California Rent Control Bill Withdrawn by Lawmaker

Epoch Times

30-04-2025

California's newest legislation to lower the statewide rent control cap and increase tenant protections was pulled by its author on April 29.
'I am grateful my colleagues on the Assembly Housing Committee acknowledged the pressing need to take action to support tenants statewide and stabilize the rental market,' Kalra said in a
The California Apartment Association, which represents more than 13,000 members, welcomed the news.
'This outcome reflects the power of a coordinated effort between [the association's] lobbying team and our members,' said Tom Bannon, chief executive officer for the California Apartment Association, in a
According to the association, thousands of rental housing providers wrote letters to lawmakers, and more than 150 came to the Capitol to oppose the bill in person.
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'Their voices, combined with strategic advocacy from our government affairs team, played a key role in halting this damaging legislation,' Bannon said.
Kalra's rent control bill was passed last week by the Assembly's Housing and Community Development Committee. The legislation would lower the state's yearly rent-hike cap from 5 percent plus inflation, which cannot exceed 10 percent annually, to 2 percent plus inflation, with a maximum increase of 5 percent allowed each year.
'Housing is a human right, and we must do what we can to help keep people in their homes,' Kalra told the Assembly committee at the April 24
Kalra, a San Jose Democrat, also included a provision that would make the state's Tenant Protection Act of 2019 permanent. When the original rent control law was enacted six years ago, it had a 10-year limit.
State law allows cities and counties to impose a lower cap.
According to the lawmaker, 35 cities and counties have passed different rules for stabilizing rents, which Kalra said has created a 'hodgepodge' of laws.
California is home to about 17
According to the nonpartisan think tank Public Policy Institute of California, the state's rental share is topped only by New York's rental market, which houses 46 percent of its population.
Kalra's proposed legislation would remove the state's existing exemption for single-family homes and make them subject to the rent cap.
San Diego renter Tammy Alvarado told committee members that she and her family rent a single-family home that is not covered by the state's rent control laws.
'It seems so unfair,' Alvarado said.
A house is available for rent in Los Angeles on March 15, 2022.The California Apartment Association—a statewide trade group for apartment owners, investors, and developers—testified against the measure.
'Rent control discourages new housing, does not resolve supply, and it exacerbates affordability,' said Debra Carlton, executive vice president of the association, quoting from a legislative analysis of the bill.
She added that single-family homeowners who currently rent their properties to families would not be able to do so if lower caps were passed.
California voters rejected a similar statewide rent control law last year when 60 percent of them voted against
An available home in Los Angeles on Feb. 1, 2017.The proposition aimed to repeal a state law prohibiting rent control on single-family homes and apartments completed after Feb. 1, 1999.
The proposition was pushed by the group Housing Is a Human Right. It was the third
In anticipation of the possible passage of Prop. 33, multifamily housing permits