Pasadena Tenants Union was founded in 2016 to defend tenants’ rights, advance tenant solidarity, and push back against rent gouging and no-cause evictions in Pasadena, California. Tenants in Pasadena are confronting rapidly rising rents and widespread displacement, with a disproportionate impact on residents of color: Pasadena’s Black and Latino communities have each experienced population decreases since 2010. Pasadena Tenants Union achieved a major victory in 2022 with the passage of “Measure H,” a ballot measure to enact rent control and just cause protections.
“The vast majority of the political class in Pasadena did not think we could collect enough signatures to place these strong tenant protections on the ballot, let alone convince voters to approve them on Election Day,” said Ryan Bell, a member organizer with the Pasadena Tenants Union. “But the community came together to do both. Tenants and homeowners alike have had enough of the price gouging and displacement of long-time Pasadena residents. This is a community where people have historically lived for multiple generations, and we’re in serious danger of losing that because of the unchecked avarice of corporate landlords.”
Pasadena Tenants Union first launched the campaign for the ballot measure in 2017, but the campaign did not collect enough signatures to place the measure on the 2018 ballot. Despite this initial setback, organizers remained committed to their goal and regrouped in 2019 to build a broader coalition of support. Pasadena Tenants Union relaunched a signature gathering campaign again in 2021. This time, organizers opted to pursue a charter amendment rather than an ordinance, which required them to collect even more signatures. After a significant volunteer-driven effort, the coalition gathered more than 20,000 signatures to get the charter amendment on the ballot for the November 2022 election. The charter amendment, Measure H, was drafted in a collaborative process involving current and former Pasadena residents who have experienced rent increases and displacement, graduate students at the California Institute of Technology, public interest lawyers, and other affordable housing advocates.
Getting Measure H on the ballot was only the beginning of the Pasadena Tenants Union’s work. With just one full-time and two part-time campaign employees, Pasadena Tenants Union mobilized more than 600 volunteers to knock on 42,000 doors, make nearly 30,000 phone calls, and send over 100,000 text messages in support of Measure H. Alongside the campaign to pass Measure H, the Pasadena Tenants Union organized tenants who were being threatened with illegal no-fault evictions during the Los Angeles County eviction moratorium. These efforts empowered Pasadena renters at risk of eviction to exercise their rights and stay stably housed.
Pasadena Tenants Union faced intense opposition from local political leaders, including some current and former city councilmembers and mayors, as well as realtors’ interest groups. The California Apartment Association, National Association of Realtors, California Association of Realtors, Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles, and Pasadena Foothills Association of Realtors collectively contributed more than $400,000 to campaign against Measure H. Despite these efforts, Measure H passed with 54% of the vote.
Measure H amends Pasadena’s City Charter to limit rent increases to 75% of inflation annually for multifamily rental homes built before February 1, 1995. (California state law prevents cities from applying rent control to single-family homes or new construction built after 1995.) The measure establishes just cause eviction protections to expand upon the protections created by “AB 1482,” a state law passed in 2019. Just cause protections apply to all renters immediately, without the one-year delay set at the state level, and do not expire, while the state-level protections expire in 2030. Measure H also creates an independent Rental Housing Board appointed by the City Council to oversee and adopt rules and regulations.
Once the election was certified, the California Apartment Association sued the City of Pasadena to repeal Measure H and filed for a temporary restraining order to block its implementation. A judge denied the temporary restraining order, and Measure H (now “Article XVIII” of the Pasadena City Charter) remains in effect. A hearing on the merits of the lawsuit will take place on March 28.
Going forward, Pasadena Tenants Union is committed to ensuring that renters are prepared to exercise their new rights under the charter amendment. Pasadena Tenants Union published a toolkit with comprehensive resources, including template letters that tenants can use to reach out to their landlords if they face unlawful rent increases or eviction notices.
For more information about Pasadena Tenants Union, visit: http://pasadenatenantsunion.org/en/
On the Home Front 