Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly Mitchell speaks at the dedication of former Deputy Fire Chief Herschel Crady’s fire station at Los Angeles County Fire Station 58 in Ladera Heights on Saturday, February 17, 2024. (Photo by Raphael Richardson, Associate Photographer)
If Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly Mitchell’s intention is, as she says, to make housing in the county affordable for renters while not preventing private landlords from staying in business, why is she pushing a measure that could destroy the livelihoods of tens of thousands of small landlords in the region?
That’s a question every Los Angeles resident should be asking her and her two coworkers, who are her superiors.
This week, they voted in favor of Mitchell’s motion to ask county staff to draft an amendment to the county’s current “rent stabilization” law, which Mitchell wants to prohibit many landlords in unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County from raising rents by more than 3% per year.
“Small property owners will be able to raise rents by up to 4 percent, while luxury property owners will be capped at 5 percent,” reports Rebecca Ellis of the Los Angeles Times.
Where on earth do these percentages come from? Are other important businesses in the county being told by the Commissioner what they can charge for their products? Where is the economic science behind these numbers? Or are they just thrown around in a hunch?
Angelenos need to ask their elected officials these questions before the motion passes (which would require another vote), which could exacerbate, rather than alleviate, an already significant rental housing shortage.
During the committee’s deliberations, small landlords in the county told supervisors that rising costs, especially insurance costs, have already forced them to sell properties and go out of business. How can they continue to offer rental property if they can’t make a profit, pay the mortgages on the properties, let alone properly maintain them?
Directors Janice Hahn and Kathryn Berger, who voted against it, are fantastic.
“Once again, we’ve put this hardship on landlords,” Berger said, according to the Times.
It is unfortunate that Supervisors Lindsay Holbert and Hilda Solis have joined Mayor Mitchell in this woefully ignorant campaign, pretending to be Robin Hood-like and take money from the rich to protect the poor, but in reality may result in even more Angelenos being homeless on the streets.