Nearly 18 Months After Passage, Landlords, Tenants Talk Measure H

Pasadena Now spoke to tenants and property owners about Measure H about the ongoing efforts to implement the rent control measure.

The rent control measure passed nearly 18 months ago.

While tenants spoke on the record, many of the landlords spoke on the condition that their names not be used.

Tenant Dan Huynh said that she now lives without fear of retaliation from her landlord.

Huynh said that she had to move three times since moving to Pasadena, including a no fault eviction in 2018 after his building was sold.

“I went to the City Council with my neighbors several times. I talked to my City Councilmember for help,” Huynh said. “But besides some rental relocation assistance, which included eligibility guidelines that we had to meet. I didn’t meet that. For my neighbors who had been living in that building for over a decade, some with children, some with disabilities, it was so hard on them to suddenly have to figure out where they could live. And many of them ended up leaving Pasadena. Under Measure H, that type of action is no longer permitted. And I’m very grateful for that, just to know that I can feel more confident to remain in my home and that those eviction protections would apply to the majority of tenant situations.”

Under Measure H, rents were rolled back to May 2021 levels. The rent control initiative also limits rent increases and provides safeguards against unjust evictions.

Almost immediately the new law faced a court challenge from the California Apartment Association claiming that the measure was an unlawful revision to the Pasadena City Charter, that the restrictions on who may serve on the Rent Board created to administer the law were unconstitutional, and that various provisions of the ordinance were preempted by state law.

In a 35-page ruling issued after the hearing, Judge Mary Strobel rejected a majority of the California Apartment Association’s claims, finding that “Measure H does not fundamentally alter the Pasadena City Charter or the basic structure of city government in Pasadena.”

The California Apartment Association has appealed and the two sides will return to court in August.

Ruby Byrne said she believed Measure H has exceeded expectations. Byrne moved into her current apartment in September 2021 and experienced rent increases after her first year there.

“Landlords really, without something like Measure H, have the authority to remove their tenants at any time by imposing a rent increase that is untenable. As a result of Measure H. In July, 2023, I was credited $560 in rent.”

“That had a huge financial impact for me in September, 2023, my rent was actually lowered. So these kinds of things are important for me. I’m a middle class person, I’m trying to save money, and so that was really impactful. But I think the main impact has been almost psychological, is just understanding that my housing is more stable than it’s ever been. … So that’s been really wonderful for me, knowing that myself and my neighbors are not going to be displaced, that we get to put down roots in Pasadena. Thinking ahead. If I wanted to raise a family, I could know that my kids could go to school in Pasadena and wouldn’t have to change schools or experience the kind of precarity that comes with losing your housing.”

According to property owners, Measure H has done irreparable damages to their businesses.

“I regret investing in Pasadena,” local property owner Blake Boyd told Pasadena Now when asked about the future of housing affordability and rental property management in Pasadena under Measure H.

“It’s not good,” Boyd said. “The majority of City Councilmembers hear the screams and threats of the tenant activists and simply state that they are ‘only following the will of the people’. The people don’t know what’s in about 40 pages of the 42 pages of Measure H. They’re finding out now and it ain’t pretty.”

Some of that came front and center at last week’s City Council meeting when landlords said they would face the brunt of increasing utility costs because they could not pass them on to their tenants.

Boyd said Measure H has led to more distrust and animosity amongst tenants toward landlords since Dec 2022.

Boyd said on some occasions, activists from the Pasadena Tenants Union and Pasadena Rental Housing Board members have conveyed information to tenants which is patently inaccurate. Boyd said Pasadena Rental Housing Board members have publicly stated that their desire is to decrease the value of properties and force sales into public housing.

Boyd said he would probably sell his properties.

“There’s generations of families who have lived in poverty that are still in Pasadena, and they’re kind of being priced out of living here due to the raise and rents,” said tenant Kate Hindman. “So I think not necessarily from Measure H, but it could come from Measure H. I think that Pasadena needs to work on more affordable housing. We have a lot of these luxury townhomes that keep popping up, and they always have availability because nobody wants to live in a luxury townhome. When you live in Pasadena, you want to live in a historic building that’s just kind of part of the charm, and they’re not affordable. So it’s like there’s great options, but they’re not affordable. We also have a lot of homeless people who have lived here for decades and simply were priced out of renting. So I think there is some responsibility on the board, but mostly I look to our District members, our Mayor, to pressure them to have more affordable options.”

Measure H was passed at a time when skyrocketing rents crippled many tenants. In some units rent is well over $3,000. The rising rents and the ever-increasing housing crisis across the state led to numerous rent control campaigns.

Some landlords say that Measure H has negatively impacted good landlords.

“I will be raising rents to the maximum amount no matter what the market dictates,” said one landlord. “In the past if the marketplace was not positive I would not raise rent.”

Other owners say they now cannot do upgrades on their property.

“There is no incentive for us to do any upgrades on the property because we cannot recoup the expenses,” one landlord said. “Properties are going to get run down. We cannot afford to subsidize tenants and it should not be our responsibility to subsidize them. We have a tenant who moved from LA under rent control. He is so happy to live at our building because we maintain it well – unlike the building he was in with rent control in LA. But now, in order to keep our expenses down we can only afford to do the bare minimum to maintain it.”

Other landlords said now they would be forced to rent only to people with excellent credit and charge higher deposits.

“In the past we didn’t give rent increases to occupied apartments. We just worked with natural turnover, improved the apartment and charged market rent,” he said. “Now we have to give annual rent increases to all units. We cannot afford to fall behind market rents.

“It just makes it more difficult for lower income and people with poor credit to rent.”