Natalia Hernandez

Costa Mesa’s new tenant protection ordinance mirrors the policies in state legislation SB 1482 and AB 567. As the Legislature saw, the assistance is much needed, but the city’s mechanism isn’t sustainable. We need to build the capacity of the Fair Housing organizations to deliver this assistance. The first step is educating tenants and landlords about the protections and assistance owed to tenants under state law. The second step is ensuring that any additional protections enacted by local governments are consistent so education and enforcement can be a regional effort and not done by city staff on a city-by-city basis. City staff are neither lawyers nor social workers and come with pension liabilities. We can do this work to protect tenants for less money if we build the capacity of the non-profit sector and share the cost across all the cities in Orange County.

The director of People for Housing OC writes that Costa Mesa’s proposed inclusionary housing policy should socialize the cost of assistance over all homeowners, rather than put the burden on first-time buyers who are already at a disadvantage.

Despite the state’s housing shortage, the Coastal Commission resists units near the ocean: “It’s just another kind of redlining.”

Huntington Beach city leaders are looking at killing a decade old development plan for the Beach Boulevard area, which could delay or possibly kill any new projects in the area.

Officials in one of Orange County’s most progressive cities might be poised to exempt themselves
from state housing mandates.

California officials rejected the city’s residential blueprint after getting complaints it includes a public school, a hotel, a sheriff’s training facility and other occupied parcels.