Westside : Landlords Win Round in Rent Control Fight

A landlord-supported bill to weaken rent controls in Santa Monica, West Hollