Vote YES on Prop 33: Empowering California Renters Against Unchecked Rent Hikes

Tenants often call our office when they’ve been hit with a massive and unexpected rent hike: “I’ve lived here for years, is the landlord really allowed to double my rent?” Unfortunately, in many places, there may be nothing stopping your landlord from doing just that. Currently, tenants who live in certain single family homes, condominiums, and newer construction across California are vulnerable to arbitrary and unlimited rent hikes, because California’s patchwork of state and local laws makes it impossible for cities and counties to regulate those types of homes. This hole in our laws can be devastating for renters, who may be forced to move because they can’t come up with an extra $500 or more in rent every month.

Landlords are able to push through such huge increases in part because of a regressive state law that’s been in place since 1996, Costa Hawkins. Costa Hawkins makes it illegal for cities and counties to set reasonable limits on landlords’ ability to raise your rent. Costa Hawkins is the reason, for example, that San Francisco’s strong rent control laws only apply to properties built before 1979. Back in 1996, this exemption on “new construction” might have been reasonable. But as time has passed, the hard stop at 1979 means that with every passing year, there are fewer and fewer rent-controlled dwellings available in the city. Similarly, Oakland is unable to regulate rents for buildings built after 1996. 

What this means is that rent-controlled property in California is a non-renewable resource. Under current state laws, there’s no way for municipalities to expand rent control to meet the needs of our growing population, and new construction is exempt from rent control forever. 

We encourage Californians to vote YES on Prop 33 to put the power back in tenants’ hands and enable more California renters to win reasonable limits on rent hikes.