Justice for Renters Qualifies for 2024 California Ballot

Rent control is on the November 2024 California ballot.

The California Secretary of State verified 617,000 signatures supporting the Justice for Renters Act, an initiative which will expand local control over rent laws by replacing The Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act. The 28-year-old law prohibits rent control on single-family homes, condominiums and rental units that were built after 1995.

At a July 27 Zoom press conference, Michael Weinstein, president of Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation and a main driver behind the initiative, said renters’ needs are more urgent compared to two similar statewide rent control measures AHF backed in 2018 and 2020.

“California’s population is shrinking. The California dream is dying,” Weinstein said.

If Justice for Renters wins, he forecast a wave of activism, where municipalities will legislate local rent control laws including regulations for buildings constructed before 1980. Laws in Los Angeles bar rent control from buildings that were constructed after 1978. Similar measures appeared on the state ballot and were rejected by voters in 2018 and 2020.

The Zoom press conference was attended by elected officials such as Konstantine Anthony, mayor of Burbank; Jon Nolte of the Pomona City Council; and Brian Tabatabai, mayor pro tem of West Covina. It also featured participation from activists such as Ryan Bell, chair of the Pasadena Rental Housing Board, which started in 2023, as well as Soli Alpert, a member of the the rent control board in Berkeley in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Alpert said the measure would have a tough electoral fight.

“California is a renters’ state, but landlords control the legislature,” he said.

Rent control bills such as Justice for Renters have rankled property owner groups such as Apartment Association for Greater Los Angeles. “The last thing California voters want are more regulations,” said Dan Yukelson, AAGLA’s executive director.

He also critiqued the bill for not making a solution for developing more housing.

“We still have not been able to keep pace with housing development to satisfy demand here in California. Adding worse regulations like this latest ballot proposal puts a stranglehold on housing providers,” Yukelson said.