The rents are frozen.
In a historic moment at Santa Barbara City Hall, the City Council voted to freeze rent increases while the city works on a rent stabilization ordinance.
Councilmembers Oscar Gutierrez, Meagan Harmon, Wendy Santamaria and Kristen Sneddon were in support, while Mayor Randy Rowse and councilmembers Eric Friedman and Mike Jordan opposed the rent freeze.
More than 125 people spoke over a three-hour period of just public comment. The actual meeting lasted about five hours. At times the comments from members of the public turned personal.
Community activist Chelsea Lancaster fired up the crowd with an emotionally charged speech in support of an immediate rent freeze. She said landlords have a gun pointed at renters’ heads.
“The fastest growing population of houseless people in this community are elders,” Lancaster said. “So all of you elders who mourn for a world that does not exist anymore, when grandma couldn’t leave grandpa, and people of color couldn’t buy a home and you got to redline Santa Barbara.
“All the old, stale, pale and male leadership—no more, no more,” Lancaster said. “Every single one of you. No more. You’re done. Save yourself the time. Save yourself the time. We will walk until our feet bleed. The ice age is over.”
Many in the audience cheered after she spoke.
Lancaster pointed at Rowse, Friedman and Jordan, as she made her comments.
The rent freeze applies to whatever the rent was as of Dec. 16, 2025. The actual ordinance will go into effect 30 days after it is formally adopted, likely next week. The rent freeze will only last through Dec. 31, 2026. The council intends to draft an ordinance by the end of the year.
Renters and their advocates hailed the vote. They said a halt on rent increases is long overdue.
“What will we do when our essential workers can’t get to Santa Barbara in an emergency, because they were all priced out?” said speaker Hannah Cohen. “Wages have not increased anywhere near the housing prices and most residents are just barely able to stay afloat. Housing is a human right.”
Several property owners spoke at the meeting and criticized the change. Jim Youngson said his family owns 60-year-old apartments in Santa Barbara. He said in the past five years his family has spent about $600,000 on the apartments.
“I consider what you are doing today an attack on my family and me personally,” Youngson said. “The City Council’s responsibility is to work toward the betterment of all citizens. A rent freeze does the opposite. It signals out one group and punishes them.”
The rent freeze does not apply to people renting from single-family homes or rental units managed by a public agency. It only applies to apartment buildings built before 1995.
Rowse has consistently opposed rent stabilization.
“This is kind of like when you test pasta by throwing it against the wall and seeing how many strands stick,” Rowse said.
He said the city has not done the research necessary to understand the full measure of a rent freeze. He defended landlords by saying that they have costs and that freezing rents could put them out of business.
“Landlords aren’t doing retribution,” Rowse said. “They don’t hate you guys. It’s not about retribution. It’s trying to stay in business.”
Community member Ian Baucke said he understands the situation is complicated.
“But at the end of the day what is most important is protecting the stability of Santa Barbara and Santa Barbarans to live in a place they call home,” Baucke said. “This is not going to solve the affordable housing crisis. This applies to too few units unfortunately. The reality is we need to do this, and supply, and increase the amount the city contributes to subsidized affordable housing.”
Harmon initially tried to pass the rent freeze as an emergency ordinance, which means it would have gone into effect immediately. But an emergency ordinance needs five voted, so it failed.
She made a second motion to pass the freeze and have it go into effect in 30 days.
The halt in rent increases will allow the city time to craft good policy, and will encourage officials to work fast to draft a rent stabilization ordinance, she said.
“Without this, our community is at risk, all of our community,” Harmon said. “To me, and I recognize there are differing perspectives on this, but this action tonight is about good governance. It is about doing policy the right way.”