San Diegan says she was forced to pay illegal rent increase for a year. She fought back

Wendy Patrick knew the rent was about to go up for her one-bedroom apartment in City Heights. The complex had just been sold, her lease was facing renewal and she hadn’t received a single increase in the five years she lived there. She felt ready for it, though.

For more than a decade, Patrick has conditioned herself to stretch earned disability benefits as far as she can every month, making tough choices between wants and needs while using food stamps to buy staples in bulk. She counts herself lucky to have a portion of her rent covered by a Section 8 housing voucher, a form of federal assistance that helped end her homelessness. 

But her heart sank when she read the notice taped to her front door. 

The new owners wanted an additional $390 every month — an increase of 33%. That’s more than three times higher than what state law allows.

Housing advocates and attorneys say Patrick isn’t alone. Tenants across the state have faced rent hikes that violate the California Tenant Protection Act, which set a 10% maximum cap on increases for many properties.

The state’s Department of Justice said in June the law is clear: Section 8 voucher holders are protected from illegal rent increases.

An inewsource investigation revealed the San Diego Housing Commission, which is responsible for managing about $300 million in federal vouchers for city residents, hasn’t been checking to ensure proposed increases comply with the law. A lawsuit filed this month aims to force compliance and compel the agency to claw back any money paid to private landlords to cover unlawful increases. 

While declining to comment on the suit, Housing Commission officials have said they were following guidance from attorneys and other agencies across the state, pointing to ambiguity about whether state law applied to the federal Section 8 program. They didn’t think voucher holders, who are among the most vulnerable residents in any community, were protected from unlawful increases. 

“The client said, ‘If the (San Diego) Housing Commission will let us do it, who are you to tell me that it’s illegal?’”

Lucinda Lilley, former president of the Southern California Rental Housing Association

The Southern California Rental Housing Association, which represents rental providers, has been telling members since the law took effect in 2020 not to increase rents beyond what’s allowed, especially for Section 8 voucher holders, said Molly Kirkland, director of public affairs.

The association’s immediate past president, Lucinda Lilley, said she spent much of this year going back and forth with a client who had just bought up some units and wanted to raise rents beyond 10%.

“The client said, ‘If the (San Diego) Housing Commission will let us do it, who are you to tell me that it’s illegal?’” Lilley said.

A spokesperson with the Housing Commission told inewsource the agency anticipates rolling out a new local policy early next year that applies the rent cap protections in state law to Section 8 voucher holders. In the meantime, one of the highest-ranking elected officials in San Diego wants the housing agency to figure out a way to recover money that paid for unlawful increases.

As for Patrick, she told inewsource last year that she knew something was off about the 33% increase she received. 

“I was in shock for probably almost a month,” Patrick said, “and then I started looking into it because I thought this isn’t right. That’s an incredible amount, there’s no way.”

Patrick said she reached out to everyone she could think of at the Housing Commission and asked, “What’s going on? What am I going to do?” 

Not only had officials already approved the increase, she said, but she learned she would be responsible for covering almost all of it. That’s because the increase exceeded the maximum amount of her voucher. In the end, her portion of the rent almost doubled. 

Every month for a year, Patrick used nearly half of her fixed monthly income to pay for housing. She had to rely on loans from family to make ends meet.

“Without that, I wouldn’t have had enough money to eat,” she said.

Patrick spent much of her time home alone, painting or watching movies and TV shows. She couldn’t afford to do much else, she said. 

And after a while, the isolation began to set in. Her moment of realization came while scrolling through Netflix — she had started 14 different movies without finishing a single one.

“I could not get through them,” she said. “And then one day I burst into tears for no reason.”

Patrick has since reached out for help. Late last year, she started talking to a therapist to work through some personal challenges, and she found attorneys willing to challenge her illegal rent increase for free.

Attorneys with Pease Law — the same group attempting to force the Housing Commission to comply with state law and claw back public money — filed a lawsuit last year against Patrick’s landlord in City Heights on her behalf. The suit accused the owners, Morena Properties and Prime Asset Management, of violating fair housing and unfair business practices. That case ended in May with a confidential settlement. Attempts to reach both companies for comment were unsuccessful.

Patrick has since moved to a new apartment in La Mesa, continuing to pay rent with the help of a Section 8 voucher. She worries about others going through the same thing.

“I could just roll over and take it and not protest at all,” Patrick said. “But the fact of it is, this is wrong and I’m not the only person that they have done this to. The city has allowed it and it’s just wrong.”

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