A statewide coalition of tenant and housing advocates gathered more than 595,000 signatures to put Proposition 10 on this November’s ballot. Prop 10 would allow local governments to give rent control protections to more Californians and help relieve our affordability crisis. Big real estate is investing tens of millions of dollars to defeat Prop 10 (and to keep rents at ever increasing levels). We have already been inundated with television ads and glitzy brochures designed to confuse and misinform us. So, let’s talk about what Prop 10 does and does not do.
Put simply, Prop 10 will repeal the Costa-Hawkins Housing Act—a law passed in 1996 at the behest of the real estate lobby. Costa-Hawkins restricted how much local rent ordinances could control rents. Under it, a landlord can charge as much rent as they want for:
single family homes and most condominium units
buildings constructed after Jan. 1, 1996 (or June of 1979 for San Francisco)
a unit that has become vacant
Once the new tenant moves into the vacant unit, the rent is again controlled starting at the new rent level or “vacancy decontrol.” This last provision actually encourages landlords to get rid of low-rent tenants so that they can charge the new tenant whatever amount of rent they want.
Prop 10 would eliminate these restrictions and allow cities to decide whether or not tenants should be protected in these instances. So now we know why big real estate is investing so much money to defeat it.
Let’s face it, our current housing system is broken, and Costa-Hawkins is part of the problem. High rents and displacement have resulted in considerable hardship for Californians and their families. In the Mission, we have witnessed first-hand how higher rents can lead to massive displacement and the slow unraveling of a community. And for what? So a handful of people can get filthy rich at the expense of the rest of us. Prop 10 is a step in easing this crisis.
Big real estate argues that Prop 10 will raise taxes and increase the cost government. This is true, but the amount of increase is minimal. Out of San Francisco’s $10 billion budget, the San Francisco Rent Board spends around $7 million enforcing the Rent Ordinance (less than one-thousandth of the total budget). This is a small price to pay to keep people in their homes.
They also say that homeowners could no longer rent out rooms if Costa-Hawkins was repealed. This argument assumes that local governments would choose to impose regulations that were so “burdensome” that the few homeowners renting out rooms would no longer do so. The irony here is that the big money that is being spent on the “no” campaign comes from multi-millionaires who have massive holdings in California real estate, especially in condominiums and single family homes. Opponents have also made a ridiculous argument that Prop 10 will displace seniors and people on fixed incomes. Of course, it isn’t explained how providing rent control protections would raise rents or cause displacement—because it wouldn’t.
Finally, opponents argue that if Prop 10 passes, cities will impose strict limits on how much rent a developer can charge in newly constructed buildings. This is highly unlikely. Before Costa-Hawkins, localities were free to impose rent control on new construction, but they didn’t. Under the most radical ordinance (Berkeley’s), rent control was imposed on new construction only after 15 years of operation, giving the developers plenty of time to recoup their investment; and that didn’t seem to have an impact on new construction.
In an era where the need to build housing is obvious, there is no reason to believe that a city would impose rent control so stringent as to discourage new construction. Even some of the most rabid “build, build, build” advocates have seen through this argument, and support Prop 10. The opponents’ argument is purely speculative.
Our broken housing policies have created the current affordability crisis affecting tenants throughout the state. Costa-Hawkins has played a major role in worsening this crisis. It’s time to give local governments some of the tools they need to stabilize rents and alleviate the crisis that their citizens continue to face. It’s time to vote “yes” on Proposition 10.
J. Scott Weaver is a long time housing and tenant activist and attorney and works with the Save the Mission campaign and the San Francisco Tenants Union. He is on the Board of Directors of Accíon Latina.