West Hollywood : Rent-Control Downturn

A draft report to the West Hollywood Rent Stabilization Commission indicates that the number of residential units subject to the city’s tough rent control ordinance has steadily declined since the law was adopted in 1985.

According to the report, 16,599 rental units are registered this year, down from 21,163 in 1985.

Both supporters and opponents of rent control acknowledge the decrease, but they disagree on what the numbers mean.

“What you are seeing is a small transition to owner occupancy, and finding some units that are being demolished,” said Richard Muller, director of rent stabilization.

Muller said the 1985 numbers are not entirely accurate, and that a better gauge of the change is the number of units billed for registration by the city in 1986. Using that number, 17,942, still leaves the city with “the transition of about 1,000 units to other residential uses,” Muller said.

But, Grafton Tanquary, an opponent of rent control, called the 1985 numbers “a relatively real number, compared to 1980 census numbers,” which indicated there were at least 19,000 units that would have been subject to the city’s ordinance.

“This loss of units is because of rent control,” Tanquary said. “People have simply found it unattractive to rent units under these restrictions.”

Tanquary said the actual decrease in units subject to the law is more than 4,000, or about 22%.

Muller emphasized that the report is only a draft, and said the decrease between 1986 and 1989 is not an indication that owners are pulling their units from the rental market.

“I don’t see anything that indicates that. We find the vast majority are continuing to rent their property,” Muller said.