By Jorge Casuso

September 30, 2026 -- A housing measure on the November ballot has led to widespread concerns it could lead to the evictions of rent control tenants in deed restricted buildings.

Under Measure GG, a landlord can evict a tenant who "does not qualify for the rental unit under the terms of an applicable affordable housing deed restriction" or "has failed or refused to provide proof of income or other qualification for the rental unit."

Proponent say Measure GG ensures that “deed restricted affordable housing units are occupied by tenants with qualifying income levels,” according to the ballot arguments.

Opponents say it "creates new grounds for evictions" and is couched in "dangerous 'doublespeak' right out of George Orwell's 1984 novel.”

On Thursday, the Pico Neighborhood Association, which represents residents in the area where about half of the city's deed-restricted housing is located, will hold a town hall meeting at Santa Monica College (SMC) to discuss the impacts of the measure.

In the meeting flyer, organizers claim GG makes "no exception for grandfathered tenants" in rent-controlled units in buildings that are deed resptricted. "A tenant who is over the income limit, or who doesn't turn in income paperwork, could be evicted," the flyer states.

The City's housing laws require market rate developers to include deed-restricted affordable units either on-site or at an of-site building that can be operated by Community Corp.

The issue, however, is complicated by the fact that Community Corp, the city's largest affordable housing provider, has been buying rent controlled buildings with funding and tax credits that require them to be deed restricted.

According to data provided by Community Corp, the housing provider operates 2,036 deed-restricted units in Santa Monica, of which 839 are rent-controlled, with about half of them in the Pico Neighborhood. Of our deed-restricted units, 723 households are grandfathered under the applicable deed restrictions.

"With respect to tenants who may be over income or who are grandfathered under the applicable deed restrictions, Community Corp does not have plans to evict any household under the just-cause provisions of Measure GG," said Durinda Abraham, Community Corp's Interim Executive Director.

Rent Board Vice Chair Kay Ambriz notes that tenants in rent controlled buildings purchased by Community Corp are protected from eviction under their existing lease, which has no expiration date.

"Your lease is a contract," Ambriz said. "You can't make a change in the contract. Nothing in this ballot measure would change that."

Councilmember Ellis Raskin, a former chair of the City's Planning Commission, said "people are creating the impression that the measure is creating new reasons for evictions."

"There are a handful of cases where (landlords) are illegaly renting deed restricted units to people who make much more than the limit," Raskin said, adding that the ballot measure is intended to address those cases.

But opponents of Measure GG worry that long-time tenants in deed-restricted buildings who are not protected by rent control could be subject to evection if their income rises even slightly above the deed restricted limit.

They note that while Measure GG codifies current City regulations that provide a process for making the unit available to a new income-qualified household, it doesn't include regulations that protect the tenant who is displaced because they no longer qualify.

"Measure GG is a deceptive campaign to evict tenants not now subject to eviction just because they currently earn more income than the income category that they qualified for without offering the tenant a unit that meets their current income," said Mathew Millen, a leader of Progressive Landlords of Santa Monica.

Editor's note: A previous version of this article identified Kay Ambriz as Chair of the Rent Control Board. She is Vice Chair.