Recommendation to request City Manager, or designee, and City Attorney, or designee, to review questions regarding a proposed Long Beach ordinance to enact rent control, a rent board and eviction limitations and report back to city council on April 17, 2018 with responses.
Thank you. Members, please cast your vote. I mean. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Item number 15, please. Item 15 is communications from council members. Subpoena. Councilwoman Price. Councilwoman Mango. Councilman Andrew's recommendation to require city manager and city attorney to review questions regarding a proposed Long Beach ordinance to enact rent control and report back to City Council on April 17, 2018. Councilmember Super Now. Thank you, Vice Mayor, and thank you to my council colleagues for signing onto this item. My comments are going to be very brief, and I'd like to ask my colleagues to keep their commentary to a minimum. We are coming off of two back to back meetings where we went past midnight and I think would be great to avoid a three peat tonight. Actually, I have to get Pat Riley credit. I think he has the trademark on that term. 3 p.m.. The other reason for brevity is the specific nature of this agenda item. It is simply a request for an informational report on a proposed ballot initiative. Unlike our last two lengthy items, the Louie and the Values Act. This item does not involve a council policy decision. It is simply a request for information. The request is for the city manager and city attorney to report back to us on April 17th, which is with as much detail as possible in that time frame. Finally, I would like to ask my councilor colleagues to agree to restricting public comment to a minute and a half per speaker. This is not an attempt to abridge anyone's First Amendment right. It's quite the opposite. With 3 hours of public comment during our last two council meetings, many people informed us they did not have a chance to speak because they were unable to wait the length of time necessary. Therefore, the abbreviated time for each speaker should give everyone a chance to share his or her comments. Councilmember Andrews. Wait until that day. Okay. He wants to defer. Okay. So we're going to line up and call for public comment at this time and I'm going to acknowledge the requests. Let me let me see how many people are lined up here. Yes. Just a moment before you begin. Okay. Clearly there is a lot of interest in speaking. So I will that translators will get double. We always do that. You'll absolutely get that. So we're going to we're going to respect the request so that everyone gets an opportunity to speak. So let's queue up 90 seconds and we'll have our first speaker. Good evening, Mayor. Council members. My name is Mike Murchison. My address is on record. I'm here on behalf of rental property owners, investors, people that care about this community. They have cared for a very long time. I want to thank the mayor and the council for being supportive of not supporting rent control. Thank you all for being on the record of saying no to rent control. And as councilman super nice said. And I'll do it faster than 90 seconds, Darryl. I'm asking this council to support a very straightforward item. Get the rental property owner our community back as fast as you can. The investors as fast you can. The answers to these questions. We need these answers so that we can explain. To everybody in Long Beach why this is bad policy. I encourage you to support this tonight. I encourage you to have a coming back April 17th. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening, Vice Mayor and City Council. My name is Anthony. Anthony Walker. I'm the managing broker of Buckingham Investments. I'm a local real estate broker and a housing provider. Well, I think we can all agree that improving the supply of affordable housing in our city needs to be a top priority. We must understand that rent control is not the answer. There are numerous examples within our own state and country that demonstrate rent controls, damaging effect, and not only the real estate industry, but also the very people that seeks to aid my business and the business of my clients is to provide clean, safe and in the vast majority of cases, affordable housing to the residents of this city. We are the opposite of the proverbial slumlords. This ordinance will immediately cease virtually all reinvestment into our existing renter communities, as landlords will have no incentive to improve our housing stock. The quality of living conditions will decline. Vacancies in rent control units are likely to rent only to the tenants with the highest incomes and credit, removing opportunity from those with the most need. The economic effect on our city must also be considered. Rent control would severely damaged the real estate industry and all related businesses in Long Beach, which make up a huge component of our local economy. The number of different skilled jobs required to sit for the sale finance, operation, maintenance, construction and management of our housing stock is immense. All of these workers risk unemployment as our market stagnates under rent control. Let us heed the warnings of our neighbors experience and the overwhelming agreement of economic economists on both sides of the political spectrum. Rent control will destroy what progress Long Beach has achieved in the 21st century. Thank you for your time. No. Mr. Lurch. Just a moment. Just a moment, Mr. Lawrence, before you begin. I know this is a sensitive issue, and there are very excited individuals on both sides. But respectfully, I would ask, do not hiss while anyone's speaking one way or the other so that we can conduct a very respectful meeting here. So just please show this respect in this moment. Thank you. Please. My name is Val Lerche, former vice mayor of the city. Before being on the city council, I had another life. For 30 years, I manage multiple family housing. Well, I'm active duty. I manage the facilities at base Petaluma. After leaving the. Military, I manage real estate for both profit and nonprofit organization. I was the chair of the Long Beach. Housing Authority for five years. I was a Los Angeles County Housing Commissioner for seven years. During my career, I managed property from Seattle to the Mexican border from Kansas City to Houston, Texas. I believe I do have some knowledge of this firsthand. Those cities and jurisdictions that had. Rent control I observed over the years. Did not work. That intended to do. And the rest of the. Gentlemen told me, we've said before this city just approved a land use element plan, which is. Heavily based on use of. Rental properties and multiple use family units. Many investors will not invest in rent controlled areas except for low income investors who rental housing. And which is always. Subsidized by the government. Long Beach has the lowest. Vacancy in 30 years. So it is obvious to. Me the market is being is bearing the cost of housing. Finally, imagine you have started a clothing business. The city comes and tells you. Thank you, Mr. much. Thank you for your call and continue to finish your thought. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Next speaker, please. Hi. Good evening. My name is Perry Pineda. And I'm. Actually here to speak on behalf of my. Dad. He's 72 years old and he. Recently overexerting himself so he couldn't be. Here. My dad. Fled Cambodia and was harbored here in. Long Beach and he was very thankful for the freedoms he received. Here as opposed to. Communist control in Cambodia. And he was very thankful for the free education. He received here. As well as help with housing that he received here. Six years, he took advantage of that. Very, very thankful for it. And after six years, he was able to. Achieve the American dream. He went to school. Graduated from Long Beach City. College, and within that timeframe, he started. Working for the county. Los Angeles. And was able to purchase a house for us. Before that time, we were all renters, six people. In a one bedroom. We know what it is to be a renter. We know the. Struggles. Of, you know, making the rent and rent going up and trying to fit as. Many people as you can in one place so that you can. Save as much money as you can. We understand. That. And we haven't forgotten that. So. In everything that my dad has done with a single income. I appreciate. The hard. Work that he put. In. Having received. All the graces of Long Beach City in. America in general. And he has worked very hard and was able to buy. Well, then conclude your thought. But thank you. He was able to buy a property here in Mr. Andrews District, and that is his retirement. So I just don't want. Him to lose that. Thank you for your testimony. Next speaker, please. My name is George Panetta. And I just want to remind the mayor, city council, that our. Country is a capitalist. Country. It's not a socialist country. I know we have some representatives from some socialist group, and I would like to remind you of that. My parents, my. Father. Fled Cuba. Which is a communist country, which is a form of socialism. Is the sister or brother sister of socialism. My mother fled El Salvador because of the. Civil war there, and they were the communists trying to take over the country of El Salvador. They came to this country because of the freedoms and the opportunity that this country gave them, the freedom to purchase property, the freedom to rent their property at whatever price they wanted. If their prices were too high, then they would have to lower their prices. We live in a capitalist country. Where we have free market. Rent control is a form of socialism that does not work. And I'm sure. You will do your due diligence in. Looking at cities like San Francisco, New York. So some people. Call it Beverly Hills. What about Beverly? Beverly Hills rent control has worked there. None of us could afford to live in Beverly Hills. May I add those of you that are. For rent control and use. Beverly Hills as a support? But anyway. Again, I, I think that that the market, you know, rents if somebody wants to charge you know a lot. Of so. That's been 90 seconds thank you for your thank. You very much appreciate it. Well. Let's go with this. Hello. My name is John Angel. I was born and raised in Long Beach and I've been in the housing industry for 45 years. Recipients of this measure are not being means tested, means testing means an examination into the financial state of a person to determine eligibility for public assistance. This measure this measure steals money from landlords and gives it to persons that may very well not need it. Does not make sense to only help people that need help. There are people that need help. Let's help those people. Let's not help everybody that doesn't need help. You can have a tenant. There's more wealthy and have more assets and income than the landlord that's going to receive rent control. This is very bad for the community as landlords will slow maintenance and stop improving properties. Property managing real estate is very time consuming and costly. Existing tenants will never move and new tenants will pay more. With no supply of available housing. This is economic injustice for all at its peak. Thank you for your testimony. Mexican police. Mark Panetta is going to come at it from a different perspective. I own rental property and rent control areas as well as non rent control areas. And you know, at a high level, it just doesn't work. Rent control. Both economists on the left and the right agree that it doesn't work. When you have a relationship with a tenant under rent control, you have to be very unforgiving if they're late on the rent, whereas you might work more with a tenant that's a non rent control area, give them more time to pay, upgrade their kitchen, maybe put in some ground it in a rent control area, you extract the maximum and you put in the minimum. You know, that's just the way business works and it does change the relationship. Also, we heard about homeless the homeless crisis. I've housed six homeless veterans in rent control areas. I could not put one in a rent control here because just in case something doesn't work out, you have no way to to give notice to that tenant if it's causing a problem in that in that building. And we have a duty to keep a building safe for all of our tenants. And I thank you for your time. Thank you. Next week, at least. Good evening, Council. Mayor Garcia. My name is Johnny Weir, and I'm the president of Better Housing for Long Beach. Oh, no boos. We do support review of this proposal, and I want to thank the council member that brought this to the forefront. I'm also here tonight representing my amazing tenants in District one, District two, District three, and District four. In fact, some of them are here tonight. Thank you for coming. If this ordinance is passed, those tenants will be displaced. And if housing affordability is the true bearer, there is countless research that rent control raises rents. Rent controlled cities have the highest rent in the country Santa monica highest in the nation. I would like every person here tonight when you leave here, the highest rate in the nation and you'll find they are all located in rent controlled cities. I cut this down to a minute. 300,000 people, renters over there we've vacated out of their apartments in New York when strict rent control laws came into place. So where did this tenants go of the 300,000 tenants go anyway? Stand up against rent control. Stand up. Thank you. Let's look at blues names. Pat Kennedy from Fifth District. Thank you, mayor and council members. I was here in 2005, 2006 talking about, you know, with the need for a housing trust fund. The city council passed a housing trust fund and said, we'll put $500,000 a year from the bed tax into the housing trust fund. But and the reason we did that was because people, homeless people are living in motels and contributing to the bed tax each year. However, there was a clause in there that said if available, and for some reason the city managers never found the money available for the housing trust fund. So we've never invested in a housing trust fund to build affordable housing. We haven't done inclusionary zoning. We haven't created linkage fees. So we have a city that's failed to provide leadership in terms of addressing this housing crisis. And it's not just the city. Obviously, the market has failed us also, if you look at the subprime mortgage. Couple of things I'd like to see if you're going to do some research. How many absentee landlords do we have in Long Beach? How many how many dollars from monthly rent end up in the local economy? And the final question is, what would be the increase in community safety if we stabilize rental communities? Thank you for your time. Thank you. Next week, at least. A little Brian Matheson, resident of Long Beach. I read some very insightful comments on. The petition and now. Fully understand why rent control cities so huge declines in rental properties. But of all the pages of Byzantine rules and regulations, I found the introduction in Section two in the preamble the most damning. There are 15 subsections in Section two and only five offer bits of data to back up their imminent warning of doom. The other ten subsections appear to be made up and completely subjective. It doesn't seem right that unverified statements can be made without documentations and presented as fact. To their credit, they did use correct facts when they referenced the horrible housing problems in Los Angeles. But a laughable lapse of logic in the petition in Section two, A and B makes reference to the grave situation in housing in Los Angeles as a basis for bringing rent control to Long Beach. If there is a poster child for the ill effects of price fixing rent, it has got to. Be Los Angeles. Los Angeles is the city. You use to prove rent control does not work and makes the problem worse. Price fixing fair rent is the same as taking the wrong medicine and finding out the proposed cure is worse than the disease. So no matter the changes in the House, which you might consider to the petition, you still are price fixing. At the end of the day, you have a program that will turn away investors and developers. You will have a program that decreases property values for apartments as well as private homes, resulting in a decline in value forms. Going to the. Thank you. Sir, for your testimony. