www.montereycountynow.com SEPTEMBER 17-23, 2026 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 15 for multiple ordinances: the cap on rent increases, and protections to keep tenants housed. At the time, Rocha, the policies’ champion on council, said, “The purpose of this is to make sure that people remain housed and to make sure that people who are living in unsafe living conditions fully understand their rights, and that they have greater protection under the law from abuse in the housing market.” ••• The Yes on H group, called Protect Salinas Residents, supports reinstating Ordinance No. 2687 (the repeal), citing impacts on local landlords and arguing the state already has adequate legislation to aid renters. “These local ordinances go far beyond that, adding layers of bureaucracy, public registry requirements, and financial burdens that serve politics far more than they serve people,” Ignacio Fregoso, who is campaign committee chair for Protect Salinas Residents, said on the group’s website. “Affordability is the issue of our time in Salinas,” according to the group’s argument in favor of Measure H. “The rental registry took effect May 4, 2023, with three more ordinances following after. Rents are still high.” Since the coalition succeeded in getting the four ordinances overturned, they have also been building a campaign for Yes on Measure H and fundraising extensively. Campaign finance reports show Protect Salinas Residents has raised at least $272,925 since 2025. Most donors are involved in the real estate industry; the largest donor is UDR Inc., which contributed $78,250. UDR is a publicly traded real estate investment trust based in Colorado that owns, develops and manages apartments nationwide. Next is the California Association of Realtors Issues Mobilization PAC, based in Los Angeles, with $60,000. Outfundraised by about 4-to-1, Protect Salinas Residents has collected at least $68,770. Its largest donation is $10,000 from nonprofit AIDS Healthcare Foundation Inc. based in Los Angeles, followed by Jaime Gonzalez, a physician at Salinas Valley Heath, with $5,485. ••• Gaye Freedman, 76, is a semi-retired Salinas resident who has lived with her husband in an apartment complex near Lucky supermarket on Blanco Road since 2017. “It’s really hard to survive in Salinas and not have two full incomes,” Freedman says. “Even though I retired, I went back to working part-time.” Their rent is $1,850/month for a one-bedroom apartment. “When we moved in it was $1,200. If it hadn’t been for rent stabilization, our rent right now would be over $2,100,” Freedman says, noting their unit hasn’t had any upgrades since they moved in. If Measure H passes, Freedman says they might need to move, especially since food and gas prices keep spiking. At her age, she says, “it’s a massive ordeal to move again…If we [owned] a house, our mortgage wouldn’t go up like this every year.” Freedman isn’t alone. Costburdened renters, households that spend more than 30 percent of their pretax income on rent and utilities, increased to 50 percent nationwide in 2022; that’s up by 3.2 percent compared to 2019, according to a 2024 report from Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. As of Sept. 6 the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Salinas is $2,100 according to Zillow. Freedman says she and her husband applied for affordable housing in Marina at Terracina at The Dunes, but their combined income was a few thousand dollars above the threshold to qualify. “We are right now at the limit of what we could possibly afford,” she says. ••• What is not up for debate is that Salinas has a housing crisis. “There’s been so much emotion in this, from the renter community and the landlord community. I think everybody can agree we just have to build more units,” City Manager René Mendez says. The last time the city had a major housing development was two decades ago. The city is making progress in increasing its housing stock but isn’t growing as fast as demand. According to Salinas’ housing dashboard, the city issued 544 permits from 2023-2026, and 323 are ready to use; all are for units at or above moderate-income housing. According to a quarterly update produced by the Salinas Community Development Department in May, 8,376 units, or 27 percent of the total, were registered in the rental registry. In the first trimester of 2026, the city collected $754,568 in associated fees. During that time period, city staff handled three rent increases and four rent reductions and there are five pending petitions. (Salinas’ communications department did not respond to repeated requests for additional information for this story.) Since implementing the rental registry, fees have been adjusted. Landlords currently pay $29 annually per unit that is not covered under the rent stabilization ordinance; for those that are subject to the ordinance, meaning they are in multifamily dwellings constructed before Feb. 1, 1995, the fee is $112 per unit a year. The revenues go toward implementing other elements of the housing program. Meanwhile, Mendez says, the issue of housing in Salinas has become a polarized one. “We struggle to have these conversations here because of the need of our community which is very real and which we have to address, we absolutely have to address it,” he says. “Now those conversations have become even harder.” Sara Rubin contributed to this report. DANIEL DREIFUSS DANIEL DREIFUSS Property owners urged Salinas City Council to overturn a 2.75-percent annual cap on rent increases, which a new council agreed to do in 2025. “Good policy has to work over the course of time. In my mind, it was clear this was not a sustainable policy,” Mayor Dennis Donohue said. Rent stabilization and related policies have for years been a political lightning rod in Salinas. At top, a group of physicians speak about housing stability as a health issue during a press conference in April 2025 hosted by the group Protect Salinas Renters. “I was disappointed that all that hard work was erased for ideological moneyed interests,” says Dr. John Silva, at the microphone.
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