Two L.A. County Cities Approved Rent Control in August

Bell Gardens, a city of almost 42,000 residents located in Los Angeles County to the southeast of Downtown Los Angeles, this week voted to enact rent control.

According to an article by David Wagner for LAist, the Bell Gardens City Council “unanimously voted to advance a rent control plan that limits annual increases to no more than 4%.”

“The law would apply to most rental housing built before 1995, with exemptions for single-family homes, condos and owner-occupied buildings with up to three units,” adds Wagner.

Rent control isn’t quite a done deal in Bell Gardens. The law will require a final vote by the City Council. “Once the plan is finalized, tenant advocates say Bell Gardens will become the first city in Southeast L.A. to enact rent control,” adds Wagner.

Bell Gardens isn’t the only Los Angeles County city to enact rent control in August. The city of Pomona, with 151,000 residents, also enacted a rent control of 4 percent, by a vote of the City Council on August 2, according to an article by Javier Rojas for the Daily Bulletin.

As noted by Wagner, Bel Gardens is a city of Latino renters, with 96 percent of residents Latino, according to Census data, and 78 percent of households renting their home, according to data from the Southern California Association of Governments. “Nearly two-thirds of those renter households are considered ‘rent burdened,’ meaning rent consumes more than 30% of their income. About one-third of renters in the city devote more than half of their income to paying the rent,” writes Wagner.