HISTORY
The Early Beginnings to Present (1995-2024)
AHA identified their first official advocacy initiative in 1995 when A.B. 1164, also known as the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, was passed. This bill enabled owners in rent-controlled communities to establish their own rental rates after occupancy changes. To achieve stability in housing costs, AHA began to advocate for rent control in Pasadena, without success. (In 2017 this cause was taken up by the Pasadena Tenants Union and continues to be supported by GPAHG, with much more promising prospects).
In 2000, AHA changed its name to the Pasadena Affordable Housing Group (PAHG) and was no longer officially affiliated with the AFSC. In 2006, PAHG decided to expand its work to the San Gabriel Valley and changed its name to GPAHG—Greater Pasadena Affordable Housing Group.
In 2017, after twenty years of successful advocacy as a grassroots organization, with no paid staff, GPAHG began to feel the need to explore becoming a nonprofit to expand its efforts. In 2018, members of GPAHG created a legal nonprofit entity called Making Housing and Community Happen, utilizing the fiscal sponsorship of Social Good.
In 2018 MHCH core leadership team voted to become faith-rooted in its approach. MHCH is not exclusive to only one faith—all are welcome and respected, including those who are not religious. MHCH is not shy about its Quaker and Christian roots, but neither does it minimize another’s faith or motivation. MHCH is founded on the belief in a God of justice and that with God all things are possible. MHCH urges its members and the city to dream and imagine a community where all are adequately housed. It takes faith to believe that such housing can happen. It takes faith to believe that the hearts and minds of decision makers can be changed by the power of a loving God. MHCH is committed to the redemption of the city, both its systems and its decision-makers.
Currently, MHCH has an estimated 7 staff and 50 active members. Over the years, MHCH and GPAHG have been comprised of a diverse membership consisting of retired planning commissioners, retired city planners, lawyers, architects, nonprofit directors, pastors, caseworkers, former homeless individuals, and long-term advocates at the local and state levels.
Many of GPAHG’s and MHCH's achievements have been noted in local media such as the Pasadena Star News, Pasadena Now and the Pasadena Weekly.
In its twenty+ year history, GPAHG and MHCH, in collaboration with community partners has employed tools like affordable housing bus tours and candidates’ forums. Bus tours served to dispel myths about affordable housing when people could see its high quality and how it serves not only to provide sorely needed affordable housing but also to beautify communities.
Candidates forums have served to educate the city council, commissions, and Pasadena residents on policies that enable or incentivize affordable housing within the city. At candidate forums, key questions are asked, with candidates stating their positions on specific housing issues. Forums take place before elections, and in public venues, thereby holding elected officials accountable to what they have stated. These are excellent organizing tools, but most of MHCH's work is done in small groups: researching issues, meeting one-on-one with stakeholders and elected officials, building consensus around a position on an issue, then gathering up crowds among a broad cross section of the city and especially the support of congregations, weigh in, strengthen and support the findings, and share talking points at public meetings. Below you will read of key campaigns, wins and losses that that have shaped what MHCH is today.
During the 1980s and 1990s, housing costs and eviction rates soared across the country because of the Savings and Loans crisis. Many grassroots nonprofits and advocacy groups were formed at this time to address the growing need for affordable housing throughout the US. In Pasadena, Affordable Housing Action (AHA), an advocacy group with Quaker roots, was birthed during this period. This was the forerunner of GPAHG.
AHA had their first meeting at the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) office which was then located on North Fair Oaks Avenue. AHA met monthly to address the need for affordable housing in Pasadena. AHA was committed to the production and preservation of quality, appropriate, affordable housing with priority on the most vulnerable populations of low to no-income residents, and the dispersal of this housing throughout the city of Pasadena.
Inclusionary: A Powerful Win for Affordable Housing! (2001-2010)
In 2001, we were part of a citywide advocacy effort to pass an Inclusionary Housing Ordinance, which requires developers to set aside a certain percentage of their units as affordable when they build more than 10 units. As of 2024, this ordinance has resulted in the creation of over 1,000 affordable housing units at no cost to the city by requiring that 15% of all new housing include affordable units. (Because the ordinance required only a 6% set aside during its first year, many developers in Old Pasadena quickly pulled permits to take advantage of this.)
