Item 07 - Ordinance Prohibiting Residential Real Property & Mobilehome Rental Rate Increases

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others have only been implementing rent increases in the 3%-5% for years. These rents are based on fair and reasonable formulas that fall close to your magical 3%. In times of inflation, your formula will not work. There is a better way to help those who can't pay. WHAT CAN THE CITY DO THAT WORKS? There are already several programs in place to help tenants who can't pay their rent. Many more are being formed. The problem is that many residents don't apply for the assistance. If the efforts of the Ad Hoc Committee and TUSA were redirected to helping needy tenants to apply and receive such assistance to pay their reasonable market rents, many of the problems presented by these groups would be greatly improved. ARE THERE ANY OTHER ACTIONS THAT THE CITY CAN TAKE TO HELP WITH HOUSING IN SANTA ANA? In your meeting, you stated that "...More than 50% of our residents are tenants... many of those families live in overcrowded conditions..." We understand that this is a situation that exists, mostly in the smaller properties that are exempt from your proposed ordinance. The professionally managed properties live by the law of the City. Your law restricts the number of residents in apartments. If the City wishes to review their occupancy laws and decide to change the occupancy restrictions, we hope that you will include our industry in that decision. Remember that overcrowding contributes to excessive wear and tear to the apartments and common areas, but it increases repair and maintenance expenses, parking shortages, and higher utility usage. Furthermore, this exacerbates the neighbor -to -neighbor experience resulting in higher temperaments amidst tenants resulting in a higher potential for criminal activity. Increasing your allowed occupancy limits is a recipe for disaster and ultimately will lower the standard of living leading to blight in the city. AMC's MANAGEMENT IS WELL RECEIVED BY ITS RESIDENTS: Since our inception in 1978, Advanced continues to be a family owned and operated business which has invested millions of dollars into cities across southern California- particularly Santa Ana. We operate on strong core values of honesty and integrity and have developed this into our trademark Live Nappy philosophy across all we do. We truly care about our residents and the buildings they occupy. Please take this data into consideration before rushing to an ill- informed decision on this matter. Hastily taken "emergency action" can lead to very bad future results. We feel that the majority of the City tenants are happy with the law the way it is. You did not hear a single tenant from our 1,600 units complain the other night. You only heard second hand anecdotal testimony from a group on a mission. We are happy to work with you and research true data to determine if there really is a problem and, if so, fix it. 5