On February 15, the State of California Housing and Community Development Department issued notice to the City of South Pasadena that the Housing Element that they adopted in May 2023 is noncompliant. The state cited feedback from South Pasadena Tenants Union along with YIMBYLaw in their decision to reject South Pasadena’s plan. What this means is that the city must submit another draft, this will be the 6th draft, and make the corrections highlighted by the state. Once the updated draft is published, the city must reopen to the public a comment period for seven days. For every comment submitted by the public to the State, the city must reply, in another draft, and the public comment period begins again.
This process provides SPTU with an opportunity to express to the State our dissatisfaction in the city’s failure to act in good faith on the four tenants’ protections that were included in the adopted Housing Element. SPTU will be submitting comments on the Housing Element in advance of the 6 th draft being published. We will point out that per the adopted Housing Element, the City was to have presented a plan for rent control, increased relocation fees and a rental registry by December 2023. We will not stop submitting comments to the State until we have rent stabilization and increased relocation fees!
We are asking that renters continue to make General Public comments at City Council meetings demanding the city make good on their promise to the State of California and the people of South Pasadena. As always comments can be made in person or in writing. If you have not done so already, please do your part to help us get rent control immediately.