Rent control

With less than two weeks to go until Election Day, Oakland-based housing activist group Causa Justa :: Just Cause has spent more than $140,000 in support of the measure, city campaign finance records show. Though advocates for the measure expect counter-spending from rental real estate interests, the politically powerful California Apartment Association and affiliated groups have yet to report any spending in Oakland, instead funneling more than $1.5 million into other Bay Area rent control races.

San Mateo and Burlingame residents are boasting some pretty valuable votes this election as more than $1 million has been raised and spent to win them over in a heated battle regarding rent control.

Thursday marked the deadline for advocates on both sides to submit campaign finance forms that revealed large amounts of money are being funneled into these two relatively small-city elections. San Mateo’s Measure Q and Burlingame’s Measure R have garnered significant attention from donors across the country and at home.

The Sebastopol City Council, worried about pre-emptive rent hikes as it embarks on a study of tenant protection measures expected to last weeks or months, will consider adopting an emergency moratorium Tuesday that would temporarily cap rent increases at about 3 percent a year.

The emergency proposal would require four of five council members to vote for approval. If adopted, it would take effect immediately for 45 days, with the possibility of successive time extensions totaling two years altogether.

Blanca Retano is one of many Richmond tenants to experience a significant shake-up in their monthly rent this year. This past April, her landlord bumped it up $300-a-month, which jumped the price of her two bedroom to $1,400. She wants to move, but she says it's difficult to find a place for her husband and four kids for less than $2,000 a month. "It's unjust," she told the Express in Spanish, via a translator. She said the landlord doesn't pay attention or fix things, either, which makes it worse. "Hay cosas destruidas, ratones, cucarachas — tenemos muchos problemas con animales."

The November 2016 election ballot is daunting, to say the least, but there are some real gems at the city and county levels that renters and those who want to fight against gentrification and displacement don't want to miss. We've put together a simple flyer to use when you vote. This year, when you vote, you can help keep tenants in their homes! 5 cities are going to the ballot to pass rent control, which would collectively protect at least 125,000 people from displacement.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 13, 2016 

**MEDIA ADVISORY**

California Apartment Association Lies About Government Agency Position in Anti-Rent Control Mailer, Tenants Protest

Tenants protest CAA’s deceptive campaign and will file complaint with the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC)

WHEN ELENORE WILLIAMS' family of seven moved into a new apartment in 2013 and found it infested with fleas, she says, management’s response was to give her a bottle of Hot Shot insect killer spray.

“The landlord did not make repairs,” Williams wrote in court documents. “[The] dishwasher hasn’t worked [in] over a year, my son caught a skin disease called PLEVA from the fleas biting him... Mold in [the] bathroom has not gotten done, which caused my son to [begin] taking a steroid inhaler.”

As housing costs increase across the state, a slim majority of Oregon voters support repealing the statewide ban on rent control — with the most support being in the Portland area.

According to a new poll by DHM Research, 52 percent of statewide voters support eliminating the existing ban on rent control.

Support is highest in the Portland area, where 58 percent support a change in Oregon laws to allow cities and counties to enact their own rent control policies.

More than 110 million people in the United States are renters – a reflection of how the American dream of owning a home has increasingly become a fantasy. And many of those renters who cannot afford to buy a house are straining to pay rents that consume more and more of their incomes. According to Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, one-quarter of renters in the U.S. pay more than half of their earnings on housing.