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Even honorable council members and mayor. My name is Fred Sutton. I'm with the California Apartment Association. We represent housing providers throughout California and here in Long Beach. I want to thank the council for bringing forth this item. I think reviewing questions on this topic is incredibly important because if it's implemented. It will affect every single resident and person in this city. Price controls and eviction restriction policies are commonly associated with Byzantine bureaucracy, onerous requirements and counterproductive outcomes. It is important that clarity is obtained on some of the details as it will help us cut through the rhetoric. Community members should not be pitted against each other as we seek to find clarity on issues of shared concern. We thank the council members and we urge you to support reviewing these questions. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Please. An honor to Mayor Garcia and the city council. My name is Sybil Baldwin, and I am here for rent control in Long Beach. I am a child development. Supervisor with a Long Beach Unified School District. And I just wanted to share the impact that Long Beach. Without rent control has. Affected our Long Beach Unified Schools and our child development centers. We have over 25 child development centers under Long Beach Unified School District. Where we have closures. Because our families are leaving, letting us know they can't afford to live in Long Beach. Our enrollment in our and our. Elementary schools and all of our schools. Are affected. By the fact that our. Families cannot afford to live in Long Beach. They have left and we have classrooms closing. And I'm just here to ask. For your support for rent control in Long Beach so that we can provide the educational opportunities for our early. Early childhood. Children all over Long Beach and in our schools. To make it affordable, to. Live in Long Beach and. To give us rights. Thank you so much. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Very effective message in under 60 seconds, I might say. Thank you. Next speaker, please step away. And so the Democratic Socialists of America, Long Beach. I'm going to be very quick here because unfortunately, apparently, Darryl, despite only contending counsel three times a week and not holding office hours, doesn't want to listen to all of us. The elements of a local housing crisis can be summed up as this affordability, supply and habitability. The supply issue was addressed best by the land use element. Affordability is a more complex issue given the parameters of capitalism. Rent control is just one tool used to address affordability by ensuring that the rents paid by the working poor who cannot buy but also do not receive assistance from the federal government, can stay inside the city less strict and therefore less effective. Tools for including the use of contractor development agreements are already being employed by the City of Long Beach and are not doing the job. The problem of habitability remains largely unaddressed by this council, but it remains a serious public health and equity issue. My questions are as follows What ever happened to the preemptive inspection program? Wait. Why is this council still being concerned about the marketability of the Long Beach housing stock? This myopia is at best helping heal local housing bubble and is at worst a sign that you're ignoring your primary responsibility as a council, protecting the rights of the residents and not property. We all know that the large percentage of the parasitic landlord class here have 714 area codes, and frankly, their return on their investment should do the last thing you are concerned about, especially given the fact that, unlike them, we actually vote on your on your elections. Where are the increased calls for housing inspectors are credibility poor can be directly tied to the massive cuts the city has made to the city of Long Beach's workforce. Without it put more housing inspectors to ensure the safety and health and safety of our residents, we again are at the mercy of the private sector doing that. Engage in a race to the bottom. Thank you. And finally, if they can't afford a fixer six, how. Come they have an excuse to please? Good evening. My name is Sandra Krall and I reside in the third district. Actually, I want to thank you for your foresight tonight in preparing so thoroughly for the coming of rent control. Collecting relevant information gets the city ready to act as soon as the measure is passed. And it can also help to dispel some of those scary scenarios that are already being spun by the opponents. And I sincerely believe that this measure will pass. I'm getting enthusiastic signers to the petitions in the north part of Long Beach, in the downtown area and on the east side. As a member of the faith community and a church that is on the east side, most of whose members are I won't say most, but a large number of our members are property owners. And they're eager, eager to sign these petitions even are the landlords in in the congregation, because these are the local landlords. They have relationships with their tenants. They treat them fairly. They want to keep their properties rented and at a rate where they can keep up their improvements on it, but also get a fair return on their investment. So I sincerely hope that you will. The agenda item tonight. Truly does. Yield the impartial data and clarification it claims to. Seek. Thank you for your testimony next week at this. Before I begin, I would like to point out I don't think that Council member Andrews is aware that he's blocking the view of the clerk from here. Thank you, sir. That's the problem. Yeah. Garry Sheldon, again, before you and I've already lost 20 seconds of time. All right, you get that. That you have seven pages of questions here. I hope we're not limited to those questions to be considered as this goes to the staff, for your information. The council has it's not a policy, at least an urge to have less than 60% of the city as renters and more than 40% as owners. Somehow to shift that that paradigm, to use that word again. That's going to take the changing of thousands, tens of thousands of units of housing from renting to owning. And there's only so many tools in the basket. One of those is condo conversions. And I don't know if we'll ever solve it through condo conversions, except for one thing. I think you're probably going to learn that this rent control ordinance could result in the loss of rental units. And what will those units become? They'll become owned units. And so what you've got here is the opportunity to ask staff to report to you if we get rent control, which would be a good thing if we're really honest about trying to convert renters to owners, then we need to know what is the quantity. That rent control could change that paradigm here in Long Beach. Are we going to get maybe 20,000 condo conversions, 50,000 condo conversions? So that's a question that isn't anywhere in this list which could back you up for voting for rent control. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening. My name is tonight Ken Faye from the sixth District. Oh, man, this is crazy. Well, I just had a guy come up here and somehow masquerade the right wing death squads in El Salvador who can't fight with Romero and say they're a socialist. I don't even I'm. I'm I'm I missed that part. And then I had another guy who, you know, I thought, this is. A city, you know, built by veterans. I had another guy live. He just said he would rent to veterans. Because, well, rent control. It would be kind of hard to get them out. But, you. Know. I mean, maybe I was. In the same same chambers. Anyways. As you can see, I'm an African-American. It's a beautiful thing. And I bring that up because as a part of the black community here in Long Beach. It is a declining one. 6037 people, according to the. US Census of African-American origins, left the city. Maybe that's because 73% of the black population in the city are renters, and with the fluctuation in rent prices, we are most impacted, going from 14% of the population of the city to now 12%. So being that as in May, we need rent control. We need rent. Control because we don't need to be. Evicted from our buildings for Airbnb. We don't need to be evicted for our buildings for people who want to have demographic change in particular neighborhoods in this city, we need rent control. Thank you. Thank you. Campaign next speaker, please. All right? Yeah. I hope we don't get extra time for the claps in the middle, so let's just keep the moving. Thanks. Thank you. My name is Peter Hart, and I want to give you a face for the mom and pop of the world that have invested in Long Beach. I believed in Long Beach. I came here from Chicago, but 30 years ago, and I chose Long Beach because I believed in this city. And I invested all of my life's work and earnings into a housing unit so that I could perhaps live a good life here in Long Beach and retire. If this goes through, it will be taken from me, period. I believe that this is the United States where we have a freedom of choice. This takes it away and it puts on the backs of people that did nothing wrong except invest in Long Beach to subsidize the all the social ills that we're facing today. As far as, you know, housing issues. So I just ask that we look at this in a clear way and don't put social injustice on the backs of people that have invested here in Long Beach. Thank you. As we speak, the police. Good evening. And thank. You, Vice Mayor and council members. My name is Johanna Cunningham. And the. Executive director for the. Apartment Association, California Southern Cities. Tonight, I would like to thank the City Council for their thoughtful approach. To taking time to review the questions that have been submitted regarding. The proposed rent control ordinance, the negative impact and burden that this ordinance will place on the city. Of Long Beach. On development, and on the small property owners, deserves to be explored. Many of our owners did invest many years ago, and the majority of them were. And. Still are the work force that this ordinance claims to protect. The workers, your workers, the Long Beach workers, teachers, nurses, maintenance, grocery, hotel, retail, bus drivers, etc. Each of our owners invested in this city and this industry as part of their retirement goals, goals that are now being threatened. We encourage you to be thoughtful about all, including small property owners, that will be impacted because even those who are relying on this income. To take them to their and to their retirement years. Will be impacted. So tonight, I'm asking that you vote in favor of reviewing these proposed questions. And thank you for your attention. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening. My name is Josh Butler, executive director of housing Long Beach, and I am one of the proponents of this measure to bring rent control to the city of Long Beach. And I want to. Thank the council members for bringing this item forward. Thank you, Councilmember Supervisor, and thank you to Mr. Murchison and the landowner to help write this item. We think it's great for. Understanding that this is commonly referred to as a 9 to 1 to report. This is something that the Council is allowed to do. Elections Code Section 91 to states that quote during the circulation of the petition or before deciding to adopt the ordinance or put it on the ballot. The legislative body may refer the proposed initiative measure to a city agency or agencies for a report on such matters as fiscal impact, effects on consistency with the city's general and specific plan, effects on land use, impact on funding and infrastructure. So it is my understanding that you all have three options once we bring the signatures into once the city clerk certifies those signatures. Option one is you can place it on the ballot. Option two is you can make it law. Option three is to ask a set of questions under elections code, section. 9 to 1 two. So we thank you for initiating that this evening. And we look forward to all the questions that the council members. Have, and we can get that out of the way now so that when we turn the signatures in. We can move toward certification as quickly as possible. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Act and act. Can we fight President of District One? I'm really fortunate in that I have subsidized housing. But every day I see the struggles for other seniors and people in our community. Who don't. Have nice landlords. There's a lot of profit being taken out of our community. The goal of landlords is to invest, to make money. A lot of landlords are coming into our community and that is their major goal. We're seeing it in the conversion of units to Airbnb. We're seeing it in the corporate landlords that are coming in. A lot of the landlords in our community are absentee landlords. I would really like. To add an inquiry. How many absentee landlords that we have? I think that's important for us to know. So we look forward to having an open, honest discussion about rent control and how this can really make our community inclusionary and engage in the equity process so that we can keep the valuable, valuable population that we have in our diversity and equity across the board. Thank you all. