Buena Park is the next city in Orange County to consider a rent control ordinance. Council Member Castaneda asked for a discussion item on an apartment inspection program without any input from the rental property owners. At the subsequent city council workshop, staff sought direction from the city council on how to proceed with a city inspection program. The discussion dovetailed into a rent control discussion. 

The non-profit advocacy groups deployed their troops to the council meeting and distracted the council with noise about skyrocketing rents and uninhabitable conditions of their rental units. The city council capitulated to the tenant advocates, with little input from owners, and gave direction to staff to bring back data and information for both an inspection program and rent control. 

City staff met with apartment owners and shared they were going to work on these issues in stages. First, they would bring a framework for an inspection program and then take on the rent control issue. The rental inspection program would assess a fee on rental units and start a pilot program for city inspections in specified city areas. Since mobilehome parks are inspected by HCD, they are explicitly exempt from the inspection program proposal. 

At a subsequent meeting, the apartment owners showed up in droves to blast the council for their non-support of housing providers and criticize how expensive and intrusive the proposed inspection program would be for them and their tenants. The proposal received feedback from the council to refine and bring back for further discussion. It is possible that the inspection program is sidelined in lieu of property owner education. 

However, the rent control demands will likely be considered next. The council seemed to be shell-shocked by the pushback of apartment owners to the inspection proposal. It appears they are very concerned about what sort of response they would get when they consider an actual rent control ordinance. A proposal has yet to be circulated to know if mobilehome parks would be included. However, with the focus on mobilehome rent control in Orange County (Santa Ana and Huntington Beach) in the last few years, it is unlikely that they would be overlooked. 

This fight in Buena Park has brought the housing providers coalition back together in Orange County. WMA, MHET, apartment owners, and realtors are working together to fight back against these harmful proposals. 

Julie Paule, WMA’s Regional Representative for San Diego/Orange/Riverside/Imperial. She can be reached at julie@pauleconsulting.com.