Rent control initiative qualifies for fall ballot

An initiative that would clear the way for expanding rent control across the state has qualified for the November ballot.

The Affordable Housing Act would repeal the 1995 Costa Hawkins Rental Housing Act, which sets rules and limits for rent control in California. Backers of the repeal collected more than the 365,880 valid signatures needed to place the initiative on the ballot.

Under the Costa-Hawkins act, cities can’t cap rents on any units built after February 1995, and landlords are allowed to raise rents on controlled homes or apartments to whatever price they choose once a tenant moves out.

It also froze rent control regulations in cities that already had rules in place. In San Francisco, for example, the city ordinance bars rent control on buildings constructed after 1979, a date that can’t be changed under the Costa-Hawkins act.

Tenant rights groups in San Francisco and around the state have argued that Costa-Hawkins helps boost housing costs by both limiting the number of units that fall under rent control rules and allowing landlords to raise rents to levels unaffordable for most residents.

“We’re confident that voters will return power to local communities to expand rent control and give millions of Californians a chance to stay in their homes this November,” said Damien Goodmon, director of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s Housing Is a Human Right project, which helped put together the initiative effort.

The ballot measure “recognizes that Californians are prepared to take back the power to address the housing affordability crisis,” he added.

The measure will face plenty of opposition in the fall. Real estate and landlord groups argue that the initiative would halt construction of new apartments by making it impossible for property owners to make money on rental housing.

An Assembly bill to loosen rent control limits died in committee this year, but backers of the initiative hope the threat of a ballot measure may persuade the Legislature to take action on its own.