KTLA News: "Los Angeles City Council debates rent control" (1980)

with those words the City Council began one of the longest debates in recent history even Arthur Snyder a staunch opponent of rent control had resigned himself to the reality of post proposition 13 life but the facts of life didn't make anything easier for rent control champion Joe acts and others who wanted the ordinance expanded I think that the single most significant factor that's before us today is that the rent control law in the city of Los Angeles has worked and worked well in the interests of the people of this city it has stopped the rent gouging we reported that testified for section 8 I didn't see any of these other build this kind of the rental industry is not a good business and so what we have to do and I and I understand as well as everybody else I'm 77 years old and I understand the senior citizen my motion is to amend whichever ordinance we adopt to strike that the know position when overwhelmingly in ever but their that vacancy decontrol if we have a model rent control art that's already in the city today the City Council is going to adopt some form of rent control and for another year in the city of Los Angeles I told me other demonstrations applause are not allowed during debate so will you play with the council rules protected on the maintenance of supply the capacity crowd was equally divided between tenants and landlords and speaking on behalf of property owners was Howard Jarvis but his fiery rhetoric was gone the temper never flared and many were surprised to see him leave the podium so soon and so tamely as debate went into its third hour some council members took lunch at their places and chambers it was a compromise they eventually hammered out 7% annual increases remain along with exemptions for luxury units and voluntarily vacated apartments but violations of the ordinance are now criminal not just civil offenses and requirements for so-called Just Cause evictions have been tightened giving tenants more protection against unethical owners that evict in order to increase rents as Arthur Schneider said this morning the only real decision before the council today was what kind of rent control ordinance it would adopt the hours of debate notwithstanding there are many now looking to the future wondering that if but rather what kind of rent control ordinance will be argued in these chambers next year for news at 10:00 Tony Valdez [Music] Los Angeles Union Station was built by the Union Pacific Santa Fe and Southern Pacific Railroad's in the late 1930s during the heyday of rail travel it was considered one of the finest facilities of its kind through the years the decline of rail travel was mirrored by Union Station an empty building falling farther into disrepair in recent years Union Station has been coming back Amtrak has been operating more and more passenger train six a day to San Diego others to Seattle Las Vegas Chicago and New Orleans and now that Caltrans has decided to purchase the terminal Union Station will become the focal point of a total system of transportation which brings trains buses the proposed downtown people mover and the Wilshire corridor subway all together to formalize it Governor Brown mayor Bradley Caltrans director Gian Turco and others took part in a double signing ceremony we believe that public transportation is one of the critical services in this community and to bring it all together in one regional center is I think one of the most progressive steps that this community has ever taken I'm delighted to be a part of it this is such a wise one and I don't mean that in any derogatory manner certainly I know that mr. wax is very concerned that someone and as he expressed himself to me is in my own from Santa Monica right in in some units which are controlled out of Santa Monica recently you had a six unit apartment building all six of the units were absolutely identical but people were paying different rents in each unit because some had been there longer one tenant had moved in in 1973 I believe they were paying yet moves out right now if we adopt the majority report whether it's gouging a person who's already in an apartment or rent gouging a person who's trying to move into a new apartment it's still rent gouging there has to be rent control for all apartments vacated or not we cannot provide incentives for landlords to evict our office has received hundreds of calls over the last new form of rent control whatsoever the idea and the thought that it hasn't hindered new construction in Southern California is an erroneous statement I don't know how those figures would come about what they are all about that I hope you'll stand corrected mr. councilman all right thank you is that prepare the roll yeah well in strange position and the minority of the committee and in presenting the Minority Report Minority Report does continue a system of rent control I want it to be plain to everyone here and in the city and everybody that's in the audience that I do not believe that rent control should be continued in the city of Los Angeles I believe and I suppose enough said on that subject now I've spoken my mind on the subject of rent control and it's detrimental and damaging aspects in the city in the long term range of the whole entire city economy and particularly in the in the field of housing on many occasions and I don't think there's anybody in the city that thinks that I have a great sympathy for rent control however it appears obvious as I as a member of the council as a member of the committee have discussed this matter with the various city councilmen in which you have a district