSD) endorsement
• Pasadenans Organizing for Progress (POP)
• Pomona United for Stable Housing
• South Pasadena Tenants Union (SPTU)
• Tenants Together
• Tenants United Santa Ana
• Throop Church
• Uplift Inglewood

The press release from The Pasadena Fair and Equitable Housing Coalition vowed to “continue to fight for one of the best policies for housing stability and affordable housing: rent control and just cause.” The statement went on to add:

Our housing crisis is not happening in a vacuum. We need to address as a city the continued displacement of long term residents who love Pasadena and call it home.

Rental Housing needs to be profitable for owners, but the questions we need to ask ourselves is if one industry, such as corporate ownership of homes and apartment units, overshadows all other industries in our city what will we become of us? Why are there empty apartment units while we are in a housing crisis? Why are there empty store fronts in our city?

The housing industry is not operating with best practices for our city and we as a city need to implement best practices: rent control and just cause.

Fact Sheet: Pasadena Homeless Count 2018

There was a significant increase (36%) in the number of persons who did not meet HUD’s definition of chronic homelessness….For this population, high rents and a shortage of housing caused them to fall into homelessness. In 2016, the housing cost burden for the lowest-income renter house- holds in Pasadena exceeded 100%, meaning their income was not enough to cover rent.

Fun Fact:

The 10,224 signature count is higher than the number of votes the current mayor of Pasadena, Terry Tornek, received back in the General Election of 2015 (8,549 votes).

Partial Source: Pasadena Fair and Equitable Housing Coalition