Fears of renters being evicted, as well as rent gouging among landlords, topped the concerns expressed by Pasadena residents Monday night during a virtual meeting of the City Council.

It was an unexpectedly long and dynamic City Council meeting Monday night as officials, including the police and fire chiefs, updated the state of the city, the first City Council meeting since the Eaton fire broke out in neighboring Altadena in a fierce windstorm on Jan. 7.

“It’s clearly been a very long and a very challenging week, and many, many things have happened,” City Manager Miguel Marquez said.

While Mayor Victor Gordo asked that the 4 p.m. meeting be wrapped up by 5 p.m. to allow officials to prepare for an Emergency Operations meeting at 6 p.m., it ran until 6:15 p.m., however, owing to some lengthy comments from some council members, as well as closing with a series of 30-second comments from about two dozen members of the public.

“This fire was an absolute tragedy and we don’t not need even more people to be displaced because of it,” said Ash Riveire, a renter in Pasadena for the past six years. “We need an eviction moratorium very quickly for the duration of the state of emergency.”

Riveire said friends of hers have experienced worse damage to their homes than she has, and are taking off from work to do cleaning. Others, she said, have had their places of work destroyed.

“Everyone has been impacted by this in one way or another… People are going to be struggling for a while. Please do what you canto protect them so they can get back on their feet,” she said.

Seanna Morgan of Pasadena said likewise.

“Unfortunately there is looting going on in the form of rent gouging, price gouging,” she said. “This is the time for a rent freeze and an eviction moratorium.”

Jane Panangaden, who was mandatorily evacuated, is struggling with her situation as a renter.

“The house is like really not safe to go back to,” she said. “It’s full of toxic ash and smoke and my landlord is refusing to remediate it.”

“I’m trying to get testing done, but he’s refusing to let us sign a contract to even pay for it ourselves,” she said, “so it’s been really hard.

“So many people, it’s not safe to breathe in their houses and they can’t get their landlords to do a thing about it,” Panangaden said. “So I agree, weakening tenant protections right now would definitely be the worst thing we could do.”

Natalia Govoni of Pasadena concurred.

“There should be no tolerance or excuse for any landlord in this city trying to implement a price gouging strategy during this horrendous time in our community,” she said.

At least two landlords also shared comments with the council, asking that Measure H provisions be waived in order to allow property owners to do temporary rentals.

Anthony Edson, who said he represented a group called the Pasadena Housing Providers, has been a landlord in the city for 30 years.

“We must act swiftly and creatively to address the housing crisis that has resulted,” he said. “We emphasize the need for the City Council to consider temporary modifications to our local rental regulations.”

“Currently, under Measure H, property owners are restricted in their ability to provide temporary accommodations so desperately needed by fire victims,” he said. “The automatic permanence of rental contracts under this regulation hampers our ability to utilize vacant apartments, ADUs (affordable dwelling units), and other rentals properties to help those who have lost their homes.”

While almost every member of the public who spoke was fast to thank first responders for their work, various concerns were also expressed centering on the aftermath of the destruction, including worries over the toxic air and rubble, which could contaminate soil and water.

“There are a lot of ongoing concerns in our region about the air quality,” said Tim Martinez of Pasadena.

He pointed out that because many of the homes destroyed in the fire contained lead, asbestos and other hazardous materials, the likelihood of it leeching into the soil was probable.

“This is going to be a big issue in our soils,” he said, calling it an environmental crisis.

Several council members expressed concerns about the price-gouging issue, while also highlighting a range of questions about water, cleanup, mask distribution and more.

“I think the whole council needs to have a serious, lengthy meeting with public input and staff recommendations to get our arms around the whole process of … recovery,” Councilmember Rick Cole said.

Like others, he praised the work of all staff and volunteers, noting that while some inevitable mistakes may have been made in the process, everyone who took initiatives to try to protect lives and property, both in Pasadena and neighboring Altadena, “did exactly the right thing.”

“I will never be in a position to second guess … the extraordinary heroism and professionalism of our staff,” he said.