Upcoming vote in Santa Cruz could limit rent increases at St. George residence and similar properties
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (KION-TV) - The city council prepares to vote on an ordinance aimed at enhancing tenant protections in governmental assisted housing.
This ordinance addresses concerns that the current law leaves some tenants vulnerable to steep rent hikes.
The proposed ordinance seeks to extend protections to tenants facing expiring affordable housing rental restrictions.
"Saint George, there are residents there, many of whom are vulnerable, seniors, in our community who are facing rent increases up 10 100% and many of them lived on fixed incomes," Scott Newsom represent district forum, Santa Cruz City council said.
St. George apartments is located in downtown Santa Cruz where tenants are bracing for a rent hike this upcoming November.
"It's a studio apartment for nine hundred dollars a month, and it's going to be going up to, one thousand five hundred in November and, for what it is, nine hundred dollars is already steep," Rachel O'brien lives at St. George apartments said.
A 'yes' vote would prevent landlords from increasing rent for an existing tenant more than 5 percent, plus the percentage change in the cost of living, or ten percent.
This proposed ordinance would protect tenants in similar situations throughout Santa Cruz.
"It feels like they're just kind of trying to push people out of our home town," O'brien said.
O’brien shares that there's a lot of vacant apartments already.
Some residents that have been living in the apartments for a number of years, some twenty or thirty years are starting to look elsewhere.
"Probably leaving Santa Cruz, which is disheartening it's my hometown and I born and raised here," O'brien said.
If approved, the ordinance could be in effect by late October, just before tenants of St. George’s apartments see a rental hike in November.
I would feel ecstatic, I wouldn't have to get a second job and I could keep the job that i have currently have," O'brien said. .
I did reach out to St. George for comment on the rent hikes, but they declined to comment.