In 2010, reading the local Star News, we learned of an 800-unit proposal, the largest ever in Pasadena. We called Sares Regis, the developer, who was eager to meet to gain community support, and a meeting was set. At this meeting we asked if they were planning to pay the in-lieu fee or include 15% of units as affordable. When they responded that they would supply only moderate-income units on site, We stated that it supported only lower income units. In a follow up meeting two weeks later, Sares Regis decided to provide all very-low income units and go above the 15% required to 20%, resulting in 96 very-low-income units spread throughout their luxury development.
This TOD-Transit Oriented Development is smart growth at is its finest, undoing exclusionary practices, creating affordable housing indistinguishable from the luxury units, all within a few minutes’ walk to job-rich Old Pasadena, and a few more minutes’ walk to the metro station.
Many residents fear or oppose more traffic, often equating it with higher density housing. Surprisingly, higher density and affordable housing often lower traffic if the units are near jobs and transportation alternatives. This was the case with Westgate. Their traffic study was questioned, causing the city to make them redo it, with the same positive results. With proximity to the metro, offering shared electric vehicles, zip cars and other traffic mitigation efforts, traffic at and around Westgate has been greatly reduced. Sares Regis has won green builder awards with their strong commitment to green building: http://www.sares-regis.com/SRG-Green-Overview
Not all developers are as generous as Sares Regis, opting to include all very-low income units. Holly Street Apartments was the only other development with 20% of the units set aside as affordable. But today as of 2019, we advocated successfully for the set aside to be 20%, which the City Council unanimously and wholeheartedly approved. To prevent the set aside units from being 100% moderate, we helped to change the Inclusionary Ordinance so that only 5% could be moderate and the rest either low or very low-income units. We also successfully advocated for an increase in the payment of the in-lieu fee, so that is would cover a higher percent of the affordability gap. In 2016, the housing department conducted a nexus study demonstrating that the fee should be increased by up to four times. In 2019, the City Council approved increasing this fee.
Granny Flat and Down-Zoning Setbacks! (2003)
In 2003 we experienced a major setback in response to AB 1866.This state law made it possible once again to build granny flats (Accessory Dwelling Units or ADUs) behind homes throughout the state, but unfortunately it also allowed cities to create their own local ordinances. Therefore, cities across the state began to pass restrictive ADU ordinances to prevent AB 1866 from being implemented. Pasadena passed one of the more restrictive policies. We felt we was prepared with 21 pastors standing strong until after midnight, with powerful stories, solid talking points and reasonable requests of allowing detached granny flats on 7,500 sf lots. But after midnight the City Council found a way to do the opposite, passing a highly restrictive ADU ordinance that required a minimum lot size of 15,000 sq. ft. Additionally, the city added the unusual requirement of a two-car garage for one of these small units. Furthermore, these units could not to be visible from the street, and no ADUs could be allowed more than 500 feet from any other ADU. As a result of so many restrictions, only one ADU was built in 15 years! Nevertheless, we remained committed to granny flats. Fifteen years later, thanks to a new state law which we helped to pass, new city ordinances were passed to enable granny flats to be built in Pasadena, no matter your property size, without onerous impact fees. Today we are proud of our city for having the only affordable ADU program in the state, for which it received national award and recognition. This program works in conjunction with Section 8 qualifying tenants for seven years in exchange for architectural plans, design support, low-interest loans, etc. Other "affordable" ADU programs utilize restrictive covenants on affordable ADUs, but they are ineffective because homeowners don't want to put this kind of restrictive covenant on their home.
In addition to trying to restrict ADUs in the early 2000s, the City Council began down zoning major sections of the city, posing further challenges to the creation of affordable housing. We joined an effort to prevent downzoning on Los Robles between Orange Grove and Washington, whereby the zoning capacity would be cut in half, from 32 units per acre to 16 units per acre. This is not good news for affordable housing. Such low densities greatly limit housing development capacity, typically preventing affordable units. Even with 300 strong at the City Council in support of retaining the existing 32 units per acre, the neighborhood associations prevailed. But we did not give up and are still committed to higher density and smart growth.
