Protests over the high cost of housing and aggressive landlord tactics have erupted in Los Angeles and throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. And voters in two cities up north passed new limits on rent increases in November, seeing them as a way to stop dramatic hikes that have displaced lower- and middle-income households.
But cities can only go so far in capping rents — something AB 1506 seeks to change.
“The momentum is very much on the side of rent control,” said Dean Preston, executive director of the statewide renters group Tenants Together.
In Long Beach, which doesn’t control rents, tenants are increasingly seeing eye-popping hikes. One elderly tenant recently reported a $925 hike on a $1,100-a-month, two-bedroom unit, said Josh Butler, executive director of advocacy group Housing Long Beach.
”A rent increase of that magnitude is tantamount to an eviction,” he said.
Those stories are driving support for caps, as well as strong eviction protections that typically are elements of the ordinances. That’s particularly true in the expensive Bay Area with its explosion of tech wealth.
In November, voters in Richmond and Mountain View, home of Google, approved rent control ordinances that the California Apartment Assn. is now fighting in court.
Like most ordinances, the laws tie increases to changes in the consumer price index and require a “just cause” for eviction — such as damaging a unit or failing to pay rent.
Beverly Hills also strengthened its current ordinance this year, reducing the maximum annual increase to 3% from 10%.
But with Costa-Hawkins in place, cities are limited in the number of units they can include for protection.
In Los Angeles, property owners have removed thousands of rent-controlled units in today’s hot housing market, a dynamic that was a major focus of the debate surrounding Measure S, the anti-development initiative that failed on the March municipal ballot.
Larry Gross, who heads the local tenant group Coalition for Economic Survival, said expanding rent control is vital, because it provides tenants with a stability akin to homeowners with a fixed mortgage, giving lower- and middle-income folks a better shot at staying in expensive cities.
Gross, who pushed for passage of L.A.’s law decades ago, panned business group’s assertion that construction would drop off if Costa-Hawkins was repealed.
“Builders want to build here,” Gross said. “Rent control provides protection and levels the playing field.”
No matter what happens in the Legislature this session, “at least we’ve finally been able to get the discussion [going],” he said.
Debra Carlton, senior vice president for public affairs with the California Apartment Assn., said the group is taking the threat of a repeal “very seriously.”
"I think it’s — unfortunately — the beginning of the conversation," she said.
See full article published on March 17, 2017 in the LA Times here.
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