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On November 17, the Pomona City Council voted 5–1—with one member absent—to approve a new permanent rent stabilization ordinance. Council Member Debra Martin cast the lone dissenting vote, arguing that the City should focus on stronger code enforcement rather than imposing permanent rent controls. The new ordinance replaces the two existing urgency ordinances and will take effect January 1, 2026.
The ordinance includes one positive change: it increases the fixed annual allowable rent increase from 4% to 5%. However, the cap remains untethered to the Consumer Price Index (CPI). As a result, during periods of inflation above 5%, housing providers will be unable to keep pace with rising operating costs. This puts many small, independent owners at risk of financial failure—ultimately leading to property sales for demolition and redevelopment into high-end, for-sale units, displacing existing renters. The City Council continues to overlook this substantial and predictable flaw.
Another significant problem is that the ordinance permanently adopts the extraordinarily high and impractical relocation fees first introduced under the urgency ordinances. AAGLA repeatedly raised concerns about these excessive fees—often as the only organization representing rental housing providers at Council meetings. When these fees were originally approved in 2022 by a different Council, Mayor Tim Sandoval himself acknowledged they were “very high,” and city staff was expected to return with a cost study to recalibrate them.
That study was never completed, and no adjustments have ever been made. The relocation fees were initially based on Los Angeles County rents, which were already 34% higher than Pomona’s. Today, the calculation relies on City of Los Angeles rents, which are now 37% higher than Pomona’s. Despite this widening disparity, the current Council declined to correct the issue and instead incorporated these unrealistic fees into the new permanent ordinance. Vice Mayor Steve Lustro defended the decision by pointing to the ordinance’s sunset date of December 31, 2026—cold comfort for small property owners who have already been unable to make major system repairs for more than three years and now face at least one more year of delays.
Major system repairs—electrical, mechanical, foundation, plumbing, and hazardous-materials remediation—cannot be safely completed with tenants in place and typically require 30 days or more. These are not cosmetic upgrades; they are essential for safe, habitable housing. Under the current relocation fee structure, many small owners simply cannot afford to relocate tenants temporarily. This leaves them with two options: sell their property “as is” for demolition, forcing all tenants to relocate, or continue deferring critical repairs, leaving renters in deteriorating conditions.
In both scenarios, renters ultimately suffer. The City is effectively preventing responsible housing providers from completing necessary building repairs—precisely the opposite of what good housing policy should encourage. There is still hope that the Council will eventually revisit the issue and adopt fair, realistic relocation fees based on Pomona’s actual rental market rather than that of much higher-cost cities.
Even more concerning, Mayor Sandoval has expressed interest in reviving the proposal for an expensive and unnecessary rental registry, despite the City’s severe budget challenges. No evidence has been presented showing that local housing providers are violating existing rent stabilization rules. Instead, the push for a registry appears driven by demands from Pomona United for Stable Housing (PUSH) and external tenant-advocacy blueprints, rather than local data or demonstrated need.
As always, we will continue to keep our members informed should a rental registry or other harmful policy proposals resurface on a future Council agenda.
This article is for informational purposes only. If you have questions regarding your property, leasing issues, or the legal requirements described above, please consult an attorney.
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