Costa Hawkins Act

State legislation that would have expanded rent control in California failed Thursday after a lengthy and heated debate that brought landlord and tenant groups from across the state to the Capitol.

At issue was a bill that would have repealed a nearly quarter-century-old law that prohibits cities and counties from implementing most new rent control policies. The measure died after four members of the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee, including Democrats Ed Chau of Arcadia and Jim Wood of Healdsburg, declined to support it.

Assembly Closes Door on Legislative Fix

Last week, the Democratic-controlled Assembly Housing Committee voted down a bill to repeal the Costa-Hawkins Act. And with committee members like Ed Chau, who represents Monterrey Park, treating the tenant side with contempt, Democrats demonstrated that future legislative action is pointless.

Dean Preston, Director of the statewide group Tenants Together, set forth Chau’s approach to the legislation (AB 1506) on Facebook:

Housing advocates were dejected last Thursday when a bill to give cities and counties more power to enact rent control died by one vote in committee. Meanwhile, the Sacramento City Council heard that its own housing crisis is affecting the disabled on a level local nonprofits can’t keep up with.

Hundreds of San Francisco and Bay Area residents trekked to Sacramento Thursday morning, waiting in lines that stretched out of the State Capitol building, to tell the California State Assembly whether they oppose or support AB 1506, a bill that would give cities the opportunity to create new rent-controlled housing.

The bill ultimately failed to pass the Housing and Community Development Committee, falling one vote short of the necessary threshold to move forward. However, backers of the bill, which would repeal the 1995 Costa-Hawkins Act, promised to revive it.

Moments before an Assembly committee killed a bill that would’ve made it easier to expand rent control in California, Assemblyman David Chiu made a serious prediction.

“Regardless of the outcome,” the San Francisco Democrat warned on Thursday, “this will not be the end of the conversation. It’s just the beginning.”

And with that, Assembly Bill 1506, of which Chiu was a co-sponsor, died on a 3-2 vote.

Hundreds of tenants and landlords came to the Capitol Thursday to voice their stance on a bill that would have expanded rent control in California.

The proposal, which would have repealed a law called Costa-Hawkins, which prohibits rent control on properties that were built after 1995, failed to pass a vote by the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee.

Tenants' rights advocates say repealing Costa-Hawkins would help protect tenants from rapidly rising rents.

A bill to repeal statewide restrictions on rent control is dead in the water. The Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act was passed in 1995, prohibiting cities from establishing rent control for single family homes or any newly constructed buildings (anything built after 1995). After being stalled for over a year, the bill to repeal those restrictions (AB1506) was given its first public hearing on Friday, January 11. The bill was one shy of the four votes needed to move forward.

Last week tenant activists breathed new life into AB 1506, the state bill to repeal Costa Hawkins. Costa Hawkins creates landlord loopholes to undermine local rent control. AB 1506 was tabled this year as a two-year bill (often a death knell in the Capitol). BUT we brought it back through a series of actions on Assemblymember Chiu (the chair of the Housing Committee), Assemblymember Bloom (the lead author of the bill), and leadership Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (over 500 letters sent by you!).

As the main breadwinner, Martha Simmons has always worked hard to support her family. But when her landlord raised the rent of the home she rents with her adult daughter, Charitie Bolling, who is disabled, Bolling’s husband and their three small children at 1140 Ingerson Ave., the 60-year-old was forced to take on three security jobs just to stay afloat. “Right now, I’m working seven days a week, 16 hours a day to keep roof over our head,” said Simmons, whose $3,300 rent was raised to $4,700 last year.

A state senator and tenants rights group are working to overturn a decades-old law that prohibits rent control on homes.

In the wake of a KCRA 3 investigation into the corporate ownership of single-family homes, advocates want the state to change the Costa-Hawkins law, which passed in the 1990s and prevents rent control for single-family homes. Over the past year, rents for single-family homes have increased by more than 10 percent.

Tenants rights groups said one company owning too many homes in a region can have a significant impact on the rental market.