The Santa Monica City Council voted unanimously 6-0 on Tuesday to approve a $6 million contract with nonprofit organization The People Concern to operate the Santa Monica Renter Aid program — emergency financial assistance for renters facing eviction.
The program, entirely funded by the real estate transfer tax from Measure GS approved by voters in 2022, is expected to launch in summer of this year and serve approximately 150 high-risk households annually. Renters with income up to 120% of the area median income — approximately $126,000 per year for a single-person household — are eligible to participate.
Assistance reaches up to $5,000 as a one-time payment, $10,000 annually distributed monthly, or $20,000 for those currently in eviction proceedings. According to city data, approximately 472 renters in Santa Monica face eviction lawsuits each year. In the first year, $900,000 — or 75% of the budget — will go directly to financial assistance.
It's cheaper to keep people in their homes than it is to find housing for them after they have lost their place.
Analysis
This program is a direct result of Measure GS — a rare real estate tax that Santa Monica voters passed in 2022 with the explicit goal of combating homelessness. This is not money from federal budgets or state subsidies, but local resources created through direct voter approval — a model many Southern California cities are now watching.
However, the figure of 150 households per year compared to 472 eviction lawsuits filed annually shows that the program addresses only about one-third of the actual need. The city council has also not settled on a disbursement method: Mayor Torosis wants to trust renters with direct cash payments, but most payments will still go directly to landlords — a compromise reflecting familiar anxieties in American housing policy.
With case processing timelines of two to three weeks, the program could arrive too late in urgent eviction cases. This is the real test: not about budget, but about implementation speed.
Diaspora Impact
Two groups within the Vietnamese American community in Southern California are directly affected.
First, elderly first-generation refugee seniors living in rental housing in Santa Monica, West LA, and surrounding areas — many living on fixed income such as SSI or Social Security, with income below the 120% AMI threshold and eligible to participate. With assistance reaching up to $10,000 annually distributed monthly, the program could serve as a critical buffer between staying housed or falling into homelessness in summer 2026 when the program officially opens.
Second, middle-income Vietnamese renters in the Westside area — particularly those working in service or retail industries and not yet fully recovered from the inflation period of 2022 to 2024. The $126,000 AMI threshold for a single-person household is broad enough to cover most of this group, provided they learn about registration when the program launches.