Legislators in the Bay Region have supported a new bill to tighten control of rents, a proposal applauded by tenants’ defenders, but has met with fierce resistance from groups of owners across California.
Bill 1157 of the Assembly, nicknamed the affordable rent law, would reduce the rent ceilings to the state level already in place for most of the apartments and widen the restrictions to the unifamilial rental houses. The bill left the State Assembly Housing Committee on Thursday.
“Tenants representing approximately half of the state population, California must cross each stage to prevent families from being moved, keep workers near their jobs and ensure that no one is pushed to homelessness due to a substantial rent increase,” said a Democrat, Ash Kalra, a Democrat.
The Mia Bonta Democrats of Oakland and Alex Lee de Milpitas co-wrote the bill.
AB 1157 is one of the 160 California bills that California legislators have proposed this year to mitigate the state housing crisis. They go from a measure to reduce environmental examinations which can block a new development to an affordable housing obligation of $ 10 billion and an invoice now modified which would have forced the counties to help pay the shelters of the city operated by the city.
The Rent Control Bill aims to reform a 2019 law which has expanded rent restrictions on the level of the state. This law, AB 1482, crowned rent increases between 5% and 10% per year, depending on inflation. It applies mainly to apartment buildings aged 15 years or over.
If it is approved, the new bill would reduce the limits of increased rent between 2% and 5% per year. It would also extend rent ceilings to all rented unified houses, which are now exempt unless a company, confidence or LLC. In addition, this would eliminate the 2030 sunset from the current law, making the restrictions permanent.
The bill has no impact on local rent controls in cities such as San Jose, Oakland, San Francisco, Berkeley and Mountain View.
Opponents of the bill argue that additional rent regulations would discourage new housing construction, as it would make developers more difficult to make a profit.
They also underline university studies showing that in areas with control of rents, tenants are less likely to move and some owners choose to stop renting their units. Fewer available rentals can mean higher prices for units without rent control.
“Politicians like AB 1157 which penalize the owners while ignoring the main question of the rarity of the accommodation will only worsen our problems,” wrote the owner and the most powerful real estate groups in an open letter published this month.
It remains to be seen whether the bill has enough support to become right.
This occurs less than six months after California voters have rejected the summary of the November measure which would have enabled local governments to considerably expand control of the rents. It was the third time since 2018 that the voters had shot such a proposal after the opponents described it as “housing killer”.
Governor Gavin Newsom, who signed the initial bill of the state rent ceiling, opposed the recent voting measure. He did not take a position on the new bill.
California Daily Newspapers
