Sixteen years a renter. Now a neighbor who won't forget it.

Heather Thomason is a Sunset Park resident and mother who believes in rent control because she's personally experienced the difference it makes. Though a homeowner now, she was a renter for 16 years.

In non-rent-controlled units, she watched her rent jump 50% in a 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. The rent-controlled unit she settled into 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 for the Rent Control Board to defend that stability against state housing laws that too often threaten our rent-controlled stock. She's alarmed by how the state legislature is attacking both renters and homeowners in all neighborhoods through bills like SB 79, and believes rent control boards should lead the effort to fight back.

At the same time, she welcomes new housing that's planned locally and truly affordable. She'll advocate for policies that help residents of rent-controlled housing make Santa Monica home for the long run, and for their neighborhoods — and all neighborhoods — to remain livable.