Corporate Real Estate Is Holding Us Hostage. Proposition 33 Is Our Chance to Fight Back

OPINION: The fact that the rent is too damn high is self-evident. Even if you are not suffering yourself, you likely have a loved one who is struggling to find affordable housing.

Previous generations typically paid less than 25% of their income on rent, but today, millions pay twice that percentage to stay housed. Today, more than half of Californians are considered “rent-burdened,” with sky-high rents eating up at least 30 percent of their monthly income. Our state has the most rent-burdened tenants in the entire country, and low-income communities are feeling the weight of the world crashing down on them. In many neighborhoods, rents are eating up 50 percent of all income—or worse.

This is not sustainable. Just this month, CalMatters reported that homelessness is (still) on the rise in California, so we continue to fail on multiple fronts.

How did we get here? The majority of rental housing in California is unregulated. There is a state law named the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act that severely restricts local government from regulating rents.

Nothing built after 1995 is covered, but in Los Angeles and San Francisco, it is 1978 and 1979, respectively. No private homes or condos are included. Those that are not subject to local rent control only are covered by a rent-gouging law – AB 1482 – that allows up to a 10% increase yearly. Obviously, a Social Security recipient who will be getting a 2.5% increase next year cannot afford a 10% increase in their rent. The same holds true for someone on disability or a minimum wage employee.

In just three weeks, California will vote for a third time on expanding rent control. Or taken another way, voters will be asked to approve Proposition 33 which will repeal Costa-Hawkins and allow cities and counties to decide what type of rent control their residents need.

Each time, billionaire corporate landlords threaten to hold us hostage if we expand rent control. Their claim is that fewer “affordable” units will be built. But these very same billionaire corporate landlords have never built truly affordable housing for people with low incomes. Their “affordable” units are only a touch below market price. Meanwhile, luxury high rises with high vacancy rates are springing up everywhere.

Their threat not to build low-income housing rings hollow since they don’t build housing for poor people. It is silly to contend that rent control will prevent new construction since rent control laws very seldom include new construction.

I recently visited my birthplace of Brooklyn, New York. New York has the strongest rent control of any major city, and yet everywhere I looked there was a crane engaged in building new housing. New York has more homes under construction than any other U.S. city.

Billionaire landlords only are interested in one thing – maximum profit. When you see their blizzard of ads telling you that rent control will make things worse, please remember that they told you that before. They’ve spent hundreds of millions of dollars to convince voters to reject expanding rent control. So, what has been the result? Less affordable housing. A million people leaving the state. And more homelessness.

We are in a hole, and we need to stop digging. The market alone has not solved the housing affordability crisis, and it never will. Just like public utilities are regulated, rent must be too if we are going to maintain enough truly affordable housing for everyone. Or we can dig a deeper hole by letting the billionaire landlords control our fate.

Support rent control. Vote Yes on 33.

Michael Weinstein is the president of AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global HIV/AIDS organization, and AHF’s Healthy Housing Foundation.