Anaheim officials are rolling out a pilot program and webpage next month for tenants to report illegal rent hikes and no-fault evictions after years of calls for the city to become the second in Orange County to implement a rent control law.
The intake program is aimed primarily to get information on how often such violations to the state’s tenant protections law are occurring as well as give the city attorney’s office a chance to review the complaints and determine on a case by case basis whether they can intervene.
But it is unclear just how often city officials will intervene in disputes over rent hikes or no fault evictions that violate state law.
City Attorney Rob Fabela said they don’t know
City Attorney Rob Fabela said they don’t know how much information they will be gathering from the program and any civil enforcement would need approval from the city, adding they’d need additional re
“There’s not going to be any promises made about any particular situation,” Fabela said “If we really are going to be in the business of addressing just about everyone, and again, I don’t know what the volume is going to be, then we really would probably need more re
“Right now, we’re not asking for that,” he continued.
In the past couple years, when residents have called for rent control in Anaheim, elected officials like City Councilwoman Natalie Rubalcava have instead asked city staff to look into what it would take to enforce the state’s own laws on renter protections.
It’s a request Rubalcava, who is running
It’s a request Rubalcava, who is running for reelection, made in September 2024 and then again at the start of this year.
In the past, the councilwoman has said even if they adopted a rent control ordinance of their own, they would probably be unable to enforce it – something she repeated on Tuesday.
“I know we can’t solve everything, and we may not retroactively be able to support people in our city, but I do think that this is a good step forward,” said Rubalcava.
The law provides the cities to go ahead
“The law provides the cities to go ahead and do this and I just think it’s a better strategy than having to implement a new tenant protection initiative in the city that would not be enforced either if we can’t even enforce a state rule.”
The launch of the renter reporting program is expected to come just a month before the November election and a couple months after a group of local tenants suspended efforts to gather signatures to put a rent control ordinance on the ballot.
The group – Tenants United Anaheim – decided not to continue to pursue their initiative because after collecting feedback from residents who felt their proposal did not go far enough to address the need in the city.
It also comes after a recently adopted state
It also comes after a recently adopted state bill bolstered California’s Tenant Protection law in 2023 allowing local city attorneys to seek injunctive relief whenever there is an illegal rent raise or illegal no-fault eviction.
Members of Tenant United called the program a baby step on a long-ignored issue.
At Tuesday’s city council meeting, Lupe Zamron, a volunteer with the group, called on officials to consider a rent control ordinance.
“Our community is facing serious, serious challenges and we are seeing declined student enrollment, schools having to merge, teachers losing their jobs, residents being forced to move out because they can no longer afford to live in Anaheim,” she said during public comment.
With all due respect, we are hurting,
“With all due respect, we are hurting, and I ask the mayor and the city council to please take another look at this issue of rent control and consider a freeze to provide relief to the Anaheim families.”
Chip Ahlswede, a spokesman for the Apartment Association of OC who previously raised concerns about the Tenant United initiative, said the association wants local landlords to comply with state law.
“We would be in support of landlords complying with state law and we believe that the cities have always had the ability to enforce it,” he said in a Wednesday phone call.
Ahlswede previously said that the state law came
Ahlswede previously said that the state law came about as a compromise between hundreds of different groups while the rent control initiative that was being pushed by tenants in Anaheim wasn’t being done in the same spirit.
On Tuesday, Fabela stressed that the city’s role under the program would not be to represent individual renters as their lawyers and that tenants still have their own rights and can pursue their own remedies to such disputes in court.
Councilman Ryan Bailus raised concerns the pilot program was not properly approved by elected officials before it was developed, questioning how much staff time and money was spent on it.
This is the first time I’ve seen this
“This is the first time I’ve seen this and it seems to me this is pretty well baked and I see it as a policy and I don’t know why I’m seeing a baked website without it coming to the city council first,” he said.
Rubalcava pushed back saying that wasn’t the case.
Mayor Ashleigh Aitken, who is running for reelection, called for the city to post reentially adding a link to the superior court’s website and phone numbers for low cost attorneys to the program’s website
“We need to be out there advocating for our rental community to make sure they have the access and the education to know their rights and to make sure that they are being able to fight for them,” Aitken said.
This week, the Mayor has faced public backlash
This week, the Mayor has faced public backlash over reported allegations that she referred to her chief of staff by a racist term and repeatedly questioned her sexual orientation, with one of her colleagues calling for an expedited probe into the accusations.
Aitken has said she is limited in how she can respond to the allegations but has asked residents to look at her record and previous actions.
According to a 2021 report by the Southern California Association of Governments, 55,113 of the 100,615 homes in Anaheim are renter-occupied.
The median gross rent in Anaheim is $2,175
The median gross rent in Anaheim is $2,175 and the median household income is $95,227, according to census data.
The program is expected to come back before council by April 2027– no more than six months after it launches.
Editor’s note: Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken’s father, Wylie Aitken, chairs Voice of OC’s board of directors.
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org.
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