San Jose’s Rent Control Advisory Committee will meet again Saturday morning to consider a proposal threatening to rental property owners.
Between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Oct. 17, the committee will discuss a proposal to reduce the current 8 percent maximum allowable rent increase to as low as 2 percent.
CAA Tri-County is asking rental property owners in San Jose to attend this meeting and speak out against this harmful proposal. It is important that the committee know how these recommendations would impact your rental housing businesses, including their ability to provide quality, safe, and affordable housing.
Moreover, it is vital that the advisory committee understand that rent control on top of rent control is a dangerous proposal that would have negative consequences.
Saturday’s meeting is one in a series of committee hearings that began in September and will run through mid-November. During the previous meeting, held Wednesday evening, the committee discussed another harmful proposal to rental housing business — applying rent control to duplexes. CAA rebutted this idea, with nearly 100 rental housing industry representatives in attendance.
Some reasons why harsher rent control would do more harm than good for San Jose’s housing issues:
- Reducing the 8 percent cap will further restrict property owners’ ability to provide safe, quality housing by making it more difficult to maintain their properties.
- Rent control encourages slumlords as it leads to lack of funding to improve rental units.
- Rent control does nothing to address the housing shortage; it will not make housing less expensive.
- The city should be willing to work with rental property owners to develop programs and incentives to help residents.
- Changing the 8 percent cap is one step toward bringing San Francisco style rent control to San Jose.
- Small property owners will be forced to take the rental units off the market and reduce the available rental units on the market.
- Rent control unfairly punishes small, independent rental property owners who already have lower rents.
- Rent control places the burden of a community-wide problem on the backs of one industry.
- Rent control divides the community by placing property owners against residents.
Upcoming San Jose’s Rent Control Advisory Committee hearings
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