Dozens of renters and supporters marched through Northwest Pasadena Saturday afternoon in support of a proposed rent control ballot measure before being halted by a cold, sudden rain during a stop at Jackie Robinson Park.
Organized by the Pasadena Tenant Justice Coalition (PTJC)—a collection of progressive labor and tenants’ rights advocates, including the National Day Laborers Network (NDLON), POP! (Pasadenans Organizing for Progress), and the Pasadena Tenants Union—the group hopes to collect 8,400 validated signatures by the March deadline to qualify for the November 2022 general election.
If successful, the proposed amendment to the Pasadena City Charter would enact rent control and just cause eviction protection laws in the City.
Organizers cited a survey which they said showed 62% of Pasadena households are renters and said that 49% of those renters spend over 30% of their income on rent.
“These are the people,” says Jose Madera, Director of the Pasadena Job Center, “who wash dishes in restaurants, make the beds in fancy hotels, make deliveries, care for our children and elders, mow the lawns, paint our houses, and clean our homes and buildings among others.”
“The fact is,” he continued in a statement from the PTJC, “they have kept Pasadena’s businesses running during this terrible pandemic and despite their contributions, these workers can barely make ends meet because rents have gone to the roof.”
So far, according to Liberty McCoy, a PTJC volunteer, the organizers have already collected more than 11,000 signatures toward their goal.
There is no current rent freeze in Pasadena. A rent increase freeze which was passed by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in March of 2020 was recently extended by the Board on January 25 but covers only unincorporated LA County.
The Supervisors will re-assess their freeze every 30 days.
Renters in Pasadena currently covered by AB1482, the state’s Tenant Protection Act of 2019.
Effective on January 1, 2020, the bill limits annual rent increases at 5 percent, plus any rise in the consumer price index, which cannot exceed 10 percent. Currently, in Los Angeles County, that adds up to 8.6%.
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One thought on “Renters March, Rally in Support of Pasadena Ballot Measure”
AB 1482 also includes Just Cause Eviction! Please inform your readers that this rule plus the rent increase limits you mentioned are already in place.