Renting a place to live in Santa Barbara was difficult for the average worker before the pandemic hit. Now, with the serious economic toll COVID-19 has brought upon the city, the City Council narrowly passed a new ordinance Tuesday that mandates landlords pay their tenants three months’ worth of relocation costs should they evict them without just cause.
“Most landlords are just the mom-and-pops; we’re just small-business owners at the end of the day. We’re not the Dario Pinis of the world,” said public commenter and landlord Walter Jones, making a reference to a local mega-landlord.
“We really can’t afford the idea of coming out of pocket 25 percent of our annual rent,” Jones continued. “If you continually undermine the people that raise your property taxes on an annual basis, eventually you will start losing against inflation…. I think you should absolutely table this.”