Lawmakers move to loosen local rent control restrictions.
California lawmakers to debate anti-gouging caps, rent-control expansion
SACRAMENTO » Four months after California voters rejected an effort to expand rent control, lawmakers are back with a proposal to loosen decades- old restrictions, allowing local governments to place more properties under rent control.
That bill and three others aimed at protecting renters — through antigouging caps, a statewide rental registry and eviction protections — will be debated amid an unprecedented run-ups in market-rate rents over the past five years and a growing homelessness crisis. Such legislation is routinely challenged by the same pow-
erful real- estate interests that spent over $70 million last year to defeat Proposition 10, the rent- control measure. But the lawmaker behind the proposal to change California’s landmark rent- control law said he hoped that renter and landlord groups — who previously were miles apart on their stances and apparently unwilling to budge — would forge an agreement this time.
If nothing else, said Assemblyman Richard Bloom, D-Santa Monica, an agreement would likely avoid yet another costly ballot fight.
“They’re not anxious to do that again,” he said of the landlord and real- estate groups. He added, “I want to have everyone sit down and figure out how we can come together around something that’s realistic.”
But hours after the bills were unveiled, the state trade group represent- ing apartment owners, investors and developers released a statement reiterating its long-held position on such regulations: Rent controls and other regulations are counterproductive, worsening the existing shortage of available housing.
“Applying rent control statewide and allowing rent caps on single-family homes and newer construction would only worsen our housing shortfall,” said Tom Bannon, CEO of the California Apartment Association. “We need to encourage new housing, not create policies that stifle its creation.”
Here is a look at the four bills introduced Thursday:
Assembly Bill 1482, David Chiu: This anti-rentgouging bill as yet to assign a percentage to the allowable rent increase per year. It is now listed as “CPI+__%.” This would only apply to units not already covered by local ordinances.
Assembly Bill 36, Bloom: This bill would loosen — but not repeal — a contro- versial state law known as Costa Hawkins, which makes it illegal for cities to impose rent controls on single-family homes, rented condominiums and apartments built after 1995 — or in some cases, even earlier. Under AB 36, cities would be allowed to place rent controls on buildings 10 years or older and on single-family homes — with the exception of landlords who own just one or two units.
Two years ago, Bloom introduced a bill to repeal Costa Hawkins. That bill died in its first committee hearing, paving the way for Proposition 10, the rent- control ballot measure that voters soundly defeated in November. Bloom acknowledged the challenge of amending the law, a polarizing issue in the state. “That will not be an easy conversation,” he said Thursday, “but the conversation has already begun.”
Assembly Bill 1481, Rob Bonta, D- Oakland: Landlords statewide would have to give a reason for evicting a tenant, a policy known as “Just Cause for Evictions,” under this bill. Most cities with rent control regulations already have this policy on the books; this proposal aims to expand the requirement across the state. A similar bill by the Bay Area lawmaker failed on the Assembly floor last year. The California Apartment Association opposed it, arguing it would cause rents to rise and put some tenants in danger by making it harder to remove “bad tenants involved in illegal activity,” according to a legislative update from the group after the bill died.
Assembly Bill 724, Buffy Wicks, D- Oakland: This bill would create a statewide rental registry, giving lawmakers and the public better information about rental units, such as evictions and rent increases.
The stage on Thursday was filled with Democratic lawmakers, advocates and tenant activists, including those with Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, the organizing force behind Propo- sition 10. The bills’ proponents noted that millions of California tenants must spend more than one-third of their pay on rent, according to state estimates, and that many are an eviction away from being cast out into the street.
The anti- gouging cap is an effort to help tenants not covered by rentcontrol regulations such as Stasha Powell, a tenant pushing for stronger protections in Redwood City. At the news conference Thursday, she held up a letter from her landlord offering her a one- year lease with a rent hike of 120 percent — or a monthto-month lease with a 140 percent increase kicking in by Sept. 1. Meanwhile, she said, the heat routinely goes out in the building, and she was without hot water for months.
“I never imagined I’d be paying 74 percent of my income to go without the barest of necessities,” she said.