Politics & Government
CA Ballot Measure Promises Major Rent Control Battle
An initiative that would allow cities and counties to strengthen rent control qualified for the November ballot Friday.
LOS ANGELES, CA — California voters in November will decide whether their cities and counties can use rent control measures to tackle the state's housing affordability crisis. An initiative asking voters to effectively repeal a decades-old law that limits municipalities from passing new rent control measures qualified for the November ballot Friday.
If the measure passes, cities and counties would be able to strengthen rent control laws
What backers have dubbed the Affordable Housing Act surpassed the 402,468 projected valid signatures needed to qualify by random sampling Friday, Secretary of State Alex Padilla announced.
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The initiative would repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, a 1995 law that bans rent control on apartment buildings, condominiums and houses built after 1995 and froze local rent control laws. It also allows landlords to raise rents by an unlimited amount when a unit becomes vacant.
“It recognizes that millions of California residents are struggling to afford their homes and can’t wait any longer for relief,” Damien Goodmon, director of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the proponent of the initiative, told the Los Angeles Times.
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The measures opponents in the apartment industry have pledged to spend millions fighting the measure, which would allow cities to limit how much landlords can raise the rents on their units. (Get Patch real-time email alerts for the latest news from your California neighborhood. Also, download the free Patch iPhone app or free Patch Android app. Also, be sure to follow your local Patch on Facebook!)
According to the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, the state is home to six of the nation’s 11 most priciest rental markets and the Bay Area, alone saw a 40% rent hike in the last three years, the Los Angeles Times reported. The report found that LA's median rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $1,798 compared to $3,377 in San Francisco.
City News Service contributed to this report; Photo: Shutterstock
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