California must strengthen tenant protections

OPINION – I never thought I would be living in my car or on my friend’s couch at this stage in my life. For decades, I worked as a nursing care professional and an active member and steward of SEIU 2015, dedicating my life to helping others heal and recover.

Today, I’m legally blind, unemployed, and homeless – not because I didn’t work hard, but because California’s housing system failed me. For seven years, I rented a single-family home from a corporate landlord who increased my rent by over $100 every year, while also charging me more than $300 monthly for water, garbage, and renter’s insurance. When I was severely injured on the job, affecting my eyesight and reducing my work hours, I began depleting my savings to pay rent. I dipped into my 401(k), skipped meals, and sacrificed everything to keep a roof over my head. My entire retirement is now gone.

Despite these sacrifices, when I paid my rent in full a mere three days late, my landlord refused my check and immediately began eviction proceedings. With no lawyer to represent me, the court sided with the landlord. The stress worsened my injury and my health deteriorated completely, causing me to lose my nursing job entirely. I ended up living in my car for months before finding temporary refuge on my friend’s couch.

This is the human cost of California’s housing crisis – not just homelessness, but cascading health crises, job loss, and shattered lives.

California’s current rent cap law (AB 1482) limits annual increases to 10% or CPI + 5%, whichever is lower. Under this formula, rent could nearly double over ten years – far outpacing wage growth. There isn’t a single county in California where a minimum-wage worker can afford a median-priced two-bedroom apartment.

The math doesn’t lie. Every $100 increase in median rent is associated with a 9% increase in homelessness. Nationally, for every 100 people who exited homelessness in 2024, another 118 entered, according to federal data. In a state where half of America’s unsheltered homeless population already lives, we cannot afford policies that continue pushing people onto the streets.

While families like mine struggle, corporate landlords enjoy record profits. Since the pandemic, large investment firms have purchased California’s rental housing at unprecedented rates, using predatory algorithms to raise rents at twice the market average. The phrase “working homeless” should be a contradiction, yet it describes thousands who work full-time but can’t afford stable housing.

Our lawmakers have the power to make an immediate difference by supporting Assembly Bill 1157, the Affordable Rent Act by Assemblymember Ash Kalra. This bill would lower the rent cap from 10% to 5%, expand protections to tenants in single-family homes like the one I was living in, and make the rent cap permanent rather than letting it expire in 2030. With California facing a budget deficit and the Trump administration dismantling safety nets for working families, this solution costs the state nothing while providing immediate relief. A bill like this could have prevented me from losing all of my savings and becoming homeless.

Despite what many think, California spends a mere 1% of its total budget on housing and homelessness. Until we take bold action by dramatically increasing public investment and strengthening tenant protections, this crisis will only worsen. Instead of sweeping encampments when we don’t have permanent affordable housing available or jailing people for refusing to enter shelters that have been documented as unsafe and abusive, we should prioritize preventing homelessness through tenant protections and scaling up affordable housing production.

I share my story because I want legislators to understand the real human impact of their policies. Behind every statistic is a person like me who worked hard, contributed to society, and deserves dignity. I call on our state legislators to strengthen California’s renter protections by lowering the rent cap and scaling up investment into affordable housing production. These concrete steps would keep families housed and create communities where everyone can afford to live and thrive.

Jesus Figueora Cacho is a nursing care professional, a member of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), and an active member and steward of SEIU 2015.