California voters in 2024 will once again consider repealing a law that limits cities’ ability to expand rent control.
The Secretary of State’s Office on Wednesday announced an AIDS Healthcare Foundation initiative to repeal the 1995 Costa Hawkins Rental Housing Act had gathered enough signatures to be eligible for the November 2024 ballot.
This marks the third time in four elections the Foundation has appealed to Californians to end the law. Costa Hawkins bars localities from limiting rental increases on apartments and single-family homes built after 1995. Local leaders also cannot keep landlords from raising rents for new tenants.
The Foundation gathered more than 800,000 signatures in favor of the ballot measure, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. It needed 601,317 valid signatures for voter consideration.
Californians in 2018 and 2020 struck down similar rent control ballot measures following expensive opposition campaigns from real estate and landlord interest groups.
CALIFORNIA RENTAL HOUSING
In 2019, lawmakers enacted a statewide rent cap that limits increases to 5% plus the inflation rate, with a maximum of 10%. Sen. María Elena Durazo, D-Los Angeles, this year authored Senate Bill 567, which would have tied the rent cap to the Consumer Price Index inflation rate and lowered the maximum to 5%.
But in April, legislators stripped the rent cap provision in the Senate Judiciary Committee, keeping only a handful of provisions protecting against eviction.
Renters occupy about 44% of California’s housing units, according to 2021 U.S. Census Bureau data. More than half of tenants spend 30% or more of their income on rent, and about 28% spend more than 50%. Tenants who spend more than 30% of their pay on housing are considered cost-burdened.
A report from the Legislative Analyst’s Office found the ballot measure would likely reduce state and local revenues — mostly because limiting rent would lower property values. However, tax revenue changes are dependent on whether cities move to enact tighter rent control laws if voters approve the measure.
It also found some tenants would not pay as much in rent, would move less often and would spend their savings on taxable goods.
ADVOCATES AND LANDLORDS GEAR UP FOR BATTLE
Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, has pushed various California ballot initiatives for decades.
During a press conference on Thursday announcing the measure’s ballot eligibility, he pledged to “never give up” on expanding rent control.
“The reason that we have to take this to the ballot is that renter protection legislation goes to Sacramento to die,” Weinstein said. “We have no hope of getting it through the Legislature, which is controlled by the CAA, by the California Apartment Association.”
The Apartment Association and rent control opponents are preparing for another heated battle. The organization called Weinstein an “anti-housing-rent control activist” in March when the Foundation began gathering signatures.
“In recent years, we joined a broad coalition of pro-housing groups in soundly defeating similar measures from Michael Weinstein and AHF, namely Props 10 and 21, and we will prepare to fight this latest proposition,” said Michael Nemeth, Apartment Association director of communications, in an email.
But Weinstein remains undeterred, even though he acknowledged landlords and real estate interests will likely outspend him by millions of dollars. “The reason that we have a better chance now is that the situation has gotten so extreme and dire and catastrophic,” he said. “Rates of homelessness are going up, affordability — where are people going to live? That’s the question. The population of California is shrinking, and the California Dream is dying.”