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October 7, 2025 <br /> Mayor Amezcua and City Councilmembers <br /> 20 Civic Center Plaza <br /> Santa Ana, CA 92701 <br /> ecomment(a)santa-ana.org <br /> Via Email <br /> RE: ITEM 24 - Consider Providing Direction to the City Manager and City Attorney to Direct <br /> Staff to Prepare an Ordinance Prohibiting the Use of Algorithmic Pricing Tools <br /> Dear Mayor Amezcua and City Councilmembers, <br /> On behalf of Chispa, I write to express our strong support for preparing an ordinance <br /> prohibiting the use of algorithmic pricing tools in the City of Santa Ana (City). This item is <br /> essential to ensuring fair rental practices, preventing anti-competitive behaviors, and protecting <br /> the affordability of housing for City residents. <br /> As an organization rooted in this City, Chispa is a membership-based movement of young <br /> Latinxs committed to uprooting systems of oppression and building structures grounded in <br /> community accountability, solidarity, and self-determination. We support this ordinance because <br /> our members—many of whom are renters themselves—are directly impacted by rising housing <br /> costs. Allowing landlords to collude through algorithmic tools only worsens displacement, <br /> instability, and economic hardship for our communities. <br /> California has one of the largest renter populations in the nation, with millions of households <br /> spending more than a third of their income on rent.' Now, tech has come in to supercharge the <br /> affordability crisis. The emergence of rental pricing algorithms has turned competitors into <br /> collaborators by assessing collective price data to find the highest rate—and directing its landlord <br /> users to adopt it. Ongoing lawsuits allege that 80-90% of users implement AI-backed, <br /> profit-maximizing recommendations. <br /> 'Renter Cost Burdens Reach Record Levels I Joint Center for Housing Studies. <br /> liUs://www.jchs.harvard.edu/son-2023-cost-burdens-ma. Accessed 18 Mar. 2025. <br /> 2 Walicek,Tyler. "Real Estate Software Aided Price-Fixing`Cartel' Among US Property Companies." Truthout,28 <br /> July 2024,https://truthout.org/articles/real-estate-software-aided-price-fixing-cartel-among-us-property-companies/. <br /> 1 <br />