Defend our rent-controlled stock
State housing laws increasingly threaten the units Santa Monica depends on. The Board should be the first line of defense, not a bystander.
Endorsed by SMRR & the SM Democratic Club
Protect the housing that keeps Santa Monica livable.
A Sunset Park mother and 16-year renter, now a homeowner, running to defend rent-controlled housing — and the stability it gives our neighbors.
Screenwriter · Proud member of the Writers Guild of America
Vote November 3, 2026
Why she's running
She knows what rent control makes possible — because she lived it.
In non-rent-controlled units, Heather watched her rent jump 50% in a single year, then lost the place she downsized to when the landlord sold it. Displaced too many times, she deliberately sought out rent-controlled housing — and the stability that market-rate units never gave her.
That rent-controlled unit is where she had her first child and built a family with her husband while saving toward a home of their own. She's running to defend that same stability for the neighbors who depend on it today.
Read her full story →On the Board, Heather will
Push back on Sacramento overreach
Bills like SB 79 hit renters and homeowners in every neighborhood. Rent control boards should lead the effort to fight back.
Welcome housing planned locally
New homes that are truly affordable and planned here — so residents of rent-controlled housing can make Santa Monica home for the long run.
Endorsements
Supported by the people who built rent control here
Denny Zane
Former Mayor and co-founder of SMRR
Zina Josephs
Sunset Park advocate
Michael Soloff
Co-chair of SMRR and Vice President of the Santa Monica Democratic Club
- Jon Katz, President, Santa Monica Democratic Club
- Michael Tarbet, Co-founder of SMRR
- Leslie Lambert, Planning Commissioner; first elected Rent Control Board member
- Joe Pertel, Sunset Park resident
- Barry Rosenbaum, Former SM City Attorney
- John Reynolds, Sunset Park resident
- Bruce Leddy, Former Chair, SM Human Services Commission
- Diane Reynolds, Chair, SM Airport Commission
- Elizabeth Van Denburgh, Wilmont resident
- John Cyrus Smith, Wilmont resident
- Clare Thomas, Sunset Park resident
- Gavin Scott, Sunset Park resident
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