The first of the month has come to strike terror in renters, while homeownership seems like a fantasy to the young. How did this happen?
A November initiative is the latest battle in a long war that has driven housing costs in the Golden State exorbitantly high.
As the pandemic’s cruelest month gave way to the merry month of May, Los Angeles was filled with demands and unrest.
Critics claim the city is not adequately enforcing a new home-sharing ordinance.
Rent-controlled properties remain on home-sharing platforms like Airbnb in violation of a new ordinance.
Bill author David Chiu implored Assembly members to imagine the impact of a massive rent increase on a typical tenant’s health, children and job.
In an era of wealth inequality, said State Sen. Connie Leyva, passing a bill to put a stop to exorbitant rent increases “is the least we can do.”
California legislation to cap rent increases looked like a done deal in Sacramento. Why, then, are Realtors dead set against it?
But a county ordinance kicks in too late to help others.
Although California’s leading politicians favor rent-cap legislation, none is on the horizon.
Even in defeat, tenant advocates say their campaign brought new organizing energy and new allies who will help with upcoming battles to strengthen renter protections.
Co-published by The American Prospect
Topping the list of corporate anti-rent control donors are some of the country’s largest landlords — many funded by Wall Street investment dollars — whose bottom lines could be negatively affected by Prop. 10’s passage.
Co-Published by The Guardian and MapLight
Blackstone is quietly funneling investors’ money into its campaign against Proposition 10.
For more information, read Jessica Goodheart’s story on squeezed Los Angeles tenants, “The Rent’s Getting Too Damn High!”
A local dispute over evictions highlights the emergence of a tenants movement that is pushing back against rapacious landlords and a nationwide housing affordability crisis.
Rent control would not fix L.A.’s affordable housing crisis, but it would help long-time renters in neighborhoods that are suddenly desirable in the eyes of investors.
Co-published by The American Prospect
California’s red-hot housing market has made renters vulnerable to rapidly increasing rents that they struggle to pay, or to evictions implemented by landlords who want to raise the rent on new tenants.