PROP 33

PROP 33 would repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, which prevented local rent control ordinances to apply to single family houses, condos, and apartments built after 1995. It also allows rent increases after a tenant moves out, when most units are raised to market rate.

In 2020, the state enacted the Tenant Protection Act, which extended rent control to areas not already covered. It also dictated that rent control would not be applied to buildings built within the last 15 years, not 1995, as in the Costa-Hawkins Act.

The reason for delaying rent control on new units is it allows developers to make back their investment. Without that incentive, new housing will simply not be built. Prop 33 would remove that incentive. It will allow cities to impose rent control on all units, regardless of construction date. It will also will allow "vacancy control", preventing landlords from raising the rent between tenants.

Prop 33 will give local anti-development legislators the ability to kill housing projects by making them financially unfeasible. It will drive developers out of state and only increase the housing problem in our state.

The prop is championed by LA City Councilman Kevin de Leon and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. It's opposed, of course, by Realtors and the CA Apartment Association.

I hate siding with realtors, but Your Political Friend is voting NO.