News: rent control
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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 California Apartment Association’s fight against rent control reaches far beyond city council votes and local ballot measures.
It stretches back to Sacramento, where four CAA bills to increase the production of housing continue to progress through the state Legislature.
CAA’s bills would prevent local government from delaying or blocking many housing proposals, including those opposed by NIMBYs, short for Not in My Backyard.
For California to achieve a balance between new jobs and new homes, cities and counties must allow developments to move forward without unreasonable delay.
Otherwise, families can’t find affordable housing near their jobs and schools —… Read More
Tagged: Affordable housingLegislation
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
Facing opposition led by CAA, an inclusionary-housing bill failed to get off the Assembly floor by Thursday’s deadline, but it’s still alive.
AB 2502 by Assemblyman Kevin Mullin, D-South San Francisco, lacked the needed votes to advance to the Senate. So instead of taking a vote, the bill was referred back to the Committee on Local Government. This unusual move keeps the bill alive, although it’s unclear whether the committee will take it up again.
Mullin’s bill would allow cities and counties to force below-market rate housing in new rental developments.
It would overturn the Palmer v. Los Angeles court… Read More
Tagged: Affordable housingLegislation
CAA is requesting changes to an inclusionary-housing bill that’s up for a vote this week and would authorize local governments to require affordable housing in new rental developments.
AB 2502 by Assemblyman Kevin Mullin, D-South San Francisco, is on the Assembly floor and could be voted upon as soon as Wednesday, June 1.
Confusion over the legality of inclusionary housing mandates in new rental developements began with a court case known as Palmer v. Los Angeles.
Palmer called into question the legality of Los Angeles’ inclusionary-housing ordinance. The city law required a certain percentage of new rental housing be priced… Read More
Tagged: Affordable housingLegislation
About 50 protesters stormed the headquarters of the California Apartment Association in Sacramento on the morning of Monday, May 16, shaking their fists and demanding rent control.
Shortly past 11:15 a.m., activits wearing yellow shirts barged into CAA’s downtown suite, chanting “Greedy landlords, you can’t hide!”
The demonstrators, arriving unannounced from the Los Angeles-based Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, then clustered shoulder-to-shoulder outside the office of Chief Executive Officer Tom Bannon.
Within moments, Bannon opened his door and calmly made his way through the chanting throng.
Once Bannon reached the middle of the crowd, a representative of the group… Read More
Tagged: News
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… Read More
Tagged: Rent Control Tri-County