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello. My name is Deena. I live in the second district. I'm an organizing member of the Long. Beach Tenants Union, and I'm here in support of the rent control ordinance, the proposed rent control ordinance. I'd like to thank you again for. Proposing these questions so that we can get the conversation started about rent control in our community. We have for decades understood that the relationship between landlord and tenant is one that requires regulations from our habitability habitability laws to our Fair Housing Act. These regulations have become an. Integral part of our political. System because we recognize that the. Skewed bargaining power in this relationship by the decisions of one landlord could determine the outcome of one or more people's lives is important. So this decision, the decisions that lenders make, can determine whether or not people have roofs over their heads, whether they can afford to pay for food and other necessities after paying for their rent, how many jobs. They need to work to make up the difference, and what their health outcomes will be. One of the other few places we see relationships with this power. That can have great impacts on someone's life. Is an employer and employee relationship. And in that case, we have extensively regulated those relationships to prevent an abuse of power and protect the most vulnerable party in that contractual relationship. And so additionally, we have seen a false narrative of mom and pop landlords as vulnerable stakeholders in this discussion, while ignoring the real. Estate speculators who are driving the housing crisis. The mom and pop landlords are, of course, guaranteed a fair return on. Their investment by law, even in rent regulating cities, and continue to make well above a fair return in such cities. For any economic decisions through the plight of small landlords allows. Critics to question rent control without addressing the prevalence of corporate real estate speculation. There are, in. Fact, corporate. Real estate speculators in San Francisco that profit extensively by converting. Thank you so much for your testimony. Thank you. Next week at least. Thanks to the city council and the vice mayor. My name is Catherine Cox. I'm speaking as a second district voter and a member of the renter majority in Long Beach. I want to address some of the misinformation I've seen and heard tonight. Number one, rent control is bad for everyone. This is patently false. Just as this housing crisis does not impact everyone equally, neither does rent control. Displacement overwhelmingly affects low income communities of color. And in the 13 California cities that have passed rent control, these measures have prevented low income tenants from being displaced as market rents rise. That's according to a study by the Urban Displacement Project. Number two, rent control raises rents. Landlords raise rents. If this were true, the real estate developers in the room would be out there collecting signatures with us. The housing crisis is caused by land and housing speculation. Rent control. One can't help these rising costs, but it can curb the devastating displacement. That we're seeing in Long Beach. Number three, landlords aren't responsible for rising rents and shouldn't be punished with rent control regulations. This is opposed to rent control isn't a punishment. It's a protection for vulnerable renters. We as a community should not. Have to bear the burden of displacement and neighborhood instability so that a single industry can profit unfettered by regulation. Displacement causes trauma to our communities, its neighbors, our neighbors from their families, homes, schools, places of. Worship and. Community services. I ask the City Council to support the. Voters as we move. For affordable. Housing. Just because eviction and other renter protections in Long Beach. Thank you. Thank you for your. But the truth. Obviously I have no say on whether this goes on the ballot or not. I just want to dispel the stereotype, number one, that the landlords are all parasites trying to take advantage of their tenants. When I bought my four plex in 2004, I thought I was on Easy Street and I would be living free and clear for a long time. That's not the way it works. I don't know if you realize this, but the average housing stock in Long Beach is about the 1920s. Have you ever tried to take care of a building that was built in the 1920s? This is my stack of receipts from 2017. I had the same from 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013 all the way back to 2004. I am very hard trying to take care of that building and in the meantime, my taxes. I don't know who said that they're only going up by 1%. But in 2015, 2016, according to Zillow, it was seven and a half. Part of the reason the prices are going up has nothing to do with landlords being greedy. It has to do with the fact that people like me over the last 14 years haven't been adding anything to the rent. And I'm sorry, but there's a point where we have to catch up. Otherwise the building will be sold and my tenants would be homeless because quite frankly, it's on 5000 feet of land. Somebody could do something better with it than I could. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. But evening, everyone. My name is is that Velez, and I am a resident of the First District. I am one of many affected by a 60 day notice. I stand here with all my neighbors and friends to fight for our rights. I'm currently pregnant and I have to move by me. I will be five months pregnant when? When they have to move. I have been exposed to chemicals of pain and risk. That was done by me, by the new owners. Beachfront properties took no consideration in the news. Notices that they were going to remodel our apartments due to the smell of paint and rose grinding. I have headaches and coughing and I cramp every once in a while. I have become good looking for places to live, but I have found nothing new. The area. I do not want to move because all my doctor's appointments have already been sent. I already have my hospital where I have my baby. I hope my representatives can make a difference not only in the life of my town, but the life of other children who are being pushed out and exposed to toxic chemicals due to the way these companies are operating. I hope these companies are held accountable for their actions. Thank you. Next, could you please? Well, my name is Paul Babcock. I live in the fifth District. I own a duplex rental in the first District. Purchased that through blood, sweat and tears. I'm trying to make a return on my unit. Rent still go down in 2008 when the economy crashed. I had already rent 300 a month. Per unit on the two units. I'm still at that. Same rent as the man said. Expenses are going up, taxes are going up. And I don't wish to. I understand the plight of some people, but I don't wish to have that solved on my back. Our expenses include monies that were invested to remodel our properties. We'd like to have that return recognized or that investment recognized and considered as an expense, unlike the measure that's in front of you is excluded and there are protections for eviction. It's under California state law. The city attorney is well aware of that. So hopefully that'll bring out the address, the notion that there's no protections for renters. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Let's go to Bruce. My name is Teresa Alvarado. I've lived in Long Beach since 1954. My parents worked for the Unified School District, and I've lived and worked in Long Beach the majority of my life. I've been a renter and an owner, and I feel deeply rooted to Long Beach and a stakeholder in what happens. My husband, Paul, just spoke. We have a duplex. We never intended to become real estate moguls or be millionaires from from owning that property. But this ordinance, if it's passed, is unfair to small property owners. It's poorly written. It assumes that in 2016 and 2017, the base years, there was a fair rate of return. In our situation, we haven't raised rents in many years and so we barely, if at all, break even. And now in order to do improvements that are needed and to recover, we need to be able to raise the rents accordingly, not to gouge anybody, but to just get a fair return. So that we can protect our investment. The result of this passes. Is that we will be directly. Subsidizing our tenants who are not. Needy or not, for by. Any means it will come out of our pockets and we are retirees with fixed income. So please don't pass the ordinance as written. Thank you. Thank you. That's what the police. Hi there, Jodie in seventh District. I first want to dedicate this to the people who are working double shifts right now to pay their next rent payment and the rate increase. I would also like to acknowledge Carol Price and my wife who have brought this forth. We're very grateful. That this is being brought to us so that we can dispel some of the myths that you see here tonight. So let's get some numbers here right now. Let's talk about the Stanford University. Study on rent control that happened in. November of 2017. There were multiple rounds of publication circulation that ended up trying to frame. This as rent control is bad. But let's look at the numbers. So actually, when the study first came out in November 2017, there was a net $2.1 billion. Benefit to renters in San Francisco. And there were also benefits net to. The landlords at. The very worst. There was no effect on the rental. Market whatsoever in San Francisco, as studied at Stanford University, this is. NPR data. What's interesting to note is that the actual benefits for tenants were cited as $7.085. Billion, and that's based on. The fact that they were able to afford the. Rents, they were able to build what they were able to save that money. What's interesting about that number is that that is only for one specific year, 1994. They didn't count any renters before that or after that. So there are literally billions of dollars in benefits to tenants in wealth building. And the best part about this is that the study. Also concluded that landlords didn't end up feeling any harmful effects. They continued to get a fair return on their properties. So thank. You. Please review these photos very much. Next week piece. Hi. My name's Annie NC. I am from District one, Lena Gonzalez's district, and I don't even know where to start with one a minute and a half. Should I start talking about the gentrification that's happening in Long Beach with the help of Robert Garcia? Should I talk about how the homeless the homeless issue between properties as my neighbors are all here, just bombed my building. I've been living there for 17 years. I go to school, I work, I'm doing the best I can. I do the best I can. I haven't seen my dad in three weeks. Why? Because he's in his fifties. Because he had to get another job to pay for the rent increase they are renovating and all they're doing is painting. Why are you so afraid of rent controlled? Because it can exploit us now. Because we can't take those out. Don't. And let's just be clear. They go into neighborhoods, to poor neighborhoods. You you choose to buy poor apartments and then you paint it and you double the price. And then you're saying that you are investing in this. We pay your buildings, we put the money in your pockets and stop acting like you're doing us a favor. And also, I just wanted to say thank you. I was giving you don't forget, these people are going to work at three, five in the morning to pay. What are you guys going to your house? So you're like rich house. Was you rich pockets? These are working class people that you're kicking out. I know these are working class people. And we also vote. We are all looking into how we're going to vote for Robert Garcia for our representatives. And I hope Lena supports this because this is all your district. Thank you. Thank you. Speaker, please. Good evening. Good evening, Mayor Garcia. Councilwoman Ms.. Gonzalez. Everybody else. I would like to start off by introducing myself. My name is Kimberly Navas. I was born and raised in Long Beach. I am currently living in District one. And I say currently because sadly I will have to leave my city soon. I have lived in Long Beach my entire life. Long Beach is home to my family and I. I have been living in the same apartment for 20 years and out of nowhere the owners of my building evicted. All its tenants. And now that my. Family have to look for a new place, we come to find out it's nearly impossible to stay in Long Beach due to such high rent. We need. Rent control. Long Beach is. Home and I have to leave because my family can't afford it. I went to. International Elementary, which is. Now Oropeza Elementary. I went to. Jefferson Middle School and I am second generation Long Beach. Wilson graduate. I had the opportunity to leave my city after graduating, but I decided there is no place like home. With the help of Long Beach Promise, I am currently a student at Long Beach City College. Just like you both, my goal is to graduate from Cal State Long Beach. But because of such high rent prices, I am forced to leave and relocate and pursue my education somewhere else. I have a younger sister who one day I wish to see graduating from Wilson High School and become the third generation. But because we no longer can afford our home, we might never see that day with the cost of rent and property management evicting their longtime tenants. People are deciding to leave Long Beach not because they want to, but because they are being forced to leave the city they know as home. Thank you for your testimony. Next speaker, please. Good evening, my. I live in the eastern one. My name is Christina. Mine. I haven't lived for 26 years. I'm here because my family and 25 more families from our building are being picked to a beach from Hong Kong beachfront. And different companies like this are kicking people out for Long Beach. They are raising the rents. They not be to they can't afford to pay higher ends. This is our city. We love our city families. Ah, this is. Sorry. I'm so terribly sorry. Because they cannot for pay rent. It's so heartbreaking to see seniors crying. To see where I'm going to go sleep tomorrow. Because I don't have money to move because they. This is our city councilwoman, Lena Gonzalez. Mayor Robert Garcia, people like me who fought for you to represent us. We need your help. Your Latinos need your help. So please do something for us because we know we make the right decision to put you guys in there. So we still believe in you guys. Thank you. Thank you. And just a moment, please. That's just a moment before you begin. Mr. City Attorney. So I have a request from some people behind the dais. Can we just sort of highlight what the scope of this motion is tonight so people can speak to it? Certainly the motion this evening, as proposed by the council, is to refer a list, I think a six and a half page list of specific questions regarding the initiative ordinance that is currently being circulated. There is no action that the city council can take this evening either for or against rent control. This is strictly a request for information at this time. So just to be clear, this is, you know, there's no action, there's no ordinance before us for the city council to consider. I just want to make sure that that's out there clear. City council will not be taking an up or down vote tonight on a rent control ordinance. Just want to be clear. Next speaker, please. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Cynthia. Jesus, and I live in the second district. Mayor Garcia, City Council members. My time's cut short, so I'm just get to the point. This poster is from 1979, and the title says People who can afford to live here should move someplace else. This was from the press telegram sent by president, member of the Lumbee City Council. Now there's a war going on in Long Beach. This war amounts to one big eviction notice for the elderly, the disabled, for people on fixed incomes, for minorities, for unemployed and underpaid working people of all races. Long Beach Master Plan calls for righting the city of individuals families that don't have a lot of money to spend. Instead, higher income consumers are being invited to frolic in a new landscape shopping malls, condominiums, racket clubs, Jacuzzis. This new landscape is evidence of a city economy geared to profits rather than humaneness. It's 2018, but yet we still have the same problem. So, I mean, it's time to wake up and do something about it. I know you guys are just listening and all. They're not going to vote, but at the end of the day, you guys do have the power to make your city better and make life not same easier, but make it comfortable for not only the family but the children that are going to be a future of Long Beach. Hopefully, if not, they're going to be in Kentucky or somewhere else where they can afford to rent. So thank you for your time. Thank you. Next week, Bruce. Translation of a chance. A sure thing. Let's double up the time for trying it for interpretation. Thank you for seeing. Me emulate this Haslemere. Giving up royal control the rent that it is a local who stole from me. I mean, it's a local news. The publisher for me, the originals. It's just on the condition it is lucky. Opposite a member of a mental institution because your. In my venue. I'm Sally Everest. You're another MIA for the popular Missy Variety apology album. What the hell? He was in our consolation parody. Mr. Strahovski up the near you several venues in Ethiopia under religious apartheid. Mr. Dunham, the Rwandan military see them there. Bill Gigaba, the M.C. Anton of Anthem. Ms.. De la Renta. No, it's important, I think. But when we dramatically opening up in circuit, we see who's psychology come anticipo zero mal your stupid portrait, Mrs. Adams. People forget the personal things. So, hello. My name is Letitia Duma. I come here to support rent control and just cause eviction. I was evicted unjustly for fighting for my rights. These are some of the conditions I was in, in my apartment. The ceiling fell on me. There were snakes that came out of the restroom. I wouldn't sleep because I had to take care of my children and this process. I had to pay for a motel to protect my. My, my children. I lost my two jobs because the owners would lie to me and tell me that they were going to do a fumigation , but they never did. I would pay thousands of dollars for electricity because they would rob my electricity from my building for other units. This is also recorded in the city. I would pay 975 for rent and the electricity bill was 8198. Everything I pass and the apartment and the light. Bill caused me to have stress. And some of my children have psychological problems due to this. It was it was a nightmare. And I found depression. I also got sick from my gallbladder. I had to have a surgery. And I also had to also is very stressed up to this day, my daughters and son, I can still find a place due to the fact that there. Is no. Housing available. Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. And let's look at this. When I started. Murray Anthony, Antonio, your up there controlled our entire brigade. We will not departamento they will not a camera. And this cannot allow to elaborate on what they want. One sec. West America is my manager gave me a camera, the Departamento de Medici in the Gambia, but still getting Occupy out of me. This and on the power of mercy internment they single and your customers? We are on Siendo la. This is mutual case. They are not neutral animal person. Hello, my name is my Antonia. And my. Goal is have been no monopoly or control. I come to us for rent control together. Rent handling department didn't have a camera because. I rent a11 bedroom apartment. And the parliamentary looks cannot allow they have labor is not what the UN do. I want them to remain. In the room with my daughter. There's the ceiling is leaking. If the baby Armani had to make. I'm going to the parliamentary committee. I ask the manager to move me to another unit, but they're charging me 1200 a year. Get them in control. You're not trabaho e look at your thing. All the little guy. Your circle is at your tratando competition director. And I would like for there to be rent control due to the fact that I don't not work and I just survive half of what I make. Because I'm a young single with a mother Mexican. And if I try to move again just to get a new apartment, it's going to there aren't going to be a dozen, 100. It with billable, hardworking man. Okay. You are not going to see some of those times that people will control the rent. And I ask you to support the people as they ask for rent control. And I. Thank you. Thank you. Next week, the first thing when I'm not. Just the number of hassles, but I want you, we will see that. Yes, there's a street in law. Ultimately, my mother is real macabre, though. There's a lot of things so center the Esperanza responsibility e is move pocket the ample estate loans would be must also mammoth anesthetizing little of owners i.e. local school of permanent purpose plastic was over. But I'm. Okay. My name is this Bravo. I live on 10th and theater district one he looking. Good. Thing. Daniel he's he's been living there for 20 years and recently he received a 60 day notice to move out. The beachfront properties have started to do their renovations in which they started painting and covering the windows. While he's been living there. He was left of a no no center. No the island. But a limping. He. You place the fiscal in control of parliament and at the empl. It was when. He said that with the windows covered, it's really hard to breathe in there. There's no air circulation. And he's been looking for a new place. But it's really hard to find a new a new place to live in 60 days. It was rehearsal for that for you seniors. How you control the rental. He installed the glasses. And thank you. If you do support rent control. Thank you. Thank you. Let's look at this. Hi. My name is Guadalupe Rios. And when us not just calls her her little girl, this year will be doing me apartamento Ms.. The U.S. Attorney's Cassie Daniels. Amitabh Mian Mandela Notification Center. Yes. You're not doing well for a proposed idiot. Jesse. Don't clean up responsibility party for indoor girls. The problem is your age only party better accompany Anthony No Rosa Apartamento Don't nominate a particular center Poor woman All the name here we have a serious close Apartamento system in Muller's condition. This work also in La Renta Turtle no more mind your condo telecom pioneer There is not a castle in Mikasa Leo in know Newcastle initials in le Carré you will put up one particular track working miserable life. In the meantime, you see no melancholy you can be a joy to look at can be transformed by us. But it's Alfredo and not asthma. At the Liverpool airport April I would at all look Italian construction this purple is tan is on chemicals can not also line you can weather we will do quo but I just killed whether we meet competitors conduct on this camp whether we be a status quo to look after the animals under Lisbon the Luna casa no policy equals animals being hello dancer Lucas Lucas Cousteau cannot you know want temper tantrums in the scenario Camilla's current can know either annoy this hello who as you that your Bambi and be one of the distrito eunuch is here I catalyst concealer go by the protection of the loss interests is corporate cooperatives EU Then I'm Antonella Lombard All of our local metro the longest longest is meal how long this is those Latinos it percent Latinos this I say no little emails Cousteau Davos almost this my most mischievous animals follows and in my list let's put out Ambien veteran of stratospheric animal is gracious. Good evening, councilmembers and Mayor. My name is Guadalupe Berrios. I've been living in my apartment on 10th and Cedar for almost 20 years, and I as well have been given a 60 day notice and I don't have a place to go. I have been a responsible renter paying my rent on time and not causing any issues. I have done my part, but the company has maintained the apartments in an inhabitable condition in my apartment. A fungus came out, a. Mushroom out of the floor. This is not normal. And when I told the company they did nothing. No, nothing has changed. My carpet was never changed. I have had to change my carpet out of my own money. How many of you live with roaches? Rats? Bedbugs? They do neither. One time I have had to. Go beyond double. If you just summarize the. The rest of the message. Yes. I have lived in this district and in this city. I hope that you would protect us, not just the corporate interests. Please help maintain Long Beach an affordable place to live. Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. Let's be clear, please. When I look at Ramiro Vergara, everyone listening this year to the last year it ambiente then going to anyos I won't see any of my Nigerian Lautrec companion come home. Chaotic Newcastle little Cassie Robyn. That is nuevos personas. Yes. No. Lord Winehouse eloquent answer center. Yes. Baraka. Messala LaCour. Alistair your sterility. Diallo Yes. There are no apenas meal. Siento McKee Thomas yea pirate your cientos is getting so we may lowly mill city into lotteries the only Pueblo Sarkar in their. This is what I think. Hi. Good evening. My name is Ramiro Vergara. Vergara. I've been there for 20 years and this apartment and never left. I to receive the 60 day notice along with my neighbors that are here. And we are here to fight for our rights. It's not just that this company has the power to evict us and just to evict us to get more money. With no fair reason, these companies like beachfront properties, are destroying our city and are in this war thinking, okay, they're destroying our city and separating families. I implore you, I implore on behalf of our neighbors to stand up and not be afraid anymore to speak about these the way they manage these properties. The object is not to move us simply to raise money. It looks like we let you do this. Okay. And then just to summarize, he he wants to. He's pleading for you guys to have support for gun control. Okay. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Well, not just the number of mice, each of us. The millennial apartamento that lost the additional revenue and they work at home. And which of them is best, you know, setting, you know, go under on this you almost inevitably tequila company occupy the common payroll company of the Palm Beach them you know that element of my motto is a saint that he has nothing apparently to make is say, give me the NBA and Long Beach. I don't know whether they will get Bahamians status. So. CONTENTO Sacrificial lamb, an impressive touring Quinta Party, Los Apartamento, Caracas, 80 inches Europe. Dennis left Paris more, I think, on the really poor. Terms and at the lower so looking a lot more commercial into a language but. I. Hello my name is Moses Torres and I too live in the apartments of 1019 Cedar Avenue. Seemed like many of my neighbors I have had to live with in habitable conditions because a company doesn't worry about us. I have lived there for nine years and the company Beach Front has given me a 60 day notice and I have nowhere to go. I would like I would like to live, continue living in Long Beach, but I can't pay the thousand 600. That they are asking for payments. Know that the cost to move. I, too, have to live with cockroaches, rats and bedbugs. Well, it's already hard for me to pay the rent. I pay I own 1350. I want to continue living as a resident in the area and I would hope that our elected leaders do something for the community and perhaps in support rent control. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening, city council. I know it's a very sensitive subject. Recovering. My name's Eduardo Perez. I've worked in the city of Long Beach since the 1980s. I had food distributing business, and after many years of work, I bought some units and in the north and the south part of Long Beach. And it's a day to day job. We don't have I don't have anything fancy. Fancy, but it's it's lots of work, not eight hour days as 12 hour days to keep things running the way they should be with property taxes going up and putting a cap on on what you can work with. As far as the rent is concerned, it makes it very, very difficult to keep to turn a product that tenants are comfortable with and come to expect. And if you have a fixed amount that you can only go a certain percentage and it makes it almost impossible to provide adequate housing in and keep Long Beach looking the way it is now. Back in the eighties, this area of Long Beach was not the prettiest or the safest, and every day I see much prettier. Housing is much better kept. The roads, everything is. Unfortunately, our property taxes go through the roof. So that's another thing that, you know, we have to be able to keep up with what's going on. But God bless and do your best. Thank you. Next speaker. Please. Hi. My name is Omar. I am a resident for District District one Healthy Lives Matters for Low Income Families and Communities. The reason why I mentioned is that I have experienced displacement and homelessness many times in the past, and when you are displaced as well as homeless, you go through fatigue and lack of sleep. I mean, it totally distracts your daily life. You know, it's like being a full time student number of times. And I've been homeless during the times that I was in and in school. And most of us, all of us, I bet, been through lack of sleep, fatigued, have no idea where to go to do your homework and live a happy life. How how how were you feel? It was it was that you're in that position. How will you feel? How. How will it be to not have a roof over your head or a place to sleep it? Then the next day you have to work full time and and go to school or a nice school. Sarah. Sarah. So I say that housing is a human right and please support rent control. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening. My name's Martina Chapa, and I'm a 25 year resident of Long Beach. I've been a resident of District four. And I want to give you a firsthand perspective of what it is to be an owner landlord. Regarding my residency in the art craft metro area, where the neighborhood is principally duplex, I also owned my previous residence, another duplex in Los Angeles that's under rent control. So I have experience under both systems. My tenant, a Long Beach I've had for five years, I was able to work with her as a single mother. I reduced the rate of rent that I was asking for and I cut the security deposit in half. Five years that she's been there, I've raised her rent on average of 2% throughout this period of time. She's still not paying the rent that I requested when she first moved in. I would not be doing those considerations if I was under rent control. And when my property in Los Angeles, if you pass a rent control, that leaves a lot of discretion out of my hands. I'm faced with property taxes. I'm faced with a lot of other expenses that isn't rent control, property tax consideration. I had those same issues and pressures. There's a lot of economics going here and I feel there is an unfair burden that's going to be placed on small time landlords, especially, to try to even out the disadvantages of a lot of poor people here that are disadvantaged. You know, my heart goes out to them, but also consider the small time landlords that are trying to make a decent living. The home is my home. I run it not as a business, but as my home. And I'm looking for a good neighbor. Don't leave that discretion out to provide those things. Thank you for your testimony. Let's look at this. Good evening, city council and mayor. Like all of you, I am a public servant. I'm a professor at Cal State Long Beach. My name is Dr. Chuck Harmony, and I wanted to give you the perspective of what it's like to be an instructor in a classroom at a university. And these are from 2017. Data. When one in five students are hungry and one in ten students are homeless. So I wanted to give you a picture, a face to what you see as homeless. It's not just destitute families that that you can kind of just shove away. These are my students and they are homeless because they can't even afford to live in a city where they're trying their best to get an education and to be civic citizens in this city and to give back and to be part of our future. And I wanted to leave you with three things that I, as a social scientist. Tell my. Students. And I would hope that as as civic servants like me, you would consider data that's holistic, not just data that is from one side. I think a gentleman actually gave really good research tonight, and I hope that you wouldn't use research that is quantitative as well as qualitative. We have a lot of anecdotal stories tonight that will help you inform your decision decision making. So just not just quality quantitative data, that's one side, but qualitative as well. Thank you for your time. Oh. