Who Counts as a Household?

A controversial tenant measure hopes to combat ICE.

Holly Bieler · August 5, 2026 · Santa Monica

Santa Monica voters will decide in November whether rent-controlled tenants can add family members to their units beyond lease limits, after the proposal produced the sharpest split the City Council has seen in months.

The measure would let those added occupants remain after the original tenant leaves, and would extend just-cause eviction protections to single-family homes and condos.

The Greater LA Realtors and the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles both warned the measure would lead to "perpetual tenancy", and urged the council to send it back for revisions.

Councilmember Dan Hall reminded colleagues where the measure came from: January's ICE raids, when primary leaseholders were taken into custody and the relatives who moved in to hold households together [found themselves facing eviction.](https://laist.com/news/housing-homelessness/los-angeles-ice-immigration-raids-detention-economy-housing-costs-rent)

But Councilmember Lana Negrete, herself a rent-controlled tenant, said she'd spent the day fielding calls from blindsided mom-and-pop landlords, including a restaurant owner whose family has spent a year unable to remove a havoc-causing occupant.

She pressed staff to explain the measure "in plain talk".

"Anybody could go move in now?" she [asked at one point](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYSV7GgrgJ0).

Mayor Caroline Torosis, a former rent board member, framed the stakes differently: "We're talking about someone's pocketbook versus a life-or-death roof over someone's head."

After Councilmember Barry Snell forced a separate vote, the measure passed 4-2, meaning it will be added to the November ballot, for Santa Monica voters to decide. Snell and Negrete opposed.

Two companion rent-control measures were also passed onto the ballot with little discussion: one adding eviction rules for deed-restricted affordable units, another barring evictions over debts smaller than roughly a month's rent.