Tenant advocates in San Pablo are one step closer to passing rent control on the November ballot.
On Tuesday, city advocates submitted greater than 1,500 signatures needed to place a measure to limit rent increases and protect tenants before voters. Officials will now attempt to confirm the signatures.
In recent months, tenant and landlord groups across the Bay Area have launched similar ballot campaigns, including competing measures to expand or roll back tenant protections in Berkeley. A landlord-backed effort to repeal a newly passed rent control law is underway in Concord.
In addition to San Pablo, tenant groups led by the influential Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment are also coordinating signature drives in Redwood City, Pittsburg and Larkspur.
The battles over rent control come consequently of unprecedented eviction moratoriums and rental assistance programs to stop low-income renters from losing their homes while also causing widespread job losses. With emergency relief measures now set to run out, tenant groups are turning on to voters in hopes of passing recent everlasting renter protections as many residents still struggle to afford the Bay Area's astronomical housing costs.
The typical apartment rent in the world is now greater than $2,500 a month, in comparison with lower than $1,400 nationwide, in line with rental listings website Apartment List.
“As a renter in San Pablo for more than 25 years, I have found myself in the difficult position of having to choose between paying my rent or buying groceries for my family, and that is not fair,” said Veronica Martinez, a neighborhood social justice advocate said in a press release.
But opponents of rent control argue that limiting rent increases not only hurts small landlords still reeling from the pandemic, but additionally creates an incentive for developers to construct much-needed housing. They also cite research showing that rent caps can reduce the number of obtainable apartments and reduce overall affordability as tenants stay in rent-controlled units longer and a few landlords stop renting properties.
The rent caps wouldn’t apply to single-family homes and condominiums; apartments built after 1995 would even be exempt. Landlords would still have the power to charge market rents to recent tenants, and in some cases property owners would have the opportunity to request increases above local limits.
Across California, a law passed in 2020 limits rent increases for older apartments to five% plus inflation or 10%, whichever is lower. More than 20 cities across the state even have local rent control laws in effect, including Oakland, Richmond, San Jose, Mountain View, East Palo Alto and San Francisco.
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