Rent-Stabilization Ordinance Clears Santa Barbara Council By One Vote

After nine years of on-and-off debate and a final-hour standoff over exemptions, the Santa Barbara City Council voted 4-3 Tuesday night to adopt the city's first rent-stabilization ordinance, Noozhawk reported.

The measure — set to take effect Jan. 1 — will limit how much landlords can raise rents on covered units, create a rental-property registry, and establish a rent-stabilization board to oversee the program. Rent increases will be limited to once in a 12-month period at 60% of the rise in the Consumer Price Index, capped at 3%, whichever is lower.

Mayor Randy Rowse and Councilmembers Eric Friedman and Mike Jordan voted no. Councilmembers Meagan Harmon, Wendy Santamaria, Kristen Sneddon and Oscar Gutierrez provided the winning majority — though the outcome was in doubt until the final minutes, when Sneddon agreed to support the ordinance despite objections to last-minute changes.

A One-Vote Margin and a Familiar Fault Line

The sticking point, as in the prior week's hearing, was whether units overseen by the Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara and Section 8 voucher housing should be covered by the ordinance. The final version exempts deed-restricted and Section 8 housing from the rent cap, while directing staff to identify a pathway for those tenants to bring habitability and health-and-safety concerns to the city. That work is expected to surface in upcoming amendments to the city's Just Cause Evictions Ordinance, which heads to the council in the coming weeks.

Harmon argued the exemptions were necessary, saying there already aren't enough properties accepting Section 8 vouchers and that subjecting those units to city rent regulation could discourage landlords from participating.

"As a result, the most vulnerable people in this community will be left with more of the same," Harmon said, according to Noozhawk. "More years of a thousand-plus-person waiting list. More years of nowhere near the number of Section 8 units that we need." She noted those units already receive more inspections than typical rentals, and said the city could instead strengthen code enforcement.

Santamaria countered that the Housing Authority's existing systems for ensuring habitability aren't working. She said the ordinance's protections would give Housing Authority tenants another avenue to raise concerns if they can't reach the agency. While she was willing to exempt those units from the rent-increase cap, she wanted them to retain access to the rent-stabilization board and other resources.

"Completely exempting the most vulnerable — our elders, our disabled, those with mobility issues — that is not something that I could sleep at night with," Santamaria said.

Sneddon's Frustration: 'The Goal Post Moves'

With the ordinance at risk of failing outright, Sneddon voiced frustration that a measure she and Santamaria first proposed nearly a year ago had grown more complicated with each revision.

"Because there were the four votes needed, I have agreed to every additional iteration, every additional request," Sneddon said. "Every time it comes back, the goal post moves, and moves, and moves. Now we're at a place where I'm not going to get to pass this, after nine years of working on this."

She said she was disappointed the ordinance was coming down to a single exemption, and that changes could always be made later. "Yes, we want to protect all vulnerable tenants, everyone in the city," Sneddon said, "but if we don't have this passed at all, if this doesn't even exist at all, not a single person is covered."

The council ultimately coalesced around the compromise: pass the ordinance with the exemptions intact, with staff directed to find the best process for Housing Authority and Section 8 tenants to escalate habitability complaints.

Housing Authority Weighs In

During public comment, numerous speakers urged the council to include Housing Authority tenants, arguing additional protections are needed. Corina Svacina pointed to federal cuts, saying Section 8 tenants need a way to raise habitability concerns.

"I don't know about you, but I don't think Section 8 tenants should have mold in their applesauce or mold in their home, but if we leave it in the hands of the free market or the federal government, they will," Svacina said.

Housing Authority Executive Director Rob Fredericks, who has opposed inclusion of his agency's units throughout the debate, argued that rents under the Housing Authority are regularly reviewed and units undergo federal inspections and enforcement. He said housing providers who fail to meet habitability standards lose their federal housing assistance payment or have their contract terminated, with assistance provided to help tenants relocate.

"Every tenant deserves a safe home and a meaningful way to report concerns," Fredericks said. "We do not oppose an additional city intake or referral pathway for habitability complaints to our agency. That separate issue does not justify duplicating rent regulation."

What It Means for Santa Barbara Renters

The ordinance applies only to certain rental stock: it won't cover units built after Feb. 1, 1995, single-family homes, condos and townhomes, mobile home parks, or government-owned and -operated units — exclusions that largely track state law governing local rent control. Units that are covered will see increases limited to the lower of 60% of CPI or 3%, and only once per 12-month period.

For a city that has spent years grappling with some of the highest housing costs on the Central Coast, the ordinance marks a significant — and narrowly won — shift in tenant protections. But the fight isn't fully over. The staff work on habitability pathways for Housing Authority and Section 8 tenants, and the pending Just Cause Evictions Ordinance amendments expected in the coming weeks, will determine how far those protections extend to the renters Tuesday's compromise left outside the cap.