Mayor Jennifer Fitzgerald, Mayor Pro-Tem Jan Flory, and the City Council Members of Fullerton:

On behalf of the residents of Palm Gardens Apartments and the tenants of Fullerton, we want to acknowledge and extend our thanks for your response to our demands on implementing local housing protections for residents in Fullerton. Your actions have included establishing an eviction moratorium for those financially impacted by COVID-19 until future Council direction.

However, these protections are not enough. For example, residents of the low-income apartment complex Palm Gardens in Fullerton were recently given notice of a rent increase of 8.5%, which took effect June 1st. As COVID-19 cases in Orange County have been consistently increasing as well, we must do better to ensure Fullerton residents are protected from experiencing financial instability, housing insecurity, and homelessness. Therefore, we demand that you enact an immediate and retroactive emergency rent freeze. This will mitigate the detrimental housing consequences of this pandemic that will for Fullerton families unless we do something about it. Vulnerable families are now facing the difficult decision of choosing between food or rent.

Therefore, we call on the Fullerton City Council to do the following:

1. Use emergency powers during this pandemic to allow a temporary rent freeze that will extend for six months beyond the date that the statewide emergency orders are lifted. This will ensure that tenants do not fall further behind on rent repayment and will match the timeline of the city’s eviction moratorium.
2. Continue to exercise Council authority in the interest of maintaining housing stability in Fullerton and community at-large.
3. Use any and all ability to create public media to ensure that landlords in Fullerton make no attempt to evict, harass, bully, or otherwise render tenants’ lives more difficult in our current pandemic. This will ensure that tenants can remain confident in their rights to remain in Fullerton.
4. Assert and defend tenants’ right to quiet enjoyment of their homes and rented units. Landlords claim to operate the business of providing housing as a service. As such, landlords are required to provide certain standards of living under the law throughout the duration of the tenancy. This holds that landlords shall be required to maintain properties up to code and respect tenants whether a temporary rent freeze and eviction moratorium is in effect or not. Without this, residents are forced to live in conditions detrimental to their physical and mental health.
5. Support statewide bills that would put the onus on landlords to apply for relief, not just pass on costs to already burdened renters.

Not taking these actions will lead to mass displacement and during a pandemic this is exponentially dangerous to all, not just those being displaced. We urge that the Council remain bold enough to ensure that residents stay protected against unjust and immoral actions by outside landlords who are motivated purely by profit and have failed to respond to requests. We do not believe in allowing these types of groups and interests to hold weight in our communities. We believe that the value of our city comes from residents and we invite the Council to uphold this belief with us as well.

Please sign this petition and contact the Fullerton City Council with these urgent requests. Demand that they take action now!

Jennifer Fitzgerald, Mayor At Large, Jenniferf@cityoffullerton.com
Jan M. Flory, Mayor Pro Tem, jflory@cityoffullerton.com
Jesus Silva, District 3, jesuss@cityoffullerton.com
Bruce Whitaker, At-Large, bwwhitaker@live.com
Ahmad Zahra, District 5, AhmadZ@cityoffullerton.com

Sincerely,

Fullerton Friends of Palm Gardens

Sponsoring Organizations:

Woodcrest Association
VietRISE
Resilience OC
Santa Ana Tenants United
Chicanxs Unidxs of Orange County
Clergy & Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE)