[img]2570|exact|Meghan Sahli-Wells. Photo, Todd Johnson.||no_popup[/img]
Mayor Meghan Sahli-Wells says her position on the twirling topic of rent control is nuanced.
No, the longtime populist insists, she has not gone to the other side, championing landlords.
“My position on rent control has not changed since we started talking about it,” she said. “I am still looking for protections (for renters). I am still looking for solutions.”
Question: If you were cornered, what solution would you offer for protecting renters?
“I wanted to look at the question of whether there was a way, without triggering the Costa Hawkins Act (www.sfaa.org/pdf/CAA-Insights-Costa-Hawkins-Rental-Housing-Act.pdf), to phase in (rent) increases?
“I hear from renters whose rent is raised one month, the next month it could be raised again, six months later it could be done again…if it is a huge amount, how can people manage with 100 percent rent increases?
“I am not opposed to rent control as a blanket statement,” Ms. Sahli-Wells says. “I am not opposed to it in other cities. It is just because of state law, rent control would not make sense for Culver City today.
“I don’t have a dogmatic opposition to rent control.”
Since “the status quo is not working for everyone” and “the market doesn’t always do the right thing,” the mayor said that “what I want is for us to move forward.”
Turning to the heart of the subject and a slice of confusion that has cropped up inside City Hall over Ms. Sahli-Wells’s precise position, she said:
“Ideally, what I would like to see is, outside of rent control, what can we do for renters? That is the underlying issue.”
The mayor corrected a reporter who labeled her description “rent control without calling it rent control.”
“No,” she disagreed. “Rent control is really specific. What we need to see is what can we do outside of Costa Hawkins.
“That is why I have wanted us to have a community meeting, to have everybody at the table, including lawyers, to see what our possibilities are to help renters, without rent control.”