Turning a Military Base to Affordable Housing (2005-2006)
In 2005, the Desiderio Army Reserve Center under the famous Colorado Street bridge was declared surplus by the United States Army. We researched and found that housing for homeless veterans was supposed to be a priority use when bases close. We showed up at each public meeting to remind the City Council of this priority. They also reminded the community that the development capacity of 70 units on this site could go a long way in meeting a very real need to address homelessness. After the City went through many lengthy public hearings, the Department of Defense (DOD) and HUD-(Housing and Urban Development) initially rejected the city’s proposed use because it lacked any homeless housing. Reworking the proposal, the city was able to use units for homeless housing at Centennial Place to satisfy federal requirements.
Habitat proposed building affordable housing on the Desiderio site. We chose to support Habitat’s proposal with the strong support of many churches and ECPAC—the Ecumenical Council of Pasadena Area Churches. (ECPAC is now Friends in Deed). Today this site has nine beautiful Habitat homes, with three for veterans, and a neighborhood park. It was a bittersweet win. While we love HABITAT, we were disappointed that there was no net increase in housing for unhoused residents
In 2006, we decided to expand its work to the San Gabriel Valley and changed our name to GPAHG—Greater Pasadena Affordable Housing Group.
Advocating for the Displaced Disabled, Elderly (2007)
In 2007, we became aware that a developer named Singoli purchased Pasadena Manor and was evicting 157 elderly and disabled residents to make way for the Constance Hotel. With the support of Unite Here, and the sad yet powerful stories of displaced residents, we made this front-page news and repeatedly filled the council chambers with people demanding that if Singoli were to receive $11 million in federal revitalization funds, they should pay relocation costs for the displaced residents and the city’s living wage for hotels workers. Repeated city council meetings took place with no decision to honor any of our requests, and the deadline passed to submit the proposal for federal funds. Therefore, we successfully prevented federal dollars from being used to make a luxury hotel that was displacing long term elderly residents, but more importantly, we worked with a lawyer that enabled many of the elderly residents eventually received relocation costs. See here.
Housing Department Formed, Inclusionary Housing Multiplied (2008-2019)
In 2008, we successfully advocated for Pasadena to create a Housing Department separate from the Planning Department. This has enabled a much higher production of affordable housing. For example, not only have over 1,000 units been created through the inclusionary housing ordinance, but hundreds more have been created or preserved through leveraging fees that developers have an option to pay in lieu of including affordable units, William Huang as Housing Director was able to take hundreds of units at Westgate and other large market-rate developments off the speculative market and make them affordable "work force" housing.
In 2018 the Inclusionary Housing Ordinance was up for review. A MHCH subcommittee spent a year studying ways to strengthen this complex ordinance. They decided to advocate for retaining the in-lieu fee option (at a much higher rate) since it is the only locally generated funding source for affordable housing. If affordable housing developers are approved for a project in Pasadena, they often apply for and receive in lieu funding from the city. They can then leverage this seed money anywhere up to 3-8 times to obtain the funding needed to complete the project.
We Helped Pasadena Craft an Award-Winning Housing Element (2013-2021)
Over the years we also played a pivotal role in shaping Pasadena’s Housing Elements (HE). This is a comprehensive document which plans for enough housing for all income levels and must be submitted to the state every 4-8 years. The key word is plan. With the severe shortage of affordable housing, the state is adding more teeth to foster more accountability so that cities will not just plan but also implement these plans.
Only one public body in the city discussed affordable housing: the Economic Development and Technology Subcommittee of the City Council. Our efforts to add an affordable housing commission to the city has not yet materialized, but the Planning Commission now plays the role of implementing the Housing Element. Their agenda is quite full, so the HE has not received the attention it deserves. But some added support was won by requiring the Planning Commission to devote at least two of their meetings a year to affordable housing. We also garnered support for the Housing Department to have two workshops a year on some aspect of affordable housing. Topics have included: ADUs, a debate on the pros and cons of a housing commission, and ideas for additional funding sources. These implementation measures got off to a great start but have not continued.
Additiononally, these extra city-based supports were appreciated at the time, but didn't go far enough. Thankfully, the state is starting to hold cities accountable for reaching their housing goals. Often cities simply say they don’t have the funding for affordable housing so it can’t be done. But groups like LA Voice with Faith in Action didn’t allow this to be a reason not to build affordable housing. In 2017 they organized their 58 member congregations to pass a quarter cent sales tax, Measure H, which provided a level of needed funding for permanent supportive housing, which ends homelessness. The challenge now it to get land use approvals so the funding can be accessed.
