News: Joshua Howard
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The Mountain View City Council is eyeing a potential ballot measure that would make changes to the city’s rent control law.
It’s unclear, however, what changes would be included in the potential measure – and whether they could make the city’s rent control ordinance even worse.
City staff has suggested the council might explore asking voters to bolster its rent control law with a rent registry, vacancy control for landlord-caused tenancy terminations, new noticing requirements, and possible limits on how housing providers share utility costs with renters.
Tagged: ElectionsRent Control Tri-County
San Mateo County supervisors Tuesday adopted an ordinance aimed at tackling substandard housing in unincorporated areas of the county.
The ordinance makes permanent a one-year pilot program adopted by the Board of Supervisors last spring. That program required landlords to pay relocation assistance to tenants forced to vacate substandard housing units.
Tagged: News Tri-County
After a strong grassroots campaign by the California Apartment Association and its allies, Santa Rosa’s rent control and just-cause eviction measure went down in defeat Tuesday.
The people of Santa Rosa rejected Measure C with 52.5 percent of the vote, compared with 47.5 percent in favor of rent control.
“Voters understood that Measure C would have come at high costs while assisting only a fraction of the population,” said Joshua Howard, CAA’s senior vice president for Northern California. “Now, Santa Rosa can focus on the real solution to its housing crisis — building more homes.”
San Jose’s long-standing cap on rent increases will soon get tighter.
On a 6-5 vote, the San Jose City Council early Wednesday approved lowering the maximum annual increase on rent-controlled units from 8 percent to 5 percent. This will affect about 43,000 units, or one-third of the city’s rental housing supply. The changes are expected to be ratified later this year and take effect no later than Jan. 1, 2017.
While not as onerous as the housing department’s proposal to tie rent control to inflation, lowering the price ceiling to 5 percent remains a bad policy change.
“The council found… Read More
Tagged: Rent Control Tri-County
Rental property owners in San Jose would face a more stringent cap on annual rent increases under draft recommendations released by the city’s housing department.
Housing officials Tuesday recommended moving from the current 8 percent limit on annual rent increases to a model based on the rate of inflation.
Under the Housing Department’s recommendations, the annual allowable rent increase would be 100 percent of the consumer price index with a floor of 2 percent and a ceiling of 8 percent.
“City staff is proposing the most punitive form of rent control possible … that will only make the (housing) problem… Read More
In the Silicon Valley, apartment rent prices jumped an average of $134 in the second quarter.
“It shows there’s plenty of demand,” says Joshua Howard, executive director of the California Apartment Association’s Tri-County Division. “With the lack of homes available for sale, more people are renting. And with home prices going up, some consumers are figuring out it’s less expensive to make a rent payment.”
For more specifics on average rents in the state’s top markets, check out this article in the Silicon Valley Business Journal.
Despite high demand, occupancy dropped slightly in the Silicon Valley, something Howard attributes to… Read More
Tagged: Rental PricesVacancy Rates Tri-County
Following the lead of other cities in the Silicon Valley, San Jose is considering a fee on new development to help pay for affordable housing.
This article in the Silicon Valley Business Journal focuses on a San Jose City Council vote approving a “nexus study” on such a fee.
Under California law, before a local jurisdiction can assess a development fee, it must establish a nexus, or “reasonable relationship,” between the purpose of the charge and the type of development proposed. Many jurisdictions have interpreted the word “reasonable” quite broadly, leading to fees that may not truly fulfill the nexus… Read More
Tagged: AdvocacyAffordable housing Tri-County