It will be the second time for California voters to consider a statewide rent control initiative. In November 2018, voters rejected Proposition 10, a similar ballot measure that would allow landlords to implement rent control on all types of rental housing.
Currently, the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act limits rent control in California. Under the state law, cities cannot enact rent control on housing first occupied after February 1, 1995, and housing units with separate titles from connected units such as free-standing houses, condominiums, and townhouses.
In December, Michael Weinstein, a supporter of the new rent control initiative and president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, said, “The housing affordability and homelessness crisis are the most pressing social justice and public health emergencies in our time, especially in Southern California. We must take action to stop it now.
Last year, the California State Legislature passed legislation to limit rent increases to five percent plus inflation.
