[dropcap size=big]C[/dropcap]elebrating a vote that ensured a cap on rent increases in the rapidly developing city of Inglewood, the leader of a local activist group said Wednesday they were prepared to keep up efforts to prevent the over-gentrification of a community that will soon welcome an NFL stadium.
On Tuesday, the Inglewood City Council unanimously moved to make a previous temporary rent-control ordinance permanent for renters in the city. Rent increases — which before the measure were affecting tenants with radical spikes in rent — will now be capped at 5 percent annually in most cases. The council initially considered an 8 percent cap, but speakers at the meeting argued that'd be moot.
“I would say it’s a temporary solution, but there are many other things we need to do to make Inglewood a model for economic development and housing that serves the local community,” said D’Artagnan Scorza, a leading organizer with the coalition group Uplift Inglewood, earlier today.
Scorza, who also sits on the Inglewood school board, still welcomed the move. “It’s been three years of organizing and mobilizing to get the council to respond to what we knew would be a challenge for a number of years,” he told L.A. Taco.
A native of Inglewood who attended neighborhood schools, Scorza said he has seen firsthand how young people serviced by his community organization have been pushed out of the Inglewood rental market. Some of the youth he sees have become homeless, he added.