Rent Control

It appears that Long Beach City Council voted to pass a rent control measure under the guise of 10 percent rental caps (rent control) and $4,500 tenant relocation payouts and other Red Tape added to their outdated housing industry. This will likely make it more difficult to do business in the already low margin of return business of housing providers. The City of Long Beach is disincentivizing small investors, hindering upward mobility and likely devaluing LB residential real estate including Single Family-4 unit residential properties through their added regulations.

The Long Beach staff study was seemingly rushed with an agenda to pass rent control no matter the consequences or any economic impact or long term study. They simply copied and pasted statistics from other cities that have similar rent control policies. These cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco have some of the lowest amounts of affordable housing largely due to the red-tape and disincentivization they’ve created through their system of regulations and anti-building measures. California local politicians have reduced the ability to create and operate housing and have made housing less available.

The Long Beach “study” did not care to answer whether tenant buyouts/ rent control would work or if they would be good for the city or economy. Whether it would help or hurt the broader community, investments in the old housing stock and unsafe buildings. The study did not study whether it would reduce affordable housing in the long run or not.

Fred Sanchez

How can you keep tearing away at the fiber of our community, by continuing to penalize the very people who through great effort and expense, provide housing for so many. This is not a charity, it is a business, but with your ideas, it will no longer be a business. Property will be sold or deteriorate. You can’t keep accepting dead beat tenants, who trash property and violate rules and take advantage of the stupid laws you provide to make socialism the going trend.

We have put up in Long Beach, with so many stupid harmful laws, because someone wants to get re elected. Yet you are pushing the wrong agenda. You are making Long Beach a Ghetto when you take away the rights of property owners [and] give them to tenants. Tenants can move on and the owner must spend thousands of dollars to fix and repair and keep up that property. I have managed property for over 30 years and have cleaned up after many a unit. Yet I only had to evict one tenant. Being kind and working with them helps, but many understand that they can violate and stay for months with unlawful detainers, many know the stupid laws you put into effect. I wouldn’t consider buying units today with your lack of appreciation for the person risking their money to try to make a living for themselves and to provide decent living conditions.

You think because someone owns property they are rich? How many of our City Council own rental units? How many have managed rental units? Now you all can run one more time to continue to downgrade our city and living conditions. This isn’t about making Long Beach a better place to live! It is about penalizing and punishing those willing to take a chance on our city, by investing in property. You all need to be ashamed of yourselves.

Tracy Kittinger