Tenant-landlord clash over rent control bill
Assembly measure to safeguard renters fails to move forward
SACRAMENTO — California’s housing crisis took center stage at a legislative hearing Thursday that drew hundreds of tenant rights activists and landlords who clashed over a bill whose authors said would give cities and counties flexibility to prevent rents from skyrocketing.
The Assembly bill, which ultimately failed to get the necessary votes to move forward, would have repealed the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, a 1995 industry-backed law that limits the rent control rules cities and counties may adopt. Repealing the law would have given local governments the ability to set stricter rent controls.
“The housing committee has failed tenants,” said Leslie Dreyer, an antieviction organizer with the Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco. She was one of hundreds of activists from around the state to pack the committee hearing. “To vote no against letting local cities set their own rent control and protect their tenants is a statement that says the real estate industry can do what they want with our housing stock.”
When the bill deadlocked at 3-2 — needing four votes to stay alive, dozens of supporters rushed to the front
“We are in the midst of the most intense housing crisis in our cities and our state that we have ever experienced.” Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco
of the room, holding signs and chanting, “Fight, fight, fight, housing is a human right.” Capitol law enforcement officers quickly tried to quell the protesters and allowed them to chant for 30 minutes before the activists left peacefully.
The bill was written by Assemblymen Richard Bloom, D-Santa Monica; David Chiu, D-San Francisco; and Rob Bonta, D-Alameda. Chiu chairs the Assembly housing committee that heard the bill Thursday, and Bonta was a substitute on the committee. They voted in favor, along with Assemblyman Mark Stone, D-Santa Cruz, who also filled in for a lawmaker.
Assembly Republicans Steven Choi of Irvine and Marc Steinorth of Rancho Cucamonga (San Bernardino County) opposed the bill. And two Assembly Democrats abstained from voting: Jim Wood of Healdsburg and Ed Chau of Monterey Park (Los Angeles County).
The law currently says that rent control can’t be applied to singlefamily homes or condos, or structures built after 1995. The law also allows landlords to raise the rent in rentcontrolled units to market rates when a tenant voluntarily moves out or is evicted for reason.
The result, the bill’s authors and supporters said, is that many rentcontrolled units are now at market rate and unaffordable to anyone but high-earners, thus pushing many lower-paid residents out of cities and farther into suburbs.
In Berkeley, for example, the median two-bedroom rent for a new tenant is $2,800, meaning a tenant probably would need to earn $110,000 a year to afford it.
“We are in the midst of the most intense housing crisis in our cities and our state that we have ever experienced, and my district has been one of the epicenters of the crisis,” Chiu said. “I don’t think anyone believes rent control is perfect, but I also think it’s one of the few things we have from a policy perspective that is protecting some economic diversity in our cities.”
Tenant groups said they will probably try to have a bill introduced in the more liberal state Senate while pursuing a statewide ballot measure.
Dreyer, who lives in Oakland, said that like many residents she has faced rising rents she believes are meant to force tenants out of their homes, including two years ago when she said the rent on a single-family home she was renting rose from $2,200 to $4,500.
“Most people I know have been evicted,” Dreyer said. “We need relief now. We see the impact on vulnerable tenants.”
Their voices were matched by those of landlords, including a large contingent of immigrant property owners from San Francisco, who pleaded with lawmakers to vote against the bill.
Costa-Hawkins ensures landlords can earn a profit on their investments, property owners said during the lengthy hearing.
“The state and cities have chosen to ignore building the proper amount of housing, and now they want to solve it with something that will hurt property owners and tenants,” said Maxine Lubow, a property owner in San Jose.
San Francisco tenant rights activist Raymond Castillo said he has watched as immigrant communities in the city have been forced out by rising rents and eviction notices, so when he heard he was getting a new landlord, fear shot through him. He would be next, Castillo thought.
“It’s because of Costa-Hawkins,” said Castillo, who works for the South of Market Community Action Network.
The bill was introduced last year but held amid fierce opposition that threatened to derail other housing legislation. The Legislature passed and Gov. Jerry Brown signed 15 housing bills last year meant to spur development and raise billions to increase the state’s housing stock.
But those bills don’t help renters now who are struggling to stay in their homes.
“The question we are presented here is what can we do to help those today who face rents that are too damn high,” Bloom said.
Economists, however, have said rent control is not the answer. Opponents of the bill argued that a repeal would have a chilling effect on new construction if developers found it too risky of an investment.
Choi, who voted against the bill, said California has too many mandates for developers, including prevailing wage requirements that drive up prices of homes. But, at the same time, he said supporters are unfairly arguing that less statewide control is needed and that repealing Costa-Hawkins is about returning control to local governments.
“This is contradicting,” Choi said.