Stricter rent control in San Jose is now scheduled to take effect next month, but much unfinished business remains in revising the city’s long-standing rent law.
On Tuesday, the council voted 9-2 to implement its upcoming 5 percent annual cap on rent increases beginning June 17. The current limit is 8 percent.
The changes will affect about 44,000 apartments already under rent control through the city’s Apartment Rent Ordinance. While a June implementation date is sooner than many property owners expected, it could have been worse.
One councilman, Raul Peralez, attempted to implement the changes immediately, a move that CAA opposed. The proposal to enact the changes right away needed a super majority to pass and fell short by one vote.
Tuesday’s decision on timing came three weeks after the council’s April 19 split vote to adopt harsher rent control. That decision came despite strong objections from CAA and dozens of rental property owners. The decision also prompted Joshua Howard, CAA’s senior vice president of local public affairs, to write this editorial in the San Jose Mercury News.
While the 5 percent cap takes effect next month, the city isn’t expected to finalize the bulk of the changes to rent ordinance until the fall, such as the creation of a rental registry, elimination of certain pass-through provisions, and a new capital-improvement formula.