Renters see hope in Salinas proposed rent stabilization ordinance

| YOUNG VOICES

By Isaac González-Diaz and Claudia Meléndez Salinas

After months of lobbying by dozens of low-income residents, Salinas officials will consider a rent stabilization ordinance that advocates say is way overdue.

Organizers led by Building Healthy Communities would like to see a 2% cap on annual rent increases. Although there are 23,132 rental units in the city of Salinas, only 8,330 would qualify for the rent stabilization act, per state law. 

The ordinance will be considered by the Salinas City Council on Aug. 20. If approved, it will be a huge relief for renters who have seen rents skyrocket in the last few years.

Nidia Soto, an organizer with Building Healthy Communities, struggles each month to pay the rent to avoid being evicted like she was two years ago. The experience has left deep emotional scars.

Evictions “make people who are complying with the rent feel not that we are failing, but that we are not worth it to the landlords. They really don’t mind throwing families into the streets,” she said.

The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Salinas is $1,903 a month (or $22,836 a year), according to Zumper Rental Market Trends website. The average salary of a farmworker is $35,110 a year. 

“A lot of the folks probably started experiencing extreme rental increases in 2019, right before the pandemic,” said Xago Juarez, neighborhood organizer from Building Healthy Communities. 

Salinas City Attorney Chris Callihan authored the rental stabilization ordinance with support from Public Advocates attorney Suzanne Dershowitz.

“The rental stabilization ordinance is about bringing much needed attention to the renter community of the city of Salinas,” Juarez said. “That attention will bring focus to the issues that impact our residents who are tenants. Many of them are paying exorbitant amounts on a monthly basis and are subject to even more rent increases, because the present limit is 10% of the actual rental cost.” 

 A 10% increase translates into $200 or $300 a month, an amount that few can afford, Juarez said. Advocates would like the cap to be set at 2%. City administrators are proposing a cap of 2.5% to 3%. 

 Opponents to the ordinance argue that it will do nothing to increase housing supply, which is the reason they say housing in the area is so expensive to begin with. During an Aug. 1 community meeting, some landlords expressed concern that a cap would not allow them to recover cost increases they are subject to, such as insurance. 

 The rent stabilization ordinance would also implement a “just cause eviction” clause to protect tenants, and a “no fault” clause to allow landlords to evict tenants who want to take the unit off the market for substantial remodel or withdraw it from the rental market. 

Soto says that the rental stabilization ordinance will help her and other families afford fair and decent housing going forward, without having to share with other families, as is currently the case.

 “There are many families right now living together, sharing rent, two, three, four families per home,” she said. The “Rent Stabilization Ordinance will allow future families to be able to afford fair, decent housing and one family per home.”

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