Rent Control to Be on November 2024 Ballot: For the 3rd Time!

Rent Control to Be on November 2024 Ballot: For the 3rd Time!

Weinstein / AIDS Healthcare Foundation Again Seek to Dismantle Costa-Hawkins Protections

A rent control ballot initiative very similar to past efforts under Propositions 10 (2018) and 21 (2020) has once again qualified to be on the ballot for the upcoming, November 2024 vote. On July 26th, the California Secretary of State confirmed that the AIDS Healthcare Foundation initiative, the Justice for Renters Act, had gathered the required signatures to be eligible for the ballot. The initiative, if passed, would repeal the Costa Hawkins Rental Housing Act of 1995 and would allow local jurisdictions to impose the most extreme forms of local rent control on rental housing providers, including the placement of limitations on rent increases for new construction, single family homes and condominiums, and also vacancy “control” allowing cities and counties to dictate the rent that can be charged for a vacant unit.

This represents the third time in four election cycles that the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and its President, Michael Weinstein, has attempted to eliminate the Costa Hawkins Rental Housing Act through a ballot measure. Supporters of this latest effort had gathered more than 800,000 signatures in favor of the ballot measure while only needing 601,317, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.

While Propositions 10 and 21 were ultimately rejected by California voters, rental housing providers and realtor groups had raised $80 million to $90 million for each such opposition effort. According to Daniel Yukelson, Executive Director of the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles, “Like past Weinstein ballot measures, if this latest effort were to pass it would clearly be a “bankruptcy bill’ for rental housing providers across the state.” Yukelson further stated, “Anyone who provides rental housing or that even owns any type of residential real estate better get out their checkbook and support the opposition campaign before it’s too late.”