The Inglewood City Councilpassed a permanent rent control ordinance Tuesday, which will caprent increases in the market at 5% annually. The measure is aresponse to growing housing affordability issues throughout thegreater L.A. area. A group of local residents called theUplift Inglewood Coalition were the chief supporters andproponents of the measure.

“This rent control ordinance was so critical because we have hadtenants experiencing rent increases of up to 140% and beyond,”D'Artagnan Scorza, Ph.D., executivedirector of the Social Justice Institute and amember of the Uplift Inglewood Coalition, tells GlobeSt.com. “Wehave been deeply concerned about the impact that this has had onour residents in the community and we wanted to make sure that thisordinance would protect both our newer residents as well as tosupport people that have been here for decades, especially ourseniors and veterans that are on a fixed income.”

The Uplift Inglewood Coalition launched three years ago inresponse to rising rents. In addition to a cap in rent increases,the measure also includes eviction protections and establishes arent board. There are also exceptions for the cap on rents. “Wehave been working for the past three years to address Inglewood'shousing crisis, and we believe that the rent control ordinance isone approach to help to that,” says Scorza. “We have worked withthe city to adopt inclusionary zoning policies to make sure thatthere is a focus on affordability, and we want to make sure thatthere are protections in place for tenants that are being gougedand evicted.”