A coalition of community groups recently collected more than 3,000 signatures to put a measure for rent control before voters in the upcoming November ballot.

After the signatures were submitted to the National City Clerk’s office, the City served papers to sue the proponent of the ballot measure Irvin Martinez, a lifelong resident of National City and member of the National City Chapter of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment.

This week, National City Families for Fair Housing, the coalition behind the effort held a press conference to call on the City to drop the lawsuit.

Paola Martinez, a member of the National City Families for Fair Housing coalition said the City is looking for legal ways to delay the process.

Angil Morris-Jones, National City’s City Attorney said the City does not comment on pending litigation, adding the City’s position is reflected in the lawsuit itself.

The proposed measure would cap annual rent increases at 5 percent, and give tenants help protecting themselves against arbitrary evictions.

If passed, the measure would also create new rules for evictions including allowing landlords to remove tenants for efforts to take rental units off rental markets, lease violations, and for not paying rent.

The new law would also establish an independent five-member board that would administer and enforce the rent control rules, and the City Council would appoint the members to four-year terms.

Mayor Ron Morrison said the City has no official position on the rent control measure nor has it taken a vote on it of any kind.

Many economists say rent control can make landlords unmotivated to maintain and repair apartments, create higher rents for units not under rent-controlled laws and lower incentives to build more housing.

Peter Brownell, research director with the Center on Policy Initiatives, said National City is the most affordable incorporated city in the high-cost county of San Diego.

“National City rents are rising fast, due in part to an increasing share of properties being owned by for-profit Wall Street real estate investment trusts, we need to do something now to slow the rapid rise of rents and the displacement of long-term National City residents,” Brownell added.

The San Diego County Housing Market Area, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) described the County’s rental housing market as “currently tight” at a vacancy rate of 3.6 percent, having dropped from a vacancy rate of 5.6 percent in 2010.

Those statistics keep Martinez and the members of the coalition pushing their efforts forward.

“The City is suing us trying to intimidate us, but we will fight on. I am hopeful the ballot measure will get placed on the ballot in November. Seventy percent of residents in National City are renters. Most are struggling to pay rent. Fifty percent spend well over thirty percent of their income on rent,” Martinez said.