Rent control advocates in California say they have collected over 325,000 signatures in two months for the Rental Affordability Act, a statewide ballot measure that will allow local communities to expand rent control in California.

The act would allow local governments to expand their rent control policies to housing that is more than 15 years old, allow local governments to limit the rent increase for a new tenant who moves into a vacated unit – a landlord can raise the rent by no more than 15% over the next three years – and exempts the owner of one or two homes from any rent control law.

The total number collected so far by the organizations leading the effort, Housing Is A Human Right and AIDS Healthcare Foundation, is slightly more than half the 623,212 signatures needed to qualify the initiative for the November 2020 California election. Backers of the initiative intend to collect over 915,000 voter signatures as a cushion for the state’s signature verification process.

On Aug. 8, initiative backers announced they had collected 31% of voter signatures needed – well above the 25% benchmark of signatures that forces the California State Legislature to hold joint legislative committee hearings in Sacramento on the initiative. These required hearings must be held no later than 131 days before the November 2020 election (by or before June 25, 2020).

However, backers of the initiative are also urging legislators in Sacramento to act independently and act now to fix the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act of 1995, the state law that prevents all but a handful of California cities or towns from instituting some form of rent control.

“There are still a few weeks left remaining in the 2019 California legislative session, and we are strongly urging legislators to work now to craft alternative legislation to amend the Costa-Hawkins Act to allow for rent control measures in more communities statewide,” said Michael Weinstein, president of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “Costa-Hawkins is a harmful bill – one passed by just one vote in 1995 – that places a stranglehold on nearly California communities, preventing them from instituting any form of rent control measures in their jurisdictions. Make no mistake: if the legislature fails to enact meaningful rent reforms before June 25, 2020, we will take the Rental Affordability Act to the November 2020 ballot.”

“The rent is still too damn high, and these ever-increasing rents also contribute to a sharp spike in homelessness … We need urgent solutions to our housing affordability crisis, and the Rental Affordability Act is one of those key solutions,” said René Christian Moya, director of Housing Is A Human Right.