Elephant in the Affordable Housing Room: Stronger Rent Control

Preston Introduces Resolution to Back “Justice for Renters Act” and Repeal Costa Hawkins

Today, Supervisor Dean Preston introduced a resolution to put San Francisco on record in support of the Justice for Renters Act, a November 2024 state ballot measure to repeal the decades-old restrictions on local rent control imposed by the state Costa Hawkins Rental Housing Act. Written in 1995 by the California Association of Realtors, Costa Hawkins has prevented cities from strengthening and adapting rent control laws to meet the rising affordability crisis.

“This is the elephant in the room of housing affordability,” said Supervisor Preston, a long-time tenant attorney and one of the state’s leading experts on rent control. “San Francisco could reduce rents immediately if Costa Hawkins were repealed, which is why it’s crucial that we pass the Justice for Renters Act this November.”

Costa Hawkins hobbles local rent control laws. With 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. 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all condominiums and everything built after 1979 – are categorically exempt from rent control thanks to Costa Hawkins’ outdated and draconian provisions.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 – almost 45 years ago to the day – the City has been unable to update its rent control law to protect residents of housing built after that date – impacting over 75,000 units – 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. Vacancy control – strongly opposed by the real estate lobby – would allow cities to directly control initial rental prices, a practice many cities had before Costa Hawkins. Instead, under Costa Hawkins, rents are decontrolled after a vacancy, allowing 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.

“Repealing Costa Hawkins offers the quickest and most direct route to wide-scale housing affordability in San Francisco,” said Mitchell Omerberg, director of the Affordable Housing Alliance of San Francisco. “If you believe the rent is too damn high, and I think we can all agree on that, we shouldn’t have the State barring cities from lowering rents and protecting tenants.”

“We see the incredible stress faced by long-time rent controlled tenants harassed by landlords who seek to replace them with new tenants at hugely inflated rents – thanks to the vacancy decontrol provision imposed by Costa Hawins,” commented Maria Zamudio, director of the Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco. “Our tenant counselors hear this every day from low income and working class tenants, seniors, and people of color across the City. Repealing Costa Hawkins is a critical piece of our anti-displacement work.”

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