News: Rent Control
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The number of cities with rent control measures going on the November ballot continued to grow this week as election officials certified an initiative in San Mateo.
Tenant advocates in San Mateo had turned in more than 11,000 signatures in support of rent control and just-cause eviction policies. To qualify, 7,119 valid signatures were required.
Other Bay Area cities where rent control measures have qualified for the November election include Richmond, Alameda and Mountain View. Election officials are still reviewing a ballot measure proposed for Burlingame.
The California Apartment Association is committed to defeating rent control proposals wherever they arise.… Read More
The California Apartment Association urges its members to attend a workshop on rent control next week in Concord.
The city of Concord is presenting this public event, which is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 27, at the Concord Senior Center, 2727 Parkside Circle.
The workshop will include a panel discussion on rent control for elected officials, city staff and the community.
Speakers will provide an overview of rental conditions within Concord, as well as the greater Bay Area.
The panel will include representatives from both CAA and Tenants Together. Kenneth Baar, renowned expert on rent control and author of… Read More
Tagged: NewsRent Control Contra Costa
Update: A permanent rent control and just-cause eviction measure are now on the Aug. 16 agenda for the council’s consideration.
Although Santa Rosa passed a just-cause for eviction ordinance Tuesday night, the council failed to garner the five votes needed to enact the ordinance immediately.
Facing opposition from the California Apartment Association, an effort to impose the policy on the city’s entire rental housing stock also fell short.
Just-cause policies require rental property owners to prove “cause” in court or before a political body every time they need to remove a problem resident.
Lacking the needed support for an urgency… Read More
The California Apartment Association is preparing to fight a rent control and just-cause eviction measure that qualified this week for the November ballot in Richmond.
The Contra Costa County Registrar of Voters on Tuesday, July 12, certified that rent control proponents collected a sufficient number of valid signatures to place the measure before voters in the general election.
The measure includes rent control based on the consumer price index, as well as a just-cause-for-eviction provision.
“Rent control is a failed policy that doesn’t work and provides little, if any, relief to the low-income families who need the so-called benefits of… Read More
A special Santa Rosa City Council meeting was held on July 7 to consider an extension of the current rent moratorium ordinance, which went into effect on June 23. (Please note: The moratorium was scheduled to go into effect June 16, but was pushed back due to a delay in publication by the city). The moratorium was set to expire Aug. 6 unless extended.
At the July 7 meeting, council voted 5-2 to pass an “urgency” ordinance to extend the current rent moratorium for 90 days. The rent moratorium will now be in place until Oct. 4, 2016. A permanent… Read More
A voter petition to repeal Burlingame’s longstanding law against rent control fails to meet requirements under California’s election code and cannot legally appear on the November ballot.
The full text of Measure T — which the initiative seeks to overturn — is missing from the petition, which CAA’s lawyers argue invalidates the ballot measure under state law.
Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk, a law firm representing the California Apartment Association, points out the initiative’s legal deficiencies in a July 1 letter to Burlingame’s city clerk.
“By omitting the full text of the proposal as the Elections Code mandates, voters were deprived… Read More
Tenant advocates have now filed petitions in four Bay Area cities to qualify a rent control measure for the November ballot.
The latest filing came Monday, June 27, as tenant advocates turned in more than 11,000 signatures to the San Mateo city clerk.
Tenant groups are trying to qualify the San Mateo Community Preservation and Fair Rent Charter Amendment for the November ballot. The measure would limit annual rent increases to 4 percent and implement just-cause eviction policies.
San Mateo County election officials are now counting and verifying signatures. Rent control supporters needed 7,119 valid signatures to qualify the measure.… Read More
The past two weeks have brought some positive developments in efforts to protect Alameda property owners from the ill effects of rent control and related policies.
Just this Tuesday, local rental owners and members of the California Apartment Association helped persuade the Alameda City Council to back away from plans to make landlords subsidize the city’s new binding arbitration ordinance, a form of rent control it approved earlier this year.
The council had been expected to levy a $130-per unit annual fee on rental property owners. But after hearing from local CAA members, officials agreed to wait until city staff… Read More
It’s now up to election officials to determine whether a rent control initiative has qualified for the November ballot in Mountain View.
On Tuesday, June 14, the Mountain View Tenants Coalition submitted more than 7,100 signatures to the city clerk.
The Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters will now count and check the validity of the signatures. The coalition needed 4,671 registered voters to sign their petition to qualify the initiative for the ballot.
The California Apartment Association is closely monitoring this process to ensure it follows procedures outlined in the California Election Code.
The measure would impose rent control… Read More
Last month a group of concerned residents came from Los Angeles to the California Apartment Association headquarters in Sacramento to protest rising rents and urge the adoption of rent control.
Rather than call in the police, or lock our doors, I met them in our lobby and began a dialogue that is long overdue. I did agree with some of their concerns, but I disagreed that rent control is the answer.
In the real world, regulations and restrictions have only resulted in fewer available homes. Since controls are not “means-tested” they do nothing to guarantee that lower-income residents will have… Read More
Tagged: OpinionRent Control