FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Mike Nemeth, communications director
(916) 449-6426, mnemeth@caanet.org

The California Apartment Association today announced that it will lead a campaign to defeat anti-housing crusader Michael Weinstein’s latest attempt to return California to the radical rent control policies of the 1970s, placing homes further out of reach for seniors and working families. 

Weinstein and other supporters of the Rental Affordability Act, also known as Prop 10 2.0, scheduled a number of rallies today to announce the anticipated qualification of their measure for the November 2020 ballot. His previous bid for radical rent control — Proposition 10 — failed miserably at the polls in November 2018.

“Voters overwhelming rejected the measure the last time it was on the ballot,” said Tom Bannon, chief executive officer of the California Apartment Association. “Once we educate voters about Weinstein’s latest housing-freeze measure, it’s bound to fail just as miserably as Prop 10.”

The proposed statewide ballot measure would exacerbate California’s homelessness crisis and allow cities and counties to impose rent control at levels below the rate of inflation. The measure would do so by weakening the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, landmark legislation that prevents local jurisdictions from imposing rent control on units built after 1995.

Weinstein’s measure would also once again allow local governments to apply vacancy controls, meaning rents would remain regulated in rent-controlled jurisdictions even after changes in tenancy.

“This extreme form of rent control would lead to a mass exodus from the rental housing market and exacerbate California’s housing shortage,” Bannon said. “It would greatly reduce the construction of new housing and make it harder for seniors and working-class families to find places to live.”

Weinstein is moving ahead with his ballot measure despite the recent passage of AB 1482, legislation that will give California the nation’s strongest statewide tenant protection law.

“Weinstein’s actions stand to undo the efforts of the governor, labor, the legislature, affordable-housing builders and tenant groups who worked to find a reasonable approach to address the state’s housing crisis,” Bannon said.

“Weinstein isn’t trying to protect tenants — he’s crusading to keep new homes out of California through policies that discourage investment in rental homes,” he said. “Like its predecessor, this ballot measure will hurt older adults, single-family homeowners, and chill the construction of the affordable housing California so desperately needs.”

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The California Apartment Association is the nation’s largest statewide trade group representing owners, investors, developers, managers and suppliers of apartment communities. CAA recognizes its ethical duties to the communities its members serve and insist on upholding the utmost integrity in the multifamily housing field. CAA’s Code of Ethics guides the association’s dealings with all people, and we encourage all rental housing professionals to abide by it.