Monterey County Rental Registry

On February 23, 2022- Monterey city officials met to discuss the possibility of rolling out of a rental registry for the city. Sixteen local cities in the region have recently implemented a similar program in their cities, including Salinas, Santa Cruz, and San Jose. 

A rental registry for the city will come at a cost to landlords, which in turn will be passed along to renters. The city projects a cost of approximately $400,000 for the kickstart of the project. If landlords are unable to pass this offset cost to renters, it will result in decreased investment for property upkeep or ability to sell to 2nd home buyers from the bay area. A reduction in available rental housing will not help the affordability of the area.

The city is justifying the costs of the project by stating that nearly 66% of population are renters and are in need of protection in way of collecting data. However they fail to address that this protection was already put into place in way of statewide rent control enacted in 2020. If you want to keep rent costs down, I urge you to speak out against this initiative.