By Jorge Casuso
Editor's Note: This article has been updated to correct the base for the recommended minimum threshold for unpaid rent before a tenant can be evicted for non-payment.
June 29, 2026 -- Santa Monica voters in November could be asked to increase the amount of rent a tenant must owe before being evicted for non-payment and allow them to move a family member into their units.
Those provisions are part of a slate of five pro-tenant ballot measures the Santa Monica Rent Control Board last Thursday recommended the City Council place on the November 3 ballot.
The proposed changes to the Rent Control Charter would allow a family member or partner of tenants who have lived in their units for at least one year to move in and stay after the tenant moves out.
The Board made several changes to the language proposed by staff before voting unanimously to approve each of the five measures.
The first ballot measure recommended by the Board would establish a minimum threshold for unpaid rent before a tenant can be evicted for non-payment.
The proposed language was amended to base the threshold on the average of HUD Small Area Fair Market Rents (FMR) "for equivalent sized rental units in the residential ZIP Codes located wholly or partially within the City of Santa Monica.”
The original version proposed by staff recommended basing it on 150 percent of the Los Angeles-area FMR.
The second ballot measure -- which would establish protections for additional qualifying occupants -- was approved after significant amendments were made to the language proposed by staff.
One change requires the tenant to have lived in the unit for at least a year, while another narrows down the list of family members who can move in to exclude an aunt, uncle, nephew, niece and cousins.
Under the proposed measure, listed family members include a spouse, partner, parent, grandparent, children, grandchildren and siblings.
The tenant does not have to give the landlord a reason why the person is moving in, such as financial hardship or a medical emergency.
A third ballot measure would allow a related tenant who moved in and has lived in the unit for at least one year to be protected from eviction after the original tenant moves out.
The proposal stirred speculation that landlords would not be able to charge the remaining tenant the market rate allowed under the 1996 Costa-Hawkins vacancy decontrol law.
Rent Board Commissioner Ericka Lesley assured property owners the measure did not create "a perpetual tenancy" that deprived them of their rights.
"It was not the intent of this Board to force tenants down any landlord's neck or make them bankrupt," Lesley said. "We need landlords just as much as (we) need tenants. It's a symbiotic relationship."
One Commissioner, however, indicated the Board would "let the courts decide."
The Board also amended the original language to allow a tenant to bring in "chosen family," instead of restricting the definition to "domestic partner."
The additional person, the Board said, cannot be "a random person," but must be someone the tenant intends "to create a household with." The new tenant must receive the approval of the landlord.
The fourth measure -- which applies only to deed-restricted affordable housing -- sets "failure to meet eligibility requirements" and "failure to provide required income or qualification documentation" as just-cause grounds for eviction.
The final measure would establish the City's finding that the Santa Monica rent law "provides greater tenant protections than the California Civil Code" and "supports continued application of the City's just-cause eviction framework."