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen of the Council. My name is Steve Barong, and I live in the fourth district. I am a rental property manager here in Long Beach. I manage about about 330 apartments in the Greater Long Beach area and in every district in the city. And I just want to express my strong support for this agenda item, and I hope that you guys will pass it and ask these important questions. As a property manager, I feel a fiduciary obligation to both my tenants and my property owners, and I do understand that they are not always in agreement, but I do think that good compromises can be made. I know just yesterday I gave 260 day notices to tenants who I love because the property owners own condos and they decided to sell now because they don't want to pay a relocation fee. Other tenants. So I lost excellent tenants who got 60 day notices. So I do feel in my heart for these people. That's why it's really important that we take the time to ask these questions. How is it going to affect all of the properties in the city of Long Beach? I'm frightened to own my own house, but my circumstances could change. I could face homelessness. I actually became a property manager because I came three days from losing my house in 2012 and I was unemployed and I went to work as a property manager, and that's how I saved my own home. So both sides have good points, but we really need to examine this proposed ordinance before we move forward with. Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. Next Speaker First. When I'm address, embrace America. So I go and then I go to Tampa is what I would say. Gillespie opinion. But I would control the Tampa so you know my mom and I family face personas this person I mean they think there's a rent. And an. Apartment in America. Men and women have become more but a lot of multiple apartments here because I'm in community centers and schools public opinion and I mean they came here and render and women panel for me him in a. Paralysis. Make it through thinking around me. Yes but I will. I mean, I'll pay the rent bill. I guess I better. If there is any men that are looking at him as an instrument, then they don't get an analysis. Hmm. Good evening. My name is America Antonio. I am ISO. I ask that I ask for help for rent control. I have a family of six and I pay 1200 and rent. My husband doesn't earn enough to pay for another increase in rent. And he would look for rent for he would look for other housing and he would fine of 600. 1600. 2000. And that's why. And we can't afford and that's why I ask of you in the name of all the families that work and all the children of those families that you support, rent control. I guess. Right here. We're talking about numbers and loss of money. But the generations and our children, where will they really stand? Thank you. Thank you, Madam Speaker. So the gentleman in the burgundy, some of the fire fire marshal told us the last of the people on the outside are now in. So I would advise line up now because we're getting close the speaker's list in a moment. So after this next speaker, whoever's the last person in line, that's who's going to be last speaker. Thank u next speaker, please. Hi everyone. My name is Benjamin Chao. I am a constituent of the ninth district. Fortunately, my family owns their home, but I'm also speaking on behalf of my grandmother and my aunts who live in the eighth District and Bixby Knolls. From the perspective of, you know, owning a home, I think we oftentimes forget that homeowners and renters share the community. And I learned the other day that the only apartment complex on my block has just been purchased by the same company, Westland Real Estate Group, that is also redeveloping the the Uptown, which is in the Artesia corridor in the ninth District. And I point that out, because private real estate speculation in our city is one of the leading causes for rents going up and is threatening our existing affordable housing stock. And so because of this, I want to ask Mayor Garcia and especially Vice Mayor Richardson to really reevaluate their stance on rent control and look at the facts and look at our community. I want to ask, how do you plan to advocate for home ownership in the ninth District without first addressing rising rents and the rising cost of living in our city? Please put people over profit and protect our renters. Invest in people, not private property. You have the power to protect your people from investors. We are not dollar signs. Please stop the bleeding by instituting and considering a rent hike freeze like Santa Cruz has done and let Long Beach voters decide their own fate. Thank you. Thank you. And I'm looking forward to getting a cup of coffee with you next week. Please call me. Oh. My neighbor here next week, please. Oh, because I work as a barista. That's why I thought. Maybe we'll come to your shop next week, please. Okay. I'm Mary DeSoto. A lot of people know me here. I am a homeowner. In the ninth district. As you know. And like I've said before, I also pay property taxes. My property taxes do go up and don't get so excited. I think it is absolutely wrong to want to make a profit. I can't make a profit if my. Community is not thriving. Equity is important to me and my property is important to me. One day I planned to maybe rent my property and I still don't think that it's okay that my neighbors are paying $1,600 for their one bedroom apartment. That's shitty I've seen. I've been inside their apartment. It's crap they don't. The landlord that lives in Orange County, she doesn't fix the apartment. She hasn't painted it. It smells in there. The carpets are bad. They it's roach infested and they pay $400 less. And what I do for my mortgage, I represent over 700 workers here in Long Beach at our hotel workers. Most of these workers live and work in Long Beach. And there most of them are renters. It is not and it is not a uncommon conversation that these workers can't afford to live in Long Beach. Let's not be the city that has to outsource to other cities to have workers. This is not about making this is about making Long Beach white. Again, let's be honest. Thank you for your testimony. Let's take a this. Oh, no, it's me again, piggybacking off of that. So it really strikes me how outrageously disempowered so many people in this room feel. We have people who have put in a lot of economic you bring a lot of their own money into owning one property and now they are severely compromised. And now we have a lot of people here who have either been pregnant, women who have been poisoned or people who have been sleeping on the streets, because we have, as correctly pointed out, corporate landlords coming in and putting their boots on the back of the people who make Long Beach. Long Beach. And, you know, in terms of the five year plan, I, I maybe we should just take the lesson rather than trying to make Long Beach sound sort of like a corny version of Los Angeles. Maybe we should invest in the people who are already here rather than inviting in outside influences. I, you know, in this really like ugly, exploitative, neoliberal thing because the abuse is so ugly, all you can only understand what it is like to not have control over the roof, over your own head, if you've experienced it, because I can't communicate it verbally, that terror or something, you have to live. And so many people in this room are living it right now. And you've got to take that into responsibility as public servants, the terror and the fear that these people are experiencing in this room. Thank you for your testimony. So raise your hand. The last person in line. Okay. So the young lady raised the pin. Last person in line. Thank you. Next speaker, please. My name is Gregory. Dean and I reside in both the first district and the seventh District. I am the proud property owner of two vintage properties, one specifically located in Downtown's West Side. The other in the neighborhood of Wrigley. The Downtown property is a 1923 art deco four plex. It is a multifamily property first spotted in 2003. At that time, it was primarily low income and Section eight tenants. There are 14 people living in one small, two bedroom apartment. Since purchasing that property, I have become as an owner, I have replaced the roof, the ingoing, outgoing plumbing. I have refurbished all the interiors. I have completely restored the exterior of the property. I have repaired all termite damage. I have worked directly with the lawn and garden program to re landscaped the property and I've also benefited local businesses who I have hired for that work. Those those units are now what I take pride in as a property owner. I also stand as somebody who struggled with both homelessness and addiction in the eighties. And I am proud to say that I run a quality place for people to live. And I make no apologies to anybody here in this room. So as you do your research, I hope you'll keep in mind that some of us are good landlords, responsible landlords, and treat our tenants with compassion and fairness. Always. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening, council members. My name is Shannon Llewellyn. I'm a social worker here in Long Beach, and I deal with developmentally disabled clients who live on only $900 a month that include utilities and food, by the way, which I would like to see all of you do a social experiment and try to live on that. We cannot continue to spend 70% of our income on rent where we have no more to put back into this community that we live in. I grew up here. I did a brief survey of our city back in the day, if you will. When I was in high school. It was contentment. Now it's chaos. The rental requirements are almost. Three times the amount of income. 655 AE And no blemishes. The people that are against rent control are well off. Lower standards. I heard from what they're already low subsidized. Don't pay landlords enough. Greed has the wheel of this vehicle and you're driving people out of Long Beach faster than a race car. The mayor has already said his stance. Limitless opportunities for builders and developers to make for profit apartments. You need to make low income apartments. But we have no money. But yet $900 million for a civic center and 1.5 million for bicycles. I think you guys need to redirect your attention to where it's actually needed. Thank you for your testimony. Next speaker, please. Thank you for your time. My name is Andrew Carr. I live in the second district. Thank you to all my fellow residents for being. Here and city council for staying late on the third week in a row like this. We really appreciate I appreciate it. I want to say two things. First of all, that the lived experiences of our of our. Community members should always be believed. And that includes that what property managers. Talk about when they talk about their experiences. But I also want to remind everyone that when renters talk about their experiences, even if it seems like it's outside the. Scope of our reality or some of our realities, that those experiences are very real. A Renters should be believed when they talk about what they're facing. In this city. Second of all, I want to say as regards to rent control, that rent control as a policy does not increase the quantity nor the quality of housing. But that's because the function of rent control, quite clearly is not to do those things. The function of rent control is to keep people in their homes all the time. The time to increase the quantity and the quality of housing in Long Beach was about six years ago, but instead this city chose to pass the downtown plan and. Now that ship has sailed. And that conversation is over. If we're wondering why, that's why we're at an initiative. You'll notice that an. Initiative is not a conversation. There's no chance to amend an initiative or anything like that. Initiative either gets passed or it doesn't. It's really unfortunate. It's actually not as democratic as it could be. I think this is democracy and initiative is an unfortunate thing. That is a last resort. And we need to ask ourselves why it is in the cities that renters are at their last resort and that is rent control. It's not a perfect policy, but it's the last resort. And I think we need to stop pushing renters into this corner because there's nowhere else for them to back out of and they're going to end up leaving the city. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hey. How are you? I'm Nancy Tyler. I am in the process of moving here from Santa monica, moving into Long Beach First District. And all I can do is tell you what I've seen in Santa monica since I've been there. I've seen day after day living proof that rent control is not helping the people who actually need help. Santa monica has an enormous homeless population there, and it continues to grow. It is out of control. Despite decades of rent control, few units are available and when a rent controlled unit becomes available, the only people who get them are the people who show up at the property management office with a pile of cash, a 700 plus credit score. In other words, exactly the people who have no need for rent control. The building I live in is rent controlled and the garage every day I would see Mercedes, Mercedes, Lexus, BMW, all these people who do not need help. There is a person in there. No kidding, who is driving around in a mercedes E-Class convertible and rents out some of her rooms to sub tenants for market rent making money off of this place. It is maddening. There are more and more things like this, I could begin to tell you, but there are things that we can do that will actually fix the problem and provide housing. As a human right, we can provide subsidy programs like Section eight. We can fund affordable housing so that we can choose who actually gets the affordable housing here, not just the Mercedes driver I mentioned. My wife and her family moved to America from Vietnam when she was ten, after her father did seven years in a North Vietnamese P.O.W. camp, earning citizenship for him for for him and his family . They lived in subsidized housing in San Jose, and I lived there with them for a time. It is safe. It gives the residents the dignity they deserve and these programs can actually solve the problem. We are all to salt. Thank you for your testimony. Your next bigger piece. Good evening, Mayor. Good evening, Mayor Garcia and city council and Long Beach residents. Thank you for your time tonight. There's no doubt that most people in this room already know which side of this issue they support. We have heard many opinions on rent control tonight, and with all respect to both sides and everyone in the room. Most of them are irrelevant to the agenda item being discussed tonight, which is only to vote on these questions. I that's my place here. I stand here to remind everyone in this room that the proposed ordinance will affect every resident in Long Beach, whether you rent or own. There are a lot of unanswered questions, including the seven pages in the agenda item. In order for all of us to make our own educated decision, we need more impartial data about the proposed ordinance. Agenda Item 15 will provide this impartial data by answering the submitted questions with all with answers for all to review. And as stated in the agenda, there is no negative, no known negative. Fiscal Impact Impact Agenda item number 15 needs to be passed for the sake of all of us, not just one side. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi. My name is Sherrie Posey. I moved to Long Beach in 1994 from New York City, where I was under rent control. And I was an. Illegal roommate for the person who was had lived there for like 25 years. I was paying triple her rent. So it happens. And yes, there are laws, but. That's what happens. When I moved to Long. Beach, I rented for about five years. My husband and I bought our first house. In the fourth district. Which we still own. But it's a rental. Then we. Bought another house. Or another property, a little. Condo in the second district, which we still own. But it's a rental. And then we bought. Two small one bedroom condos in the seventh. District. All of our rents are from. 1125 and the house is 1400. We're not getting super rich. Off of these rents. We are hoping that. You know, the properties have increased in value. They're our entire retirement fund. We work for ourselves and we don't have pensions. This impacts us. I live in the fifth District. And I intend to live in Long Beach. Well, forever. But these kinds of measures that, I mean, from my standpoint, seem to be one sided. Maybe not well thought out. Need to be really looked at. I'm glad you're looking at them, but the. Initiative as it's proposed doesn't make sense to me as a small property owner. Thank you for your time. Speaker, please. No. I'm going to translate. It will be less back on Tara's better. Mary Costello. Ms.. Roberto Garcia came as possible. Okaloosa pharmacy executive, who was mired in inequity, will go to a sukanya tota and wear the Casillas. And. And. I've yet to hear de la Paz someone move to take on ceramics. But. How am I interpreting little Tommy Christy? I know feeling will make me that bother trying time. But we are lucky in unwavering time where we turn kill. Which I hate to say it. Our thought here, Luciano, when this demented commode spun, represent the annual puzzle you were catching on, would you put your own album? Comandante the Vancouver Judicial, possibly reform. But when I was in Asia. You will not see in my Kuryakin where we are. Not yet. But it is crucial in keeping less content. They must instantly retrace Quatermass. This one was a psychotic anomaly. My name is Victor Chacon. I think. I live in a 939. Pacific Avenue. I've lived there for 30 years. Diego Gentile, you? I have. Eight. I'm 81 years old. Can it be? No. They don't want an audition. We fatica you, Golan. Now you come alone, as it were. Me. So the manager came up to us and gave us a notice of eviction. Like very aggressive, arrogant manner. From. Appropriate. Beachfront management properties. That's what she would explain. Okay, you're not dating women since his email podcast has yet to meet a new reporting venue, a laundry room. And we're reporting it by value. And our client. Don't know why Janice is our client. And seven months. They haven't fixed the laundry room. Or the laundry room. A lot of complaints about. Repairs in the building have not have yet to be met. 37 minutes to talk with you. For seven months that we've been asking for these repairs, she's still yet to repair them under development. Wow. Wow. Wow. Well. Basically, he's been humiliated and demeaned by his own property manager. Well. Well. Mm hmm. Because I would. Like to see young people in equipment safe way, condo, yeoman dandy, etc.. Break it down. Okay. He has the paper with him if you all want to read it. Yeah. Goaltending. And it wasn't just him. It was also his neighbors. So they go for break at the end of an audition for termination. An eviction notice for 30 days. He and his wife are both disabled. Intolerance. He will find it. They need the dancer sent. To. Them. Thank you. If you could just summarize the final one. Mean my English debut. You go my paper to is why wag when they say not playing with me? Can we rely on papel determination? Thank you, Tango. Gentlemen, you trained Daniel BBN to throw a hand on estimating he commits to papel aubergines told me to read the book. You're laboring on Delta. She wrote the mutual special. Thank you. I understand there's a language barrier, but I would like for you to interpret the importance of summarizes remark. I don't want to cut him off in the middle of it. You only see it. The contents are you because you were meant to communicate mostly. Okay. Well, thank you for your time. You know what? You know. If you go to the also some more. I'm with. Osama. You're with us. Well, there was a lot. And this was all, like, intoxicated. Me me of using it. Gracias. Thank you. It's my turn now, and I ask that you give me time to, because I'm going to translate for my for myself. If you have the ability speak English, then then it's 90 seconds. The the double time is for you. To provide it. Like translators for us to. And the audience member should have. Had translator translator headphones as well. So, I. Mean. Thank you. Simultaneous interpretation is why we give double time so two people can speak. I will meows. I keep going. You'll get going. Your ego goes to understand damilola him. But God, Eunice. God, I am angry. That you. Guys haven't been providing people with translators. People here have have a necessity to. To tell you guys what they are going through. Looking back at the analysis theories. They look a little pasando. Ozark or lemming would like. Jesus. I got a lot to say, but men like y'all want to put me down to one minute. All right. So I am a student at Long Beach. And I told you guys this last week as a student of this issue, albeit with each of us, when I say Mana, when you guys wanted to put this as a receive and file cannot get in as it is more they. You look up at a bonus expressed by Bloodsworth and I told y'all that I was I used to be homeless. I told you all that I was struggling to pay rent. Conor Lesniak, your skill at a homeless and untamable miracle investor tratando baby renter. And yet I still have to pay. Figure out how to pay with three other roommates. One quarter. They lost the little commas. And I still have to tell them how I'm struggling to pay for a two. Bedroom and basically an. And as I said, to keep us in rent control. I need you to pass rent control. Fuck. Like speaker, please. Yeah. My name is George Cornelius and I was born and raised in Long Beach. I lived in the fifth District for 42 years. And I just want to tell you, actually, 40 years, we all have personal stories. And I can tell you why some of the personal stories that affected me in. Regards to housing. One of them included my mother, who was a diagnosed schizophrenic. She had an autistic child that she could never accept. My parents separated because of it. I had to leave our house eventually because my mother got followed home at three in the morning when I was young and I had to pull a gun out to get the man leave, to leave her alone. My point is, we all have to make hard choices in life. My sister recently resided at Fairview State Mental Hospital and it's being closed and I had to move her and it was difficult. So I'm a property owner in Long Beach. I still love the city. And I relate to these people's problems. But by the same time, we have an issue to address. Sometimes good intentions go awry and they create the most unintended consequences. And it's your job as council members to make sure that doesn't happen. We can tell you emotional stories. But emotional stories don't solve the crisis. What solve the crisis. Is bringing more housing to Long Beach. That's what solves the crisis and the market can do that. Thank you for your testimony and that speaker, please. Questions for a review regarding rent control, rent board and eviction limitations. Number one work economic class is served to be disenfranchized if such rent control is not is negated. Is the economic class of owners larger or smaller than the ruling majority? What percentage of landlords in Long Beach refuses to honor Section eight with the Long Beach Housing Authority in place? Why are we yet addressing this? Then you address this year after year. This isn't new. How many developers and building are building affordable housing that is based on the lowest adult living wage earner in Long Beach? Is there an understanding between the city and the possible landlords that renters are to be desired as a continued demographic? Those of you who are running for reelection, will this be addressed before your voting days in light of the fact that your constituents are being evicted tonight? How fast will this issue be resolved if you put a moratorium on evictions and increases until this review leads to a workable resolve? Do you personally know any landlords who do this without enforcement? Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello. My name's Mark Pineda. I'm 16 years old and I'm quite new to this issue. But in the time allotted, I understand that I cannot explain to you all the dangers of rent control. But we did provide a bunch of questions for you two that I urge that you read, and I thank you for considering and reviewing this important issue. It's very important to me and my family. One thing I could say for certain is that what I've learned from history is that we don't learn from history. If you if you look at the cities and the countries that have been destroyed by this socialist like Bill, it destroys the economy. Why can't we learn from it? I'm. I'm no, I'm no expert. But trust me, I'm no fool. If you look at other countries, they failed. And to the lady who. Saying that it's wrong to earn profits, try living in a country, with all due respect, because I had no ill will towards her. All due respect, child, living in a country where your profits mean nothing to you. Our country is built on profits. That's why we have a beautiful city, a beautiful country. The people were saying, see, suppress the issue. Can you can make it? My parents, they. Were three jobs to pay their bills. Hey, it's America. We were built on profits were built on hard workers. And that's how we got to do it. I oppose rent control. Rent control. Thank you very much. Thank you for your testimony next week, at least. They protest? Desdemona, let's let that situation calm down real quick so you get your free time just. Just a moment before you guys start. So you get the whole time. We're women. Respectfully, everyone, let's respect the speakers. We've gone through quite a few. We only have a few more. Let's go ahead and respect that. So let's not fight one another in the audience. Thank you. You have 3 minutes. But I know she is honorably, like a little better. Garcia less than Milwaukee. A story. I woke up with a sack of money there. Good evening, mayors, honorable council members and mayor. Once again, I'm here advocating for my community. To work within a circle, not to look and say Hi, Lace. I say I knew maybe you meaning a key one, though not as I look at what I work on. Eddie Fisher. They're going to need our this continues con discapacidad is in all its important this aloha. I'll say I knew maybe you. A year and a year and a half ago, I came down here letting you all know that my building of 20 units was bought and I was being evicted. And you did nothing. Finalement. Yeah, but when I say my ninth, is it get the Newcastle Mail apartment and country album? No, no, no. Since we can get rhythm in in Barcelona so we don't go let us. I wanna be. One week before my eviction was up, I found a place. This place has increased my rent numerous times. In the city. And in the in the past month they increased it to $200 more. Equal to Yosemite a year. Not heavy. I don't care Jacobo if he is going nowhere. They do not know North Cardinal Edificio yet. They run by nice Aloha Bank, the familiar mass. Once again, my ironically, my building just got sold yesterday. We got the news that our building got sold another 20 units. They don't want us in there. And so I'm going to be evicted again. Eastern time what need tell us what needs to expand country on El Centro. Tampa CEO says get your ass on your entire body but I want all incredibly mental lost lost precious. The noise about our records. The units they're building in central and downtown Long Beach are beautiful. I would love my dream is to live in one of those, but honestly, I've been looking at the prices and I can't afford any of them. You know. So based in the areas established by Orlando milking in those means they see and those Polaroid cameras see in Miami I rather morbid I want Eddie Fisher in Ocean Boulevard. For those lowlifes getting sick and also looking at those barriers is ten mascaras Kayla Ocean Boulevard. Not again in neighborhoods there. There is 1500 to 1600 studios in two bedrooms. One of my friends just moved in to a two bedroom for $2,000 on Ocean Boulevard. And Seascape, considering in three months had a yellow rating. Anarchy. And if they didn't permission, I say. SAROYAN Considering, you know, they were equals of. Swamp Kraken, the Genesee Ghetto, even Long Beach yesterday in the end of February. That gave me a talking head photos. If I look at those either plus are those your second noisiest areas is are they buy faster. Say it's not always the. So think about. It when. Corporate. Landlords come in it's not they're not building affordable housing. It's not for us. It's not for the people who live here. And it's for people who are out of Long Beach. And I know it's not for you. It's it's. This problem has existed since Foster's time here. Thank you. Yes, I really do. Look, I will stay there. Thank you. Thank you. And that is your gift. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening or good morning. I'm not sure what time it is. My name is Tiffany Davy and I reside in the second district. Thanks everyone for speaking. I would like to highlight that we do need to collect thorough data. Independent data, perhaps. Give us some insight to what the rental market has really been like over the past four years. Who's most affected? Which renters, which landlords. And if we could quantify how many 60 day notices have been distributed since the rent control initiative has been put. Into the public sphere numbers? I've lived here in the city for 14 years, in this state for 32 within the past 14 years. I think the total and I'm forgetting a few different situations here, the amount of money that I've spent for rent, if I average it to be 600 to 1200, which it has been, equates to just under $252,000. My last household, which I resided in for quite some time, we paid upwards of. $90,000 the entire time that we are there. Members are important and I hope that we focus on the correct ones and we allow democracy to take place. Thank you, everyone, for doing what you are. Thank you. And our final speaker, please. And thank you for being patient. Good evening. Honorable mayor and council members. My name is Maria. I am the proud daughter. Of a hard working. Migrant single mother in the First District. I am a new renter in the seventh District. And I'm the director of Community Organizing for Housing Long Beach. The tenant landlord struggle. Is more than just an issue of good versus evil. It is a question of whether you. It is not a question of whether you have a good landlord. Or a bad. Landlord. The struggle is based on two different competing interests that have nothing to do with personalities of the landlord or the tenant. The landlord is seeking to make a profit of the apartment while the tenant is seeking to make the apartment, his or him or her or their home. A landlord sees the apartment as a commodity. A tenant sees his or her home as community. A commodity versus community. Conflict is basically at the root of every landlord and tenant dispute. It is clear. That Long Beach has a housing. Issue. Right. And it's been said. Clearly that you. All are opposed to rent control. So I am as baffled. And confused as to how you I can. Trust you to make an unbiased decision when it's been said that you are opposed to rent control. And I want to close off with saying you need to support rent control because when tenants rise, cities thrive. Thank you. So that concludes public comment. So now we're going to take it back behind the rail. So the second are the motions, Councilman Andrews. But I think you just mentioned you want to defer. Okay. So next is Councilman Austin. So in light of the great public comment we heard here this evening on all sides, I'm going to be brief. I just want to appreciate my colleagues for bringing this item forward. I think the questions are in the in the document are important. And it would be good to have our staff work on that so that we have good information, that we all have good information moving forward. I want to appreciate the organizers on both sides, all sides of this issue for organizing. Thank you. Yes, you guys did a great job. Turn it out this evening. And, you know, we've been been having long city council meetings for for some time now. The I want to just say that that I think this issue is an issue that, you know, we've been