News: rent control
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Mountain View returned from the brink of approving binding arbitration — a form of rent control — during the City Council’s Tuesday night meeting.
The California Apartment Association played a pivotal role in mobilizing property owners to speak at the meeting and advocate for sensible landlord-tenant measures.
Mountain View had been considering binding arbitration, which allows a third party to decide how much rent can increase — if at all — making it a form of rent control. The city of Alameda formally approved such a policy March 1.
CAA succeeded in fending off this type of rent control in… Read More
Tagged: NewsRent Control Tri-County
The window is quickly closing for rental housing owners to voice their opposition to stricter rent control in San Jose.
The San Jose City Council is expected to vote on a harsher version of its current policy April 19.
Before it does, the city next week will hold one more committee meeting on the issue.
The California Apartment Association is calling on its members to speak out at this meeting, scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 16, at San Jose City Hall, 200 East Santa Clara St.
San Jose’s Housing Department will review its recommendations for the city’s rent control… Read More
Tagged: Rent Control Tri-County
Efforts to impose or strenghten rent control through the initiative process have begun in Richmond, Alameda and Oakland. Meanwhile, Mountain View will soon consider binding arbitration, and the housing staff in San Jose has suggested tightening the city’s existing rent cap.
Read the stories below to find out what’s happening in each area.
San Jose
City would face stricter rent cap under city staff proposal
Rental property owners in San Jose would face a more stringent cap on annual rent increases underdraft recommendations released by the city’s housing department. Housing officials Tuesday recommended moving from the current 8 percent limit… Read More
Tagged: News
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
Tenant advocates in Richmond and Alameda have filed preliminary paperwork to place rent control initiatives on the November ballot.
In both East Bay cities, the initiative efforts are in the early stages, and in neither case has signature-gathering begun.
The California Apartment Association, which remains opposed to rent control, is studying the filings and working to determine the best response in each city.
The pursuit of initiatives follows months of wrangling over how to address housing shortages in the East Bay and other areas of Northern California.
Last year, the Richmond City Council approved a rent control measure, but a… Read More
Tagged: Rent Control Tri-CountyContra Costa
Evidence that rent control is the wrong approach to solving California’s housing crisis continued to mount this week as CAA released a study by Beacon Economics.
The Beacon Economics report found that low-income tenants in cities with rent control are not likely to benefit from the policy as intended.
Its release comes a week after California’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office published a study that points to flaws with rent control.
The Beacon Economics report found that rent control helps a select few — those lucky enough to live in a rent-controlled unit when the law takes effect. Once benefiting from… Read More
Tagged: Rent Control
Over strong objections from the California Apartment Association, the Alameda City Council has given preliminary approval to a rent ordinance that includes binding arbitration to settle rent disputes.
Under Alameda’s ordinance, owners must justify rent increases over 5 percent through a mediation process. Should this process fail, rent disputes will be decided during binding arbitration, which is effectively a form of rent control.
With binding arbitration, the city — not the owner or free market — is placed in charge of how much rents can go up.
Following this week’s tentative approval, the council will take a second and final… Read More
To help California’s low-income families secure housing, elected officials should focus more on encouraging private residential development and less on existing government programs that subsidize construction or impose rent control, the Legislative Analyst’s Office says.
Removing barriers to private construction, however, will take time and a political shift, says the report, released Wednesday by the nonpartisan office, which advises the Legislature on fiscal and policy matters.
“Doing so will require policymakers to revisit long–standing state policies on local governance and environmental protection, as well as local planning and land use regimes,” says the study, Perspectives on Helping Low-Income Californians Afford… Read More
The Alameda City Council next week will consider placing disputes over rent increases into binding arbitration, a move that effectively imposes rent control in the local market.
Under such a system, owners would have to justify any rent increase over 5 percent and participate in a process in which the city — not the owner or market — determines how much rents can go up.
The California Apartment Association is calling on its members to attend the meeting, scheduled for the evening of Tuesday, Feb. 16, and speak out against the proposal. The city’s strategy would add layers of red… Read More
The Santa Rosa City Council on Jan. 26 held a public study session to discuss rent control and other measures touted as renter protections.
The council heard from its hired consultant, who laid out several options for addressing the city’s housing issues, including:
Mediation
Just-cause eviction
Rent stabilization
CAA and business coalition partners mobilized approximately 100 stakeholders to attend this meeting, with many speaking out against rent control and just-cause eviction policies. As a result, Mayor Sawyer and Councilmen Ernesto Olivares and Tom Schwedhelm stated that rent control was not the solution.
Other council members were divided but signaled openness… Read More