Measure to Ease Rent Control Dealt Blow

A controversial bill to weaken strict local rent controls was dealt what its author called a fatal blow when the Senate Judiciary Committee refused Tuesday to bring it to a vote on the orders of Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles).

Assemblyman Jim Costa (D-Fresno), who has been pushing such legislation on behalf of the housing and real estate industries for three years, said he was “disappointed” and blamed Roberti for the bill’s failure.

He said committee chairman Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward) refused to allow a vote “under instructions of Roberti,” a rent-control supporter whose Hollywood area district includes a high percentage of renters.

Costa asserted that Roberti “decided to kill the bill today,” because he knows that “there are 21 votes (a majority) for it on the Senate floor, and I think that’s why he won’t allow it out of this committee.”

Two years ago, Roberti also maneuvered a similar Costa measure into oblivion.

Costa’s latest proposal, approved by the Assembly more than a year ago, was designed to establish the first statewide guidelines for rent control. The key provision would have allowed landlords to raise rents without limit when an apartment became vacant for any reason except eviction.

Other features of the bill called for exempting new housing construction, including mobile home parks and single family homes, from local rent controls. It also proposed a housing trust fund to build affordable rental units.

The measure was opposed by a coalition of tenant groups, mobile home owners and such cities as Santa Monica and Berkeley, which have enacted tough vacancy controls that the bill would have eliminated.

Facing an uphill fight in the Judiciary Committee, Costa last week stripped the bill of all its features, except the new housing exemption. At the time, Costa said the move was aimed at winning passage of the bill in committee and gaining time to negotiate with Roberti.

However, Roberti said on Tuesday that he blocked the stripped-down proposal because it was “a spot bill, which, in effect, means the substance would be put in after it left the committee.”

Roberti declared, “The bill is suffocating to death unless it gets some artificial resuscitation.”