where you represent a district in which the average rents are 142 dollars a month and when to give much support to an ordinance which says oh those poor folks that are paying $2,500 a month for their apartments we really want to give them the protection of the law so that they won't have to pay $3,000 a month for their apartments if there is a rationale for rent control it is this protection of those who are unable to protect themselves and I simply submit that the that there is no social rationale for rent control for luxury units in the city of Los Angeles if a person is paying $1500 a month and his rent is raised to $2,000 a month well then he can jolly well go find himself a unit that rents for $1,500 a month somewhere else if he can't afford the $2,000 a month and I do not feel that it is a social advantage to this city to be providing the protection of government mr. Snyder I think mr. Bernardi reminded me that he just made a presentation of his race you can remove them from the council chamber we're trying to get through with a very serious matter and we don't want to be disturbed by applause or demonstrate please would you comply with the council item be mr. president deals with the question of the elimination of vacancy decontrol our studies have showed that rent controlled in Los Angeles has not had a depth shion's that were plaguing us two years ago and most importantly it has cooled the real estate speculation which was rampant in multiple residential buildings and those facts should be put in the statement of findings and to be adopted by this council and I think that the most significant factor that we have today is that we are discussing simply what form of rent Organa rent stabilization as opposed to two years ago when it was rent control our no rent control and the fact that even people like mr. Snyder and others is Asthana against rent control as they are have come in today and brought the dialogue to a point where we're discussing the substantive points of the particular ordinance is and it's a far cry from what was discussed two years ago I think that in and of itself is recognition of the fact that we have had an ideal model rent stabilization ordinance now there are differences between the two reports at any apartment C D control and it's really just common sense what if you were a landlord and you're a little example of the sort of absurd situation you can have if vacancy decontrol disappears it occurred in New York and it's been a can control in that is one of the proposed amendments that we are going to put set up a situation in which landlords and tenants are going to be continually going after each other for the next years as long as this vacancy decontrol is in effect it is providing a very strong financial incentive for landlords to try and harass or otherwise evict tenants out of their properties out of their apartments now even if you close the loopholes of concerning relatives in the Just Cause evictions and you tighten up the eviction protections and you put in the criminal penalties which we are strongly in favor of you are telling landlords that your financial incentive is not to go through the legitimate eviction process but your financial incentive to evict is to go through the harassment process of letting the apartment deteriorate of phone calls after midnight which we have reports of tenants of repeated eviction notices that are never followed through with in court in which we have cases to report on that and other methods that will be an incentive to the landlord's to go outside the law I don't think I need to remind you the history of landlord tenant relationships in this city after proposition 10 which was the fraudulent camp all the grim predictions that landlords gave us of what was gonna happen if we had rent control proved to be untrue and they did a last-ditch desperate effort to trick people into vote and rent control out with the fraudulent prop 10 but tenants are wise to the fact that and everybody in the city is wise to the fact that rent control is what the city needs at this time in the time of a critical housing shortage and the City Council has come to recognize that - and many landlords have finally come to recognize that as well the only question now is to have an effective rent control and this is what the tenants are putting forth every tenant organization we're not talking about give us a pro tenant type amendments as opposed to pro landlord we're just talking about amendments to make the rent control effective take out the loopholes in other words the biggest loophole is vacancy decontrol you know the whole purpose of the rent control law was to stop rent gouging and rent gap have taken a little look at what we're trying to do in which you're considering today and that looks to me like if you pass the majority report you're going to have to keep a base rent of statistics on 650,000 units 650,000 units in this city every one of them will be happy to register individually the city will have to communicate with every tenant to verify the rent rates and you'll have to read update the records every time a vacancy occurred now the cost had estimated I understand it's in the neighborhood of a million dollars but across the United States I find that any action that city takes in rent control with any apartment the average cost was $10 a unit I think you have to understand something about the apartment business in the state of California come in 85,000 owners in California there is no other possible answer mystery Association is direct directly opposed to ended up being a situation that will to the extent possible benefit everybody involved