LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In just two short months, rent control advocates in California have collected over 325,000 signatures for the Rental Affordability Act, a statewide ballot measure that will allow local communities to expand rent control in California. The total number collected so far by the organizations leading the effort, Housing Is A Human Right and AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), is slightly more than half the 623,212 signatures needed to qualify the initiative for the November 2020 California election. Backers of the initiative intend to collect over 915,000 voter signatures as a cushion for the state’s signature verification process.
On August 8th, initiative backers announced they had collected 31% of voter signatures needed (195,309 signatures)—well above the 25% benchmark of signatures that forces the California State Legislature to hold joint legislative committee hearings in Sacramento on the initiative. These required hearings must be held no later than 131 days before the November 2020 election (by or before June 25, 2020).
However, backers of the initiative are also urging legislators in Sacramento to act independently and act now to fix the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act of 1995, the state law that severely limits the scope of rent control measures in California.
“There are still a few weeks remaining in the 2019 California legislative session and we strongly urge legislators to now work to craft alternative legislation to amend the Costa-Hawkins Act to allow for stronger rent control measures in more communities statewide,” said Michael Weinstein, president of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “Costa-Hawkins is a harmful bill—one passed by just one vote in 1995—that places a stranglehold on nearly all California communities, preventing them from instituting proper rent control measures in their jurisdictions. Make no mistake: if the legislature fails to enact meaningful rent reforms before June 25, 2020, we will take the Rental Affordability Act to the November 2020 ballot.”
For years, seniors, families, teachers, recent college graduates and millions of other renters have been struggling with a devastating housing affordability crisis, but the California State Legislature has refused to substantively respond to the persistent problem of skyrocketing rents.
The Rental Affordability Act will allow local governments to expand their rent control policies to housing that is more than 15 years old; allow local governments to limit the rent increase for a new tenant who moves into a vacated unit—a landlord can raise the rent by no more than 15% over the next three years; and exempts the owner of one or two homes from any rent control law.
“Millions of Californians desperately need relief as they are being forced to pay unfair, excessive rents simply to keep a roof over their heads,” says René Christian Moya, director of Housing Is A Human Right. “The rent is still too damn high, and these ever-increasing rents also contribute to a sharp spike in homelessness. As one of our ballot initiative signature gatherers aptly noted: ‘Rents Up, tents up!’ We need urgent solutions to our housing affordability crisis and the Rental Affordability Act is one of those key solutions.”
A recent poll conducted by A/B Consulting and commissioned by AIDS Healthcare Foundation found that 75% of voters who are likely and extremely likely to vote in next year’s General Election said they were likely to support the Rental Affordability Act.
Housing Is A Human Right, based in Los Angeles, is the housing advocacy division of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. AHF is the world’s largest HIV/AIDS medical-care organization, serving more than one million people in 43 countries. Throughout California and in the U.S., AHF patients have been negatively impacted by rising housing costs and gentrification, which threaten their health. HHR and AHF advocate for the “3 Ps”: protect tenants, preserve communities, producing housing.