VENTURA : State Rent Control Measure on Agenda

Two weeks after rejecting a rent control ordinance proposed by mobile-home park owners, the Ventura City Council tonight6 will consider a resolution opposing a statewide measure that would do away with such controls across California.

Council members are expected to adopt the resolution urging voters to reject the initiative, in part to support the nearly 1,900 mobile-home residents in Ventura.

Mobile-home owners complain that the statewide initiative would throw out the rent control protections granted them under an existing city ordinance.

Many residents said they are living on fixed incomes and cannot afford substantial rent hikes. The city’s rent control law expires later this year.

On June 5, the City Council rejected a proposal by park owners that would have allowed them to increase rents by more than 100% of the consumer price index, a national inflation measurement.

Instead, the council tentatively approved most of a mobile-home owner-submitted ordinance that limits such increases to 50% of the index. That proposal will come back before the council next month.

The statewide measure that will appear on the March, 1996, ballot would preserve existing rent controls only while residents occupy their present mobile homes. Once tenants move or die, owners would be allowed to charge fair-market rent for the space.

The initiative would also prevent cities and counties from passing any new rent control laws, and any changes to the law would require the support of two-thirds of California voters and the governor.