Despite Industry Opposition, San Francisco Passes Resolution to Back ‘Justice for Renters Act’ and Repeal Costa Hawkins

Eliminating State Preemption of Strong Rent Control Would Give San Francisco Crucial Tools to Bring Rents Down

Today, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed Supervisor Dean Preston’s resolution to support the Justice for Renters Act which would repeal the state Costa Hawkins law that limits local rent control. By an 8-2 vote, with Supervisors Matt Dorsey and Joel Engardio dissenting, and Supervisor Catherine Stefani, who had vocally opposed the resolution at a prior hearing, absent from the meeting, the Board affirmed the City’s long-standing support for repealing the 30-year-old state law that has prevented San Francisco and other cities from adapting their rent control laws to meet the ongoing housing affordability crisis.

Since the passage of Costa Hawkins in 1995, California cities have been stymied in efforts to extend rental protections to more tenants or to regulate the prices at which units are offered for rent. This has allowed runaway rents in San Francisco.

“Costa Hawkins is a state bill that exists to drive up rents so that the real estate industry can make more money,” said Supervisor Dean Preston, whose career in tenant advocacy and eviction defense spans over two decades. “That’s the whole purpose of the law. It’s a special interest law written by the real estate industry for the real estate industry. Repealing it would allow San Francisco to strengthen rent control and stop unfair rent hikes.”

The California Apartment Association and California Association of Realtors have teamed up with CA YIMBY to try to kill the pro-rent control measure. Supervisors Stefani and Dorsey echoed their talking points at a contentious hearing when the resolution came to the Board initially on June 25th.

“We applaud the Board of Supervisors for overwhelmingly passing this important resolution to back the Justice for Renters Act and the repeal of Costa Hawkins,” said Molly Goldberg of the SF Anti-Displacement Coalition, which submitted a letter signed by 25 member organizations and allies in support of Supervisor Preston’s resolution and statewide repeal effort.

The repeal of Costa Hawkins – a primary demand of the tenant rights movement in California for decades – would untie the hands of local governments and voters to make their own decisions on regulating rents and protecting tenants from rent gouging.

In San Francisco, well over 100,000 units of housing – including all condominiums and everything built after 1979 – are categorically exempt from rent control thanks to Costa Hawkins’ outdated and draconian provisions. While San Francisco’s Rent Ordinance was enacted on June 13, 1979 – 45 years ago – the City has been unable to update its rent control law to protect residents of housing built after that date due to the Costa Hawkins’ industry-drafted restrictions.

Costa Hawkins also prohibits cities from having “vacancy control,” a stronger system of rent control in which the initial rent on a unit is regulated that some cities had implemented before Costa Hawkins became law. Under the current regime, units that are decontrolled after a vacancy allow landlords to hike rents in unlimited amounts when a new tenancy begins. This has not only allowed extremely high rents, but has also created a financial incentive for corporate landlords in particular to pressure long-time tenants to vacate rent controlled units.

“San Francisco is on record to repeal a law that ties our hands on rent control, and makes our tenants vulnerable to the speculators who have created mass displacement in communities like SOMA, the Mission, and the Tenderloin,” said Angelica Cabande, director of South of Market Community Action Network (SOMCAN). “Our residents refuse to be pushed out and priced out because the next tenant will pay inflated market rents because of Costa Hawkins.”

The Justice for Renters Act is a California State Initiative that will appear on the November 5, 2024 ballot, requiring a simple majority of votes for passage.