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

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Ormco, Norma From: Danielle Holloway McCarthy <dmccarthy@amcliving.com> Sent: Monday, October 18, 2021 3:18 PM To: eComment Subject: Vote NO on Rent Control and Just Cause Eviction Importance: High Categories: Correspondence Dear Members of the Santa Ana City Council, Thank you for your service and time reading my email. I am writing to ask you, as a rental housing professional for more than 10 years, to VOTE NO on rent control and just cause eviction. I have attended the last two meetings and heard all of the stories from both sides of this argument. What I would like to briefly state to you is that no one is disputing the struggles and challenges faced by many of the families in Santa Ana, but rent control and just cause eviction is not the answer. It will not solve the problem in Santa Ana and it will not give the residents a better life. I will keep it concise, but here are a few reasons why: • Most apartment operators value low turnover and only impose reasonable rent increases based on growing expenses and needs of the community. You are attempting to solve a "city-wide problem" that is not based in fact or reality. • Not allowing a professional property management company to screen prospective residents and to evict problem residents endangers people living in our communities, degrades the community, the city and everyone's quality of life. • Rent control does not solve homelessness — the top 6 US cities with the highest rate of homeless people have rent control • Rent control promotes a run-down community, riddled with crime and lack of regulation, safety or maintenance • It promotes overcrowding and overuse of the space —Where will people park? Where will they do laundry? • Rent control does not allow owners to recoup their costs, therefore disincentivizing investment in upgrades and even daily upkeep such as courtesy patrol and maintenance. Those will be cut. • Property management creates competitive wage paying jobs for citizens of Santa Ana. Allow us to keep increasing wages and providing fully -paid health benefits amongst many other things to our employees! • Older buildings require more maintenance (buildings built before 1995 as specified in the ordinance) • Rent control impedes the natural progressions of apartment living —When life circumstances change or families grow, who will move to the nice new buildings? With rent control, families will hold on to apartments which do not meet their needs anymore because of their affordability, making them inaccessible to people who really need them • It will exacerbate the housing shortage Our company does not put people over profits. We value our residents (VIPs as we call them), our employees and all of our partners. Do you think if we were greedy and evil landlords, we would employ more than 400 individuals, many of who are residents in Santa Ana? Do you think those same employees would have consistently votes us a Top Workplace in Orange County for 7 years? Do you think if we put people over profits your city's rental housing task force would have certified our properties as Gold Seal recipients dozens of times? Do you think if we put people over profits our 15