Calif Landlords: “Nice Try” After Rent Control Bill Dies

A bill that would have tightened price controls on rental housing in California and expanded eviction protections died suddenly Tuesday after landlords and pro-housing allies mounted a furious attack in Sacramento.

Assemblymember Ash Kalra, a Democrat from San Jose, introduced Assembly Bill 1157 in February to little fanfare, backed by a coalition of labor and tenant groups, including hospitality workers union Unite Here Local-11 and political action committees Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment and PICO California, a spinoff of the Faith in Action Network, a national network of churches.

Kalra pitched the draft legislation as a necessary stopgap against loopholes in the landmark package of tenant protections state lawmakers passed in 2019 known as the Tenant Protection Act. AB 1157 would lower the state cap on rent increases from 5 percent to 2 percent and expand just cause eviction protections to include single family homes and condominiums, which are currently exempt.

Landlord lobbying group California Apartment Association didn’t take it very seriously at first. That was in part because similar rent control proposals that cropped up as ballot measures over the past decade have all failed.

“California voters have rejected these types of extreme rent control proposals on the ballot three separate times in the last decade,” CAA spokesperson Nathan Click said in a statement Tuesday.

But that changed when the bill appeared to find legs this month, and made it out of the Assembly housing committee April 24.

Nonprofit political action committee California YIMBY quickly joined the offensive and warned of the bill’s grave consequences for the supply side of California’s housing crisis in an opposition statement last week.

Debra Carlton, CAA’s chief lobbyist, also made an impassioned plea to lawmakers to reject the bill in a hearing before the housing committee’s vote.

“Rent control discourages new housing, Carlton said. “It does not resolve supply, and it exacerbates affordability.”

Within a week, the debate shifted, and Kalra withdrew the bill from consideration Tuesday, citing the “robust debate” and conversations with members of the Assembly judiciary committee, where the bill was headed next.

The move takes AB 1157 out of the running this year, but allows it to return next year.

In a joint statement Wednesday, the bill’s co-sponsors blamed CAA’s outsized political influence for its abrupt demise and vowed to resume the fight in 2026.

“Corporate landlords may have won this round through their financial influence,” ACCE board chair Ilene Toney stated. “We’re just getting started.”

Lauren Elkies Schram contributed reporting.