Second in a series
Re “Will Deaths Be a Sufficient Rent Control motivator for Council?”
[img]1307|right|Meghan Sahli-Wells||no_popup[/img]In the late spring after City Councilperson Meghan Sahli-Wells learned of eye-popping rent increases in two apartment buildings and heard a plaintive plea to at least consider rent control, she turned to her four colleagues.
When she asked for a show of support to agendize a topic historically unable to gain traction in Culver City, Ms. Sahli-Wells was answered with a wall of silence. This was before two sudden deaths occurred later in the summer, possibly related to the rent raises.
Months later, now that September has been born, it is unclear whether there has been movement on the dais. (Mehaul O’Leary will be the fourth member of the Council to voice his opinion in tomorrow’s edition.)
And so Ms. Sahli-Wells re-opens the matter with a repeated moderate request. “We need to have a discussion” to consider rent Control for multi-unit housing, she said. “Prices on the Westside are insanely high.
“Now that the real estate market is ticking back up, you have people buying and you have people selling.”
“The time is now to debate the subject, she says, after the rent was jacked 100 percent or nearly so in the two aforementioned Culver City apartment buildings just after new ownership took charge.
“We owe it to our residents to take this very seriously,” Ms. Sahli-Wells said. “I feel terrible because this is happening right now. The little we could do for the residents (via the Council-appointed Landlord-Tenant Mediation Board) was not nearly enough.
“The Board was created a few years ago in response to this question:
“Should Culver City have rent control?”
The answer continues to dangle, limply.
She is out in the community daily, and Ms. Sahli-Wells said a number of longtime residents assure her that rent control never will gain a foothold.
“A big portion of our population own their own homes,” she said. “Some people I have heard from say, ‘Oh, it’s scary.’
“When I was renting, less than a decade ago, there were controls in place where I lived.” She regarded that as a positive.
The Councilwoman said she has “no idea” why Culver City stands in stern opposition. “I thought the attitude was supposed to be ‘Let the market do what it wants.’ ‘The market always is right.’
“What is going on is boggling,” Ms. Sahli-Wells said. “We need to get controls in place.”
Midway through her second year on the City Council, she is reaching out into the community for a boost, seeking those of like mind.
“I am hoping people will organize,” she said. “Rent control is going to be an uphill battle.”
(To be continued)
