Wachs Urges Cut in Rent Increases

The debate over rent control in Los Angeles, always the object of an intense fight, resumed Monday as City Councilman Joel Wachs proposed a formula that would reduce the rate of allowable rent increases by more than 50%.

Wachs’ formula would limit annual increases to 3% this year, as opposed to the 7% now in effect. It is the first proposal to come from the council since the completion April 23 of a $500,000, six-month rent control study.

At a press conference, Wachs said his proposal is a logical outgrowth of the study, which concluded, in part, that over the seven years rent control has been in effect, it has not inhibited the construction of new housing or proper building maintenance.

An aide to one of the council critics of rent control, who asked not to be identified, dismissed Wachs’ proposal as “posturing” designed to take early control of the debate over rent control’s future.

The full council is scheduled to begin a debate May 21. But the issue is scheduled to be taken up today by the council’s Committee on Government Operations, which Wachs chairs.

Wachs’ approach is expected to be just one of several ideas presented to the committee.

The most salable proposal may be one made by Barbara Zeidman, who heads the rent control division of the city’s Community Development Department. Zeidman, who also headed the residents’ group directing the study, has suggested tying annual rent increases to the Consumer Price Index while setting an upper limit of 7% and a lower limit of 4%.

Different Limits

Wachs’ proposal would limit increases to just 65% of the index, which records increases or decreases in the cost of living. This year, Wachs said, his method would lead to a 3% increase. Wachs’ formula would set an upper limit of 7% and a lower limit of 3%.

Zeidman’s proposal avoids the more extreme position staked out by Wachs, who is the council’s leading advocate of rent control, as well as positions represented by rent control opponents who would like to see rent control abolished, relaxed or, at the very least, left at 7%.

Some council members believe that Zeidman’s approach may be the best hope for gaining the kind of consensus that previous debates have lacked in the midst of intense lobbying by tenants and landlords.

Back and Forth

Last fall, the last time the council grappled with rent control, council members went back and forth on the issue, first authorizing the $500,000 study, then attempting to cancel the study and lower the annual rate of increase from 7% to 4%, then lowering it to 3% and finally restoring the 7% ceiling and reauthorizing the study, which was completed last month.

With the memory of that tumult still fresh in their minds, council members on both sides of the issue are hoping to fashion a compromise to avoid another free-for-all in the council.

After Wachs’ press conference, a spokesman for the councilman said Wachs could live with Zeidman’s proposal.

“It’s not out of the question. Anything that reduces the size of the annual rental increase from what it is today is relatively appetizing,” said Mark Siegel, Wachs’ staff specialist on rent control.

At the same time, a spokesman for Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, a rent control opponent, offered qualified approval of Zeidman’s plan.

“If anything can get through the council smoothly, it will be the Zeidman proposal,” said Bernard Evans, Flores’ chief deputy.

Flores could not be reached for comment.

“Neither side wants to gamble,” Evans said. “And if they can’t reach a consensus at the committee level, the whole thing could come unraveled. You could have proposals flying in from all directions, and who knows what the outcome would be?”