Mountain View residents are likely to vote on rent control this November, according to the Mountain View Tenants Coalition.
On Tuesday, the Coalition submitted more than 7,300 signatures for a rent control initiative to the city clerk, according to Communications Organizer Daniel Debolt. Among other things, the initiative would tie maximum allowable rents to changes in the Bay Area Consumer Price Index, a measure of inflation that has averaged a 2.5 percent annual increase over the last 10 years. The new would only apply to units first occupied on or before Feb. 1, 1995.
Average rents for all unit types in Mountain View were $2,849 as of Q1 2016 according to RealFacts, which only measures rents in complexes with 50 or more units. That's a 57 percent increase from the $1,812 average rent in Q2 2011.
The next step is for the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters to count the signatures and verify they come from registered voters who reside in Mountain View. In order to qualify for the November ballot, the initiative must receive 4,671 valid signatures.
Debolt said the Coalition is confident they'll have enough valid signatures, based partially on a study the group carried out on almost 1,000 petitions to determine the rate of invalid signatures. Debolt declined to share the percent the group found were invalid.