In 2014 in partnership Public Council we wrote a 21-page detailed analysis of Pasadena’s Housing Element. This included vetting every proposed site where affordable housing could be built. We visited each site and determined if affordable housing was feasible there.
We also advocated for the creation of some additional housing goals, which were included. For example, the innovative idea to “study options to change the tenant protection ordinance and for options for preserving non-deed restricted affordable housing by 2016” (p. A-32 of the 2013-2021 Housing Element). A common name for this is NOAH (Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing). We felt that good landlords charging reasonable rents should be incentivized, perhaps with some green features in exchange for reasonable rents. While this out-of-the box idea made it into to the approved HE, it still needs to be thoroughly studied and implemented, which has not yet happened.
We found that most the goals within the HE did not have deadlines but had "ongoing." We advocated for deadlines in order to keep the city accountable to its commitment to create affordable housing. One year, at the ninth hour, we asked the HDC—the state’s Housing and Urban Development Department—to send the HE back to have deadlines added to many of the goals before it would be approved. Too many of the goals were “ongoing,” which would roll into the next HE 4-8-year cycle and not be addressed. For example, studying granny flats had been pushed into the next Housing Element cycle several times. Today, due to our effort, there are many more deadlines.
Many of us believe that its efforts were at least partly responsible for this HE winning a Planning Award of Merit for Focused Issue Planning by the California-Los Angeles Chapter of the American Planning Association. Additionally, this Housing Element, alongside Austin, TX, won the 2014 Larson Housing Policy Leadership Award for Best Housing Element by the Urban Land Institute’s Tewillinger Center for Housing. GPAHG continually participates at city council meetings to encourage the goals of the Housing Element are met and implemented. See here.
For the HE Plan for 2021-29, we had 17 organizations under the leadership of POP! (Pasadenans Organizing for Progress) to comb through every detail of this document and offer wonderful policy suggestions that would meaningfully make a dent in the housing crisis. We even had rallies in front of City Hall with a huge scroll from the top of a ladder all the way to the steps in big letters calling on the city to strengthen the HE. Because the Regional Housing Needs Assessment was significantly higher requiring that 9,429 be planned for during this eight-year period, there was much resistance from city officials disbelieving that meeting this need was even possible. We're grateful for the strong leadership of POP! and our other partners, but despite our robust efforts we got very little of what we asked for.
We Hold Fuller Seminary Accountable for Affordable Housing and
Spurs a Stronger Tenant Protection Ordinance [TPO] (2014-present)
In 2014, we were alerted to Fuller Seminary’s sale of 197 student housing units to Carmel Partners, a luxury builder. By so doing it broke their 20-year Fuller Master Plan (MP) agreement with the city, which was adopted in 2006 that stated that all housing within its MP was to be used for affordable student housing. We sought to retain this agreement in multiple ways—first, by seeking to apply AB 2222, whereby a unit in which a lower income person had lived within the past five years had to be replaced in the new development. This law applied only to developments asking for a density bonus. The AB 1818 state Density bonus law allows up to 35% more units in a development if very-low income units are included, overriding existing allowed densities. Additionally, Pasadena allows an additional 50% density bonus in the central district to encourage new development away from single family neighborhoods. Typically, these are attractive tools to incentivize developers to provide affordable units. But Carmel Partners was not interested in taking advantage of this bonus, so none of the 197 lower income units were replaced. This was a huge loss and missed opportunity since this site is ideal for higher density housing.
Upon learning that no Fuller student displaced by the sale to Carmel Partners qualified to receive relocation costs, we began to research how to strengthen Pasadena’s TPO—Tenant Protection Ordinance. We found that the TPO was protecting landlords more than tenants. We discovered a loophole that was preventing relocation costs from being paid: Only those tenants with leases qualified for relocation funds, so landlords would simply change the tenancy to month-to-month, enabling them to bypass paying for relocation cost. Finally, in 2017, after a year of one-on-one meetings with staff and City Council members, letters and reminders, the City Council unanimously approved that all tenants in good standing living in households at or below 140% of the median income would be paid a relocation allowance equal to two months fair market rents as established by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) for a rental unit of a similar size. After an entire apartment complex was evited due to dramatically increased rents, in 2019, the city again updated the TPO to determine if the city will vote to provide relocation costs if rents are increased above a certain percent.