grappling with for for some time, too. And for my colleagues here, I know that each and every one of us, I can speak for myself, but I know that everybody behind this dais cares about this issue deeply. This is something that each and every one of us spends a lot of time putting, a lot of thought into a lot of research into and and we're looking for answers every day. This is not something that popped up yesterday. This is something that we've been dealing with for four years. And we've also have taken deliberate steps to to address our housing issues through because of the issues that you've brought before us. You know, it's our job to take care and to make a difference. This is I want to be clear. This is not a black and white issue. This is not an easy issue or eternal. There's no panacea to fixing a housing crisis. Right. This is not a Latino issue. This is. This issue engages and involves seniors and people from all backgrounds in our city. And and I think every district is impact impacted on this. I've done a lot of research and I've been looking at the 15 cities in California that actually do have rent control. And I'm not convinced that it's a panacea for for for for our housing crisis. I do think and I have been very deliberate, we need to build more housing in the city that we passed the land use element and went through that process. And it was a it was a painstaking process to go through. But we are laying out and putting the foundation together for to improve this situation. Now, I think the challenge before this council really is going to be is how do we fast track? You know, because I don't think we can we can wait three, four, five, six years for housing to be developed. We need to make it happen now. And and I will say that, you know, San Francisco I was talking to an elected official in San Francisco just last week. He was talking about the rent control, but was also talking about the the fact that the average rent for for a two bedroom apartment is somewhere close to four, $5,000 a month. I don't know if that's that's what he said. Right. That's that's that's serious. Santa monica. It's it's the rents are very, very high there. Beverly Hills, Berkeley, West Hollywood, San Jose. These are all cities that that have rent control. Right. And and when you look at the average rents in Long Beach, we are well below those cities. And I'm not saying that that is a good that is a fact. And that's something that we all need to take into consideration. I'm not saying what we need to do in the city also is is focus on creating great jobs because that's going to bring the incomes up and that's going to be prudent. That's going to put people in a in a better position to be able to afford quality housing. And I speak to quality housing because that is where this I think the issue started a few years ago. You know, we we had our housing advocates come before the council and say, hey, that the the quality housing the quality of our housing isn't where it needs to be. We know we have old housing stock, but but we heard stories and we're still hearing stories about subsub, you know, horrible living conditions that people have to live through. We sought to improve that by bringing forth a prep policy. We we we raised the minimum wage in the city. We've made deliberate efforts to address these issues, and we're going to continue to do that. So I want to again thank my colleagues for bringing forth this, this, this. This item. I want to thank everybody for having, I think, a heartfelt conversation about this. I think this conversation is going to continue over the course of the next several months, and it's going to be a citywide conversation that needs to be had. I'm going to tell you right now that I'm not I'm not sit in on any sort of policy. Yes, no or indifferent. I'm waiting for a lot of this information to come back. But again, I do not think that there is a silver bullet or a or one single solution to this issue. It's going to take a full court press and it's going to take a multi-prong strategy to deal with housing. And that's the way we have to do it and do it responsibly. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. Councilwoman Price. Thank you. I, too, want to thank everyone who came out tonight and who spoke and gave testimony on both sides. I think sometimes when people feel passionately about one side or the other, the conversation can get unnecessarily divisive. And it takes a while for us to get to some solutions. And hopefully this is part of the start of that process. And we can get to a place where we have some solutions. But, you know, I think I kept reading the item over and over again because as people were talking at the podium, it wasn't clear to me that everybody understood why we were here. It's not really council's position to be objective on this particular issue. Certainly we want to learn and we want to hear. We want to continue to get more information. But we're talking about a voter initiative. We're not talking about where the council members stand. So, you know, a few people said, you know, you're not objective. I I've done a lot of research on this issue already. I think I have a pretty good understanding of it. I think I have a very strong standing of where I'm at. I don't believe rent control will be beneficial for the city of Long Beach. That's my personal opinion. And but I'm one voter. I'm one voter. And I think that having an opportunity like we have tonight and I appreciate the housing advocates who came forward and thanked council and super non those of us who signed on for bringing the item. I thank you for thanking him because in fact that is going to provide us some additional information with which we'll be able to further elaborate on our thoughts or opinions or maybe have our opinions, our minds changed. I don't know. What I will tell you is for me personally and each of us takes a different journey in determining where our policy positions are going to stand. For me, I've read just about every single study that anyone here has sent me. I've reviewed analysis of what has happened in other cities that have passed rent control. I've reviewed economists, progressive economists, conservative economists, their analysis of rent control based on all of that. I'm going to formulate my own opinion about the voter backed initiative, should it get to that point. This is not an issue where we're asking council to be objective so that they can vote on an item. We're talking about getting more information as we start to educate and have those conversations with the voters. So I think I've been pretty. I've met with anyone who's requested to meet with me on this topic, anyone, and always happy to be educated. But I'm also not going to talk out of both sides of my mouth because I don't think anybody deserves that. I think it's important for you to get a sense of where your representatives stand on this issue. We've certainly had time to educate ourselves. And, you know, I thank everyone for coming out. I agree with Councilman Austin. We have done a lot in the city to talk about the issue of housing. Housing is definitely an issue that is a priority for this council. And if you don't believe it's a priority to this council, then you may not have been watching what we've been working on for the last three and a half years and creating opportunities for housing stock and the third district alone. We've had specific plans that have been approved and now we had a general plan that was approved. And we've created over 2000 units of additional housing over the course of the next 30 years. That is that is progress. And so I think the other thing, as you know, we've talked about some policies that I think are going to be detrimental, frankly, to housing needs like short term rentals. I think I personally believe that that is going to take away long term housing units from individuals and how we're having that conversation at the same time that we're having this conversation. It baffles me, frankly, because I don't know how we can say we want to add more housing for people who are displaced and then say we want to vacate these properties so we can make an income off of taxing it. I don't understand that. So that's just my personal opinion. And I would I would I would ask the housing advocates to be engaged in that conversation to meet with my office. Let's. Talk about that because that's an area where we have tons and tons of apartments that would be much more lucrative to be rented out as Airbnbs than they would as permanent housing for families that need it. So that's where my head's at on this issue. But I thank everyone for coming forward and sharing your thoughts with us and I think my colleague councilman super now for bringing this forward. Thank you, Councilmember Andrews. And yet yet. Yes, thank you very much, Mayor. You know, Jeanette, I want to acknowledge everyone who came out to speak on this item, because I want to thank you for sharing your concerns, because the fact that tonight's vote is requested for an expert, you know, opinion about looking forward to receiving details, reports on an application this ballot initiative will have on our city. And I think what will it have in our city? We talk about a ballot that you're going to go to the polls, try to find out where we will stand. And what is really bothered me today is that I look and find out that we don't even have enough votes on the ballot to even be able to get this passed. So what are we talking about when you talk about rent control, where the people that are supposed to be there to go and get these people to be on put on the ballot in order to get this done. I don't think rent control is going to be the key to finding out whether people will be able to stay in Long Beach. I think we're going to have to be able to get jobs. Will it be able to pierce enough money to be able to stay in Long Beach? And without building not low income housing we're talking about, you say low income, we're going to have to just start building because without that, we're going to have it won't even be about rent control, which is that more, you know, homeless people. So what we're going to have to do is really get serious about putting some houses out here where people can live in Long Beach and having jobs where they can't afford to live in Long Beach. And I think tonight is one of the greatest thing to show people coming out and giving their concerns and how compassion you are about this, because I'm a renter myself, but I tell you, I'm going to work and I'm going to make sure that we're going to have to be able to pay my rent. And most of you guys will be able to do the same thing when I look in for a pity party. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Durango. Thank you, Mayor. As I understand it, this request is basically a study session. It's it's a study session that's going to come either before us now or come later. So I'm basically going to support this initiative now because the sooner we have our questions answered about what we're going to be dealing with, the better for it is for all of us. So I will be supporting this. Thank you, Councilman Gonzalez. Yes. Thanks to everybody for being here. I know we're all very tired. I'm sick probably because we've been averaging about a midnight plus, you know, time here. But these issues are very, very important to us. And so I want to thank my colleagues for bringing this forward. I think that it is true that every time we can collect more information, it serves us all a better purpose. So I really appreciate it. And in addition to this, I know we have to listen to different perspectives and we have to make sure that we know what to expect because something is on the horizon and we don't know what that's going to be. Signature gathering may happen and we may get to that point and we don't know what the voters will will do in November. But we do know that right now, I know many of my residents are being served 60 day notices. They are being displaced. I myself, we're setting up a meeting with beach front, but that's just one out of probably a dozen property managers that I've met with that we will continue to work with, you know, seniors at Plymouth West, people at ninth and Pacific and 10th and Cedar. We're intervening as a city council office. I'm actually writing a letter of support to urge them to offer an extension in some cases, because we know people in 60 days, that's not going to really give you a lot of time, unfortunately, to come up with another security deposit and really get yourself into another place. And so I just want to let everybody know that we support you there and we'll absolutely do what we can there. In addition to that, we know that some of the conditions that people are living in, although it's not described here and this is off topic, but very relevant to the conversation is, you know, they're living in below quality of life issues but below quality of life. And it doesn't speak to all landlords, but it definitely speaks to the very small percent of landlords that we know can do a lot better. And we need to be keeping more track of that. So what have we done here? I think our first year in office, many of us actually got together and we did a 120 day violators list and that is posted on Development Services website. And I'm actually working to make that more transparent so people know which landlords are not playing by the rules when it comes to quality of life issues, serious quality of life issues. In addition to that, we work to, you know, just to make sure that people have, for instance, seniors that have low income housing currently, that they can stay in that sort of model of low income housing. We actually put together a report that asks for options and what we can do to keep those covenants, because we know a lot of those remain in downtown and what can we do after that? But aside from that, I just want to continue with this step because it's very important. You know, downtown gets picked on a lot. And I get that, you know, there's a lot of development going on in downtown, but we're home to over 1700 affordable housing units. Currently, we have 300 to 500 more coming online with very low income housing models. It's really it's something I'm very proud about. Do we need to create more? Absolutely, we do. But it needs to be an equitable distribution throughout the city. And I have been I've always said that and I will remain saying that that we need to advocate everywhere in the city, not just in downtown, all all parts, to ensure that people can live in Belmont Shore, just like they can live in downtown and still have lower rents in that respect. So I'm with you. I'm listening. And we'll certainly connect, you know, on on what we can do going forward. And I thank my colleagues again for bringing this forward. Thank you, Councilmember Pierce. Yes. I want to thank everybody. It's great to be here at 1105 and have as many people are still present. So I want to thank my colleagues as well for bringing this item forward. I have had many conversations with. Both advocates on. Both sides around where do we have this conversation in our city and how do we do it in a way that reaches as many constituents as possible? I have long said that I support some type of management process, something that allows us to get a handle on the rents in our city and understand what those impacts are going to be. And I have also said that I have a little bit of some challenges with what is directly in front of us. And having an everything at one time is a bit of a challenge for me. So I am thankful to have this item here and. To go through the process to answer these questions as at the same time that the community groups are out there advocating and trying to collect signatures, we need to make sure that we have the facts in front of us so that we can advocate on that. So I did have a question for