In a win that will pave the way for expanding tenant protections in San Diego, the City Council approved a resolution on Jan. 24 officially declaring housing is a human right in San Diego. San Diego becomes the second city in the U.S., after Madison, Wis., to pass a housing is a human right resolution. Congratulations to the tenant leaders and organizers of ACCE-San Diego for your work toward making this victory possible!

In a huge victory for tenants across the city of Los Angeles, the City Council voted to dramatically expand permanent renter protections just in time before the city's eviction moratorium expired. The Keep LA Housed Coalition, which includes ACCE and dozens of housing justice allies, organized for months to finally win near-universal just cause protections and relocation assistance for LA tenants displaced by large rent increases. Thanks to this expansion, 600,000 more LA renters are now protected against eviction for no reason. Thirty-five ACCE-Los Angeles tenant leaders attended the City Council meeting and 20 leaders spoke at public comment in favor of expanding protections. In another win, the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors extended the countywide eviction moratorium by two months to March 31, 2023. This now gives other incorporated cities in LA County more time to implement permanent protections.

ACCE tenant leaders in Chula Vista claimed victory in October after the Chula Vista City Council approved stronger protections against no-fault evictions. The new law goes beyond state law by making it harder for landlords in the city to pursue no-fault evictions, and by requiring tenants who do get evicted receive relocation assistance. The law also strengthens anti-harassment protections, by including prohibitions on verbal harassment, threats, coercion and refusal to take rent payments. The ordinance is slated to go into effect in March 2023.

After a months long campaign, the residents of the Siesta RV Park in Imperial Beach and ACCE San Diego leaders finally won strong city-wide renter protections- including an eviction ban, anti-harassment protections and a prohibition on rent increases of more than 5% annually. The Imperial Beach City Council ended a rule the park's owner, Miramar Imperial Beach LLC, was enforcing that required residents of mobile home and RV parks to sign six-month leases and vacate their spaces for 48 hours after those leases expired.

Los Angeles County tenants made new gains this month at both the county and city level, thanks to amazing organizing work by ACCE Los Angeles tenant leaders and our allies in the Keep LA Housed coalition. The Los Angeles City Council agreed to implement permanent just cause protections for all LA City tenants, and the County Board of Supervisors voted to strengthen renter protections and expand eviction defense services for all tenants in the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles. The housing justice movement in Los Angeles is growing stronger and more powerful every day! 

After months of organizing and actions demanding stronger protections for Antioch tenants, the Antioch City Council passed a  rent control ordinance that would cap annual rent increases to 3% or 60% of CPI, whichever is lower. The vote reflects a shift in housing policy across the state with dozens of cities across CA working to pass stronger tenant protections!

Struggling tenants in the City of Pomona will see their rents capped for the next year, thanks to the City Council's passage of a rent stabilization ordinance in August 2022. The one-year rent stabilization ordinance caps rent increases at 4%, or the change in the Consumer Price Index, whichever is less. This huge victory was made possible thanks to a five-year campaign led by local community groups like Pomona United for Stable Housing (PUSH) and tenant leaders like Los Angeles-ACCE member Yesenia Miranda Meza who organized outside of City Hall. 

Tenants living at the Porto Apartments in San Pablo that have been living under the threat of eviction for over a year now claim victory as the landlord has not only agreed to drop the eviction case, but has also agreed to wave some of the back rent that was owed and sign a "first right of refusal" with Richmond LAND to possibly sell the building to the land trust and make the home permanently affordable and in community control. 

After thousands of working-class and low-income homeowners - majority Latino and African American - in LA County were defrauded by the government-sponsored PACE program, many faced foreclosure. But after years of organizing and fighting back, in a significant victory for approximately one hundred homeowners defrauded by PACE, City Attorney Mike Feuer announced a $6 million settlement to be distributed to Los Angeles homeowners harmed by the unfair deceptive and unlawful practices by Eco Solar, a company connected to the PACE program. The court found that Eco Solar had unlawfully targeted Spanish-speaking homeowners and lured them into entering into "construction contracts and PACE loans for renovation work (Eco Solar) were never going to finish." There is much more to be done to right the injustices caused by those who defrauded under the PACE program, but the settlement is major step forward!