The Inglewood City Council voted unanimously to pass a permanent rent control ordinance Tuesday. With a few exceptions, the vote effectively caps rent increases in the city at 5% annually, establishes a rent board, and includes eviction protections for tenants.
The legislation comes after a nearly three year fight by the Uplift Inglewood Coalition, a group of local residents who organized in response to growing housing affordability issues in Inglewood. Despite significant push back by the city, Uplift continued to rally strong community support and eventually forced city officials to take up the measure for vote.
According to a recent article by Kelsi Maree Borland for Globe St, D’Artagnan Scorza, executive director of the Social Justice Institute and a member of the Uplift Inglewood Coalition, explained that the 5% cap was viewed as a necessary compromise that protected tenants from price gouging and evictions, while acknowledging the “investment needs of landlords”.
Scorza added that the group understood “landlords have the right to a fair rate of return. We wanted to at least pay increases in CPI so that landlords and moms-and-pops could continue to benefit from renting while ensuring that it did not exacerbate our homelessness crisis.”
