Renters Alliance Endorses Proposition 10
Beverly Hills Renters Alliance endorses proposition 10 and we urge you to vote Yes on 10 in November. If passed by voters, this ballot measure will enact the Affordable Housing Act to return local control over rent stabilization to cities and counties where it belongs.
A vote for Proposition 10 is a vote for ‘Costa Hawkins’ repeal. Sacramento lawmakers would no longer have the authority to decide what kind of protections tenants in Beverly Hills and beyond would receive.
Don’t Be Fooled by the Ads Against Proposition 10
Property interests are spreading fear in their campaign to defeat Proposition 10. And it is a well-funded campaign! They have out-raised proponents by three to one and six times more landlords have donated to tank this measure than have tenants in support of it.
According to the Secretary of State property interests are spending SIXTY MILLION BUCKS to ensure that tenants are denied the protections we deserve. That figure is currently $60,155,723.63.
You have probably seen the many, many TV advertisements and their false claims. Among them that Prop 10 will raise rents and reduce housing choice; that property values will decline and pensioners will go hungry; and that our first responders will go hat-in-hand to keep the lights on. This is all utter nonsense..
The fact is that for 99% of the 482 municipalities in California nothing will change. Just fifteen have any form of rent control and not more than a few have even asked to repeal the Costa-Hawkins law.
Indeed it will have ZERO no effect on seniors and veterans. If anything, the Affordable Housing Act could one day give our most vulnerable neighbors (among them seniors and veterans) greater tenant protections than they have today.
What is ‘bad for California,’ to quote their misleading campaign, is the law that tied our city’s hands in the first place. That’s why City of Beverly Hills unanimously endorsed Proposition 10 in the first place!
What is ‘Costa Hawkins’?
The Costa Hawkins Rental Housing Act was enacted in 1995 to take away local control over the regulation of rent stabilization. It was enacted at the behest of the big property interests who bankroll Sacramento legislators. Costa-Hawkins:
- Prohibits Beverly Hills from capping the annual rent increase or mandating a relocation fee for any household in Beverly Hills that rents an apartment constructed after February 1995 (or any time in the future);
- Denies tenant protections (including the capped annual rent increase) to any household in Beverly Hills that rents a condominium or single-family home; and,
- Requires that the rent for every unit in Beverly Hills and beyond be allowed to return to market rate as soon as the existing tenant leaves.
Practically speaking this “gift to landlords” (in the words of one) keeps on giving: as units turn over a property is always approaching market-rate rents. It’s where the landlords make their fat operating margins despite their complaints about living in the poorhouse.
A recent study done for Beverly Hills suggests landlords here on average make a 67% profit on the rents they receive after they pay expenses. The SIXTY MILLION BUCKS spent to defeat Proposition 10 shows how desperate they are to protect their fat margin.
Why Do We Need Proposition 10 to Pass in November?
We need Proposition 10 to pass in November because our elected lawmakers have repeatedly failed repeal or tweak the Costa Hawkins Rental Housing Act. Landlord associations like Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles (AAGLA) and California Apartment Association (CAA) have too much juice in Sacramento.
Tenants? Not so much. Though we are putting up a good fight statewide. Should we push Proposition 10 over the top in November we could see a few cities (maybe even Beverly Hills!) extend rent stabilization to buildings built after 1995. (Today they have no local protection.) We could see households that rent a condo find protection under our rent stabilization ordinance too. (Now those households are exempt.)
The stakes are high for tenants. Yet despite the fear-mongering by property interests, the reality is that the reach of Proposition 10 would be modest. Proposition 10 only returns local control to cities but it does not mandate action:
- Proposition 10 will not force any locality to adopt rent control
- Proposition 10 will not require any locality that has adopted some form of rent control to change it
- Proposition 10 will impose no unfunded mandate, tax, fee or program on any locality
- Proposition 10 will have no effect at all unless local policymakers choose to amend their locality’s rent control policy.
City Council may not choose to make any significant change to rent stabilization as a result of Proposition 10. Again despite the landlord grousing our City Council is actually talking about exempting some property owners from rent stabilization (which we oppose).
Don’t be fooled by the scare tactics. Read the Proposition 10 fact sheet to learn the truth about ‘Costa Hawkins’ repeal.
Endorsements
Renters Alliance supports Proposition 10 because it will allow our local representatives to look out for tenants where our state legislature has failed us. It is this simple: return control to the locality. That’s why a long-and-growing list of endorsers support Proposition 10 too.
City of Beverly Hills has endorsed Proposition 10. So have our pro-tenant neighbors, Santa Monica and West Hollywood, as well as Oakland and Berkeley. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has endorsed it and so has the Los Angeles Times. The Sacramento Bee endorses Proposition 10 and so does every local chapter of the California ACLU. A long roster of local tenant organizations have stepped up in support — as has statewide pro-tenant organization Tenants Together.
Visit Yes on Proposition 10 to read more about the Affordable Housing Act. Have a question about our endorsement of Proposition 10? Get in touch with Renters Alliance!
