Keep rent-controlled housing intact, and keep neighborhoods livable.

Educate tenants

Educated tenants are the most protected tenants, because they know their rights.

• Many tenants don't even know they are living with rent control.
• Make sure tenants know about typical buyouts for similar apartments, so they're in the best position to negotiate if landlords want to buy them out.
• Tell tenants what state law changes will mean for their units, so they know when threats exist to their form of housing.

Protect our rent-controlled stock

Santa Monica's rent-controlled units are irreplaceable — once one is lost, new construction almost never brings it back. I will treat every proposal that shrinks that stock as a threat to the city's diversity, and hold the line on the protections tenants already have.

• Scrutinize demolition, withdrawal, and conversion of rent-controlled units
• Advocate for stronger displacement protections
• Aggressively monitor the removal of rent control units from the market, and bring them back under control if they are re-rented too soon

Enforce our rent control laws

Our tenant protections for rent control are among the strongest in California and the nation. Keeping them strong means enforcing them.

• Support rent decrease petitions when units are not kept in good shape.
• Advocate for additional code enforcement staff, and timely investigations of code violations so residents have recourse.

Push back on Sacramento overreach

The state legislature is increasingly writing local housing rules from afar. Bills like SB 79 hit renters and homeowners in every Santa Monica neighborhood, and rent control boards should be leading the effort to fight back rather than waiting to absorb the consequences.

• Formal Board positions on state bills that endanger rent-controlled housing
• Coordinate with other rent control jurisdictions to speak with one voice
• Tell residents plainly, and early, what state law changes mean for their unit

Welcome housing planned locally

Though housing policy beyond rent-controlled units isn't within the purview of the Rent Control Board, I personally welcome new housing that's planned here and truly affordable: growth that Santa Monicans shape themselves, near transit, along our widest boulevards, at real affordability levels, that is sensitively scaled to surrounding neighborhoods.

• Support genuinely affordable projects that don't lead to the demolition of rent-controlled units
• Judge every new development plan by whether working families can actually live in it

Keep neighborhoods livable for the long run by protecting rent control

Stability is the point. I will advocate for policies that let residents of rent-controlled housing make Santa Monica home for decades — raising kids here, aging here — and for their neighborhoods, and all neighborhoods, to stay livable while they do.

• Habitability and maintenance held to the highest standards, so that rent-controlled units are livable and attractive to middle class tenants seeking to live in Santa Monica.