More than 100 owners and operators of apartment buildings and mobile home parks spent nearly $2 million to put an initiative on the June 3 ballot to phase out California's rent control laws. About 1.2 million people statewide are covered by such laws. Generally, the laws allow landlords to raise rents by a limited amount -- in many jurisdictions by the amount of the consumer price index. Whenever a unit is vacated, the landlord can reset the rent at market level. But while the unit is occupied, rent increases are subject to controls. Los Angeles, which has 626,600 rent-controlled residential units, could be affected more than any other city if the measure passes.
Proponents tout the measure as one that would limit government's use of eminent domain, preventing the taking of private property for private development. Although that is the first provision of the measure, it goes on to phase out rent control. Opponents have dubbed the measure the "Hidden Agenda Scheme," in part because rent control is not mentioned in the ballot title. The measure says rent control laws enacted before Jan. 1, 2007, would remain in effect for tenants who were living in the controlled units as their principal residence. When the tenant leaves, rent control would be removed from that unit.
Tenant-rights advocates say that if rent control is phased out, many poor and elderly people will have no place to live. On the other side, there is a need to focus on the property owners because many of them have difficulty breaking even or making profit on their housing units under the current rent control laws.
Link: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-rent28jan28,1,6597221.story?page=1&cset=true&ctrack=1
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