our. City attorney just to clarify. What this item should. And I know there's a lot of questions that will come back. But for tonight, if if the advocates get the signatures and it gets on the ballot and people vote yes on it, is there anything that this council can do to make a change to that ordinance. Or does it have. To go back to the voters? Well, I think the short answer is they cannot it cannot be amended or changed. And I think a couple of the public speakers mentioned that by by the council, the council could put something on the ballot to repeal it or to change it. And the voters could vote on that. There could be an initiative that would be a competing initiative that could cancel that out if if in the process of answering all of these questions there or the court determines that maybe some of the provisions of the initiative as written are not constitutional or not valid, then it could be changed by the court. But the council could not do that. And those flowers look lovely in front of your face. Mr.. You kept bobbing around, though, a nice touch at. 11:00 at night. Okay. I just wanted to be clear that and we can also, as a council, if we get these answers back. The council could. Propose to put something on the ballot that might. Be different than what our. Voters have in front of them right now. It it may it depends. If it's a charter amendment, then maybe you could maybe you couldn't, depending on whether you meet the timeframes and the statutory requirements for the November ballot. Okay. Thank you for that. I again, just want to highlight that I didn't hear a lot of comments around the 60 day notice. I get that in my district a great deal and that beach front was one of those factors that seemed to come up a lot. And so I want to let my councilmember know that any help that my office can do to work with them to make sure that we're creating a safe place and a safe home for people. That's definitely the number one priority for me. In the second District in downtown, we've created 2000 new residential units developing right now. I do agree that we need to add to the housing stock. I also firmly believe that we need a no net loss policy so that any new developments that come. Up, we're not losing affordable units on the back end, and that there are several other policies that we should also be. Looking at. To see what is the. Best fit for our city. And so I. Do look forward to having these questions. Come back. I implore I know today was heated for a lot of folks, but that we don't see this as a black and white issue. I don't see this are when people ask me, are you for rent control, yes or no? That's not a question. That's easy to answer because this policy that's in front of us has a lot of detail to it. And so it's about finding the right fit for Long Beach. And that means that we need everybody to be at that table together. And so I look forward. To the responses coming out and I look forward to sitting down the table with all those stakeholders. So thank you. Thank you. Vice Mayor Richardson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So I want to thank my colleagues for bringing this conversation in front of the city council, this much debate with very little that we can actually vote on tonight. So so thank you for that experiment. I'll just say I'll just say so a few things. So, one, I acknowledge the concern on both sides. I am not deaf to it. I hear it. I see it here when I when I hear week after week, we hear people come down and say, hey, I got a 60 week, 60 day notice or my entire block , you know, my entire building has gotten a notice. I also hear it when I hear neighbors, my neighbors in North Long Beach, salt of the earth people, working people that work jobs, regular jobs, who have, you know, for one reason or another, maybe one person owned something and another person on to something else, and they got married and they end up having a rental property. Right. And they made smart choices and they're afraid of us intervening and jumping in those processes. And, you know, frankly, that that's actually something I do encourage homeownership and figuring out a path to build wealth because we have to figure that out. But I'm not ignoring what's happening. I see that one thing I want know is that the housing crisis is real. The housing crisis is real. And I want anybody see that movie, Butterfly Effect, Butterfly Effect, a guy makes a decision, goes back in time, tries to fix decision, it gets worse, goes back in time again. Try to fix the decision. It gets worse. And I keep and someone came up and talked about the downtown plan. And I remember that conversation because I remember that conversation because I was chief of. Staff to a councilmember here in the ninth District when that conversation did come up. And I know folks don't like revisiting history, but there was a big debate here. And he said investment and development will beget displacement. And someone said if it is good for one area, that should be good for the entire city. These antibodies placement loss. And you know, I can't speak for the past council, but I can tell you that the anti displacement laws haven't haven't kicked in. And so while yes. I don't know that I'm you know, I don't know that I'm ready to support rent control outright. What I can say is I acknowledge that we need to do something on displacement. We need to address something else significant that happened. Redevelopment, you know, is gone. That was our chief tool to fund housing. It's gone. We have to replace it. It's very difficult to build affordable housing without a local source of revenue. So we have to talk about what tough decision is going to make to actually fund housing. I think we need to have a lot more education around this issue. You know, I'm going to support this motion tonight, but by no means do I expect these questions are really unfair and biased. Unbiased. I think they're need. I would encourage staff to not just be limited by these questions, but do the diligence and try to present a fair and balanced assessment assessment on it. And then the other thing I would say is that someone mentioned that it might be too late to do something about any any specific plans that we've done. I don't know that that's true. I don't know that that's true. I think the city is embracing specific plans. We've seen downtown plan, we've seen midtown plan. We've seen see it. We're doing uptown plan. And I think we should look at whether going, going, looking. We look at going back and doing some analysis on whether we really did think about attaching sort of anti displacement laws to specific plans if those specific plans do trigger additional investment. I don't I think it was very controversial five years ago. I don't know that it would be as controversial this time. I think in this environment, some people are going to you know, some people are going to say whatever you whatever you suggest is going to be wrong. But the reality we have to put all the options on the table here. You can't be in a deficient defensive crouch and say the issue isn't here. I don't want rent control. I don't want just for just calls for eviction. But on the other hand, not not really for do something, you know, in a timely manner. And so I acknowledge the work that the city council has done. I acknowledge the leadership people have shown. But in reality, we we haven't produced anything tangible just yet. And that needs to happen. That needs to happen. Or I'm afraid that even if this measure doesn't doesn't qualify for the ballot, who's to say that in two years there won't be another measure that would qualify or qualify for the ballot? And then our hands are tied to the city council. We need to do our jobs and create public policy faster than we're doing it then we're doing because this issue isn't going to go away. So my thoughts are, so I'm going to vote to support this because I believe education is needed, but I do hope that we get some sort of fair and balanced assessment of this. And I thank you for your time. Thank you so much. Open up. Thank you. I just have one final comment before we go to the mayor in his final comment, but I just wanted to thank everyone for speaking tonight and in particular, thank you for adapting to the 92nd rule. I think it was a great experiment and it worked very well. And there are far more people in the audience than there were the last two meetings. And the body language is a lot better. So thank you. Oh, yeah, yeah. If there's no council objection in the future, we're going to I'm going to call that the supernatural and we're going to we're going to do that. Okay. I have a couple a couple closing comments. And I obviously, I support the the the item and thank you, councilman. Super on Shirley support getting all the information from the city attorney on the analysis and everyone on on all sides of the issue that came forward tonight. And I want to echo a couple of things that were said. The first is that the issue around housing and homelessness is is the issue of our time for the next ten, 20 years. There is no question that the issue around housing, the issue around homelessness is at the top of every single city's agenda, whether it's Long Beach, whether it's San Francisco, whether it's Santa monica. With all the other cities that were mentioned tonight, it's the number one issue. What is also true is that people have a variety, different of different opinions of how to get to what I believe most people believe is the same goal, which is ensure that there's enough housing for people making sure that it's people can afford to have housing and that we're passing good, smart policies that allow people to live productive lives. Nobody I don't believe anyone, whether you are a landlord and certainly not an advocate for housing, wants to see people suffer or displaced. And I think there are. A lot of sometimes I think accusations and insults are thrown around. And I don't believe that there are people that that that enjoy seeing people displace or people suffering. And so I think that all of us want the best for everyone in the city. It's how you get there and what you believe is the best policy that takes us there. I think a couple of things are important. I have said, and I continue to believe with every ounce of research that I have done and absorbed, similar to what Councilwoman Pryce said, that the single best way of getting out of this crisis, not just in Long Beach, but statewide, is housing production. And and to ensure that there is to ensure that there is consistent, consistent forms of producing housing of all types, and, of course, particularly housing for those experiencing homelessness, for low income folks, for seniors in need, affordability, but also housing at the workforce level. And for middle class families. You have to build housing of all types that get us out of where we are right now, which is essentially a math problem where our population is grown, but housing production has not. And so that's why you're seeing the pressures that you're seeing across the state of California and in Long Beach as well. I want to also ask, and maybe it's an expansion of the questions or a friendly to the council member or to Mr. City attorney. I think there's also some misinformation about what actually exists in Long Beach currently. There's a lot of folks that say we want to have rent control or stabilization or we want this or that. Long Beach has about 6500 units that are rent stabilized. Rent stabilization exists in Long Beach. It has existed for probably 40 years in this community. So this idea that rent stabilization doesn't exist is not true. It exists. And I want to make sure we get that exact number maybe and staff can help us with this. Maybe it's 6200 units. Maybe it's 6500 units. But the fact is that these units exist in Long Beach and they're mostly in the city of Long Beach. They are for people that are experiencing the people that have disabilities. They're for low income seniors. They're for housing. Look the village is at Cabrillo that we support so much in our community out Carmelite cos there's a lot of housing in Long Beach that is already rent stabilized. It's also true that we have increased, not decreased the amount of rent stabilized units in Long Beach over the last few years. And so the way we have done that is through production. And so every time we build a project, Councilman Gonzales alluded to about 300 rent stabilized units that we currently are building right now in the first District. Every time we build a project like on Anaheim in PCH or senior or low income senior housing or expand like we just did 120 units in West Long Beach by the villages of Cabrillo. We are expanding that rent stabilized number from, you know, 6000 to 60 500 to 7000 and higher. And so what I hope is while there is disagreement whether rent control actually works or causes disinvestment in housing production, which I believe a lot of the research does, does lead us to, I hope we can I hope we can all agree that housing production and expanding rent stabilized units is beneficial to everyone in the city of Long Beach. And I and I would think that whether you're a property owner or whether you are an advocate or a tenant wants to see us, look at how do we increase the amount of rent stabilized units that we have for seniors, low income families and so forth. And I believe you do that by focusing strongly on production in addition to that. I want to just make sure and when we when we come back with this is the more information that we have on these units, these units that have existed for decades in Long Beach have covenants on them. And we've worked really hard this the city has invested millions and millions of dollars on keeping these units, had to have actual covenants. You may not hear about it or read about it in the paper, but time after time, meeting after meeting, this council is voting on putting resources into keeping these rent stabilized and affordable. And I want to make sure that we're also getting that information back to to the city council. And so the last thing I'll say is, I hope that over the course of the next few months, we obviously all have different opinion, different opinions on how to get to affordability. But I do hope that we can focus on the areas where we all agree. And I would hope that we can all agree that production supporting the rent stabilized units that we currently have are appropriate are appropriate ways of trying to deal with this, the statewide crisis. And so I want to thank everyone for for coming out. I know that we don't all agree completely on this issue. And that's and that's okay. But we'll continue to make this a big. An important part of our agenda and and say one thing I heard a few folks say, you know, we need to address this. We do more. I agree. We need to do more, but so does a state. We lost almost all of our affordable housing dollars through the loss of redevelopment, which Vice Mayor Richardson said, which is a total disgrace and our ability to actually build more housing. But I also believe that this council has done a lot of work on this issue, whether it's been through the land use element, whether it's been through the 26 policy ideas that this council passed last year on on housing production. So we'll continue to do that. I look forward to work with everyone that wants to be at the table. I plan on having a lot of conversations on this topic, as is every mayor in the state over the next six months, year, years, in the in the future on this topic. And I invite everyone to be at that table in the future. So with that, there's a motion in a second by Councilmember Super and I strongly support this item. Members, please cast your votes. Y'all November. Motion carries. Thank you very much. Thank you. And we will. We're going to go ahead and move on to item 12, please. Just the next item on the agenda.