In 2019, MHCH organized a prayer vigil on the Fuller Campus for another housing issue. On MLK Day, with close to 100 in attendance, pastors and leaders asked God to preserve Chang Commons, with 169 affordable student housing units, which are supposed to be preserved under Pasadena’s inclusionary policy. See here.
The final decision was that Fuller had to keep the units affordable in perpetuity and therefore could not sell this apartment at market rate.
Anti-camping Ordinance Was Fought and We Won! (2016)
In 2015 there was a significant rise in laws criminalizing homeless people in California, but these laws have only worsened, not solved, the problem. UC Berkeley's Policy Advocacy Clinic conducted an extensive study of this problem in 2015 and concluded that “criminalization harms homeless people and perpetuates poverty by restricting access to the social safety net, affordable housing, and employment opportunities.”
http://www.homelesslivesmatterberkeley.org/pdf/CA_New_Vagrancy_Laws.pdf
A member of the city council initially felt that by making it illegal for homeless individuals to be on the streets, it would help businesses and the address homelessness. We kept hearing that the downtown businesses wanted to make homeless camping illegal, but we wanted to find out ourselves so we went to businesses in Old Pasadena and surveyed them. We learned that many businesses had reached out in love to unhoused people, and only two wanted an anti-camping ordinance. After our Anti-Camping team finished their research, we crafted talking points and presented our findings to the City Council, the Council decided not to pass this pernicious ordinance. This was a big win for us, garnering respect from many key players when they heard the excellent research that we had done and the caliber of stake holders who so effectively presented their points. See here.
Sadly, considering the Grants Pass v. Johnson case, again this issue has emerged at the national level.
After 15 Years, a Reasonable Granny Flats Ordinance is Approved! (2017)
With 58,000 homeless people counted in LA County in 2017 alone, and a severe housing shortage statewide, state lawmakers saw that one way to address this crisis would be to ease restrictions on granny flats, otherwise known as Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs). Our ADU subcommittee worked tirelessly with the state and local players, including AARP and many churches, gathering up stories of how ADUs would help families grow, college-aged children have a level of independence or the elderly affordably age in place (with a caregiver living in an ADU or by moving into the ADU). This can help prevent displacement. Additionally, Chase Andre, a Fuller intern with GPAHG, was able to identify 740 legal ADUs, built prior to Pasadena’s overly restrictive 2003 ordinance. With the help of Phil Burns, a city planner on our team, all 740 ADUs were plotted on a map of Pasadena so that statistics on crime, the number of parked cars, property values, traffic and other factors could be compared with adjacent streets that had no ADUs. Opponents were saying that ADUs would destroy single-family neighborhoods. The results showed that there was no impact in any of these areas on streets with a high number of ADUs: See here.
With such diligent research, steady persistence, the power of a cohesive team and the help of the state policy causing cities to relax their strict rules, Pasadena’s overly restrictive policies were overturned, and a more reasonable local ordinance is now in place. Today any single-family homeowner can convert their garage into an ADU, no matter their property size, or build an attached or detached ADU or junior ADU, no matter the property size. Whereas only one ADU was built between 2001 and 2017, since 2017, hundreds have been completed with over 700 projected from now till 2029. Thankfully, we also succeeded in preventing impact fee from being applied at a local and state level.
We called Senator Wieckowski who authored a number of the bills and his staff asked us about all the restrictions on ADUs in the city of Pasadena. She responded that every one of them will become illegal! And he did what he promised. We also asked for pre-approved architectural plans and the City now provides them. Our city was also nationally recognized with an award for the only affordable ADU program in the nation.
We Successfully Advocate for Homeless Housing (2018)
In 2018, MHCH successfully advocated for the approval of 69 units of permanent supportive housing for homeless seniors at Heritage Square South after a nine month campaign that included several prayer vigils; religious leaders participating in an all night stay on the site with some of those experiencing homelessness; close to 1,000 letters sent to City Council; and packing public meetings with key community leaders and pastors sharing compelling talking points. On Dec 17th, the City Council not only approved these units, but Mayor Tornek also surprised everyone with his recommendation to use the vacant city-own YWCA for homeless housing. See here.
This historic landmark designed by the famous architect Julia Morgan (who also designed the Hearst Castle) was not economically feasible for affordable housing. Therefore, we launched another nine-month campaign that year and after nine months, the City Council approved using a vacant lot across from the Julia Morgan Y and next to City Hall for 99 units of affordable senior housing, with half set aside for seniors experiencing homelessness. This development is in the final design review stage as of May 2024 after a two and half year delay. We are now seeking to shorten up the length of time in design review. This is essential since this delay caused $10 million in additional cost to the project.
MHCH also strongly supported the 2018 ordinance that facilitates the conversion of motels into affordable housing by doing community engagement in East Pasadena, where many motels are located and where there is rampant NIMBYism. So far, no motels have been converted in part because the process is not "by right" but discretionary, and therefore needs City Council approval.
Summary of Successes Since MHCH Became Formalized as a Non-Profit
Homeless Housing: We successfully advocated for 134 units of permanent supportive housing (which ends chronic homelessness) at the Heritage Square South and the Salvation Army sites. We conduced vigils in front of the city-owned YWCA advocating for the approval of 99 more affordable housing units, half for homeless neighbors, half for low-income families, and the City Council is now calling for affordable housing at the Civic Center.
Housing Preservation: On Martin Luther King day, 2019, we planned a prayer vigil to preserve 169 affordable units in Chang Commons on the Fuller Seminary campus with over 100 in attendance. This event and the team that emerged from it helped to preserve these units and keep Fuller Seminary in Pasadena.
Church Land: We started a new subcommittee in 2019 to help churches interested in building affordable housing on their land to go down that path with expert consultation. This team has been approached with by 90 churches throughout southern CA cities and as of 2024, will have ten more churches prepared to partner with an affordable housing developer with Requests for Proposals (RFPs). We also have an apprenticeship with teams from Texas, Colorado, Washington State, and Northern California.
ADUs: We formed a team in 2003 that researched how to make Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs or “granny flats”) legal in Pasadena, which was accomplished in 2017 through state policy. After much local resistance, today Pasadena fully embraces ADUs with pre-approved designs and other ways to streamline. We support the many new state ADU policies that make it easier to build ADUs.
Education: We collaborated with Everyone In to plan three Homeless to Housed Bus tours, filling busloads of key leaders from San Gabriel Valley cities to tour permanent supportive housing. In 2023 we organized a tour where we invited San Gabriel elected officials and 38 attended, including four mayors. The goal was to show transformed lives and the beauty of affordable housing and to educate and inspire people to become advocates for permanent supportive housing, which ends homelessness.
Education: We had monthly educational forums on gentrification, theology of land and housing, community land trusts, rent control and other tenant protections, trauma in homelessness and supportive housing. We also held a candidate forum on affordable/homeless housing that drew 13 candidates and 150 attendees. To learn more about our Housing Justice Forums, click here.
CLTs—We formed a team with the goal of starting a Community Land Trust (CLT) for the San Gabriel Valley. CLTs are a model that insures permanent affordability because homes are purchased, but not the land, making it affordable. Then homeowners agree to keep their home affordable when they sell it. The San Gabriel Valley Community Land Trust was spun off as an independent nonprofit in 2022 and gained its 501-C 3 in 2023. To Learn more, click here,
Inclusionary: We successfully advocated to increase the affordable housing set aside (which has created over 1000 units of affordable housing since 2001) so that new developments of more than 10 unit must have 20% affordable units (instead of 15%) or pay an in lieu fee to build affordable units elsewhere. Most build units rather than pay in lieu fees. $26 million in fees were collected which were leveraged to build affordable and supportive housing. Advocates from San Gabriel, Alhambra and Monrovia joined out team and are now working on these policies in their community.
Pasadena was not ready for Rent Control in 1995 but it is now art of the City Charter thanks to the Tenants Union, MHCH and other organizations.
In 1995 Pasadena was not ready for rent control but in 2017, thanks to the Pasadena Tenants Union, there was tremendous support for rent stabilization: they came close to getting it on the ballot by collecting over 10,000 signatures. (This support surpassed the 8,200 votes garnered by the Mayor, who opposes rent control.) In 2018, over 54% of Pasadenans voted for the state Prop 10 ballot measure, which would have allowed cities to have rent control if passed. In 2021 we began collecting 20,00 signatures, of which 15,000 qualified (only 13,000 were noted). This put rent control on the ballot. MHCH was a big supporter of Measure H and an intern named Brendon Poon to work on this campaign. Measure H was passed by a 7.6 percent margin. To see how this benefits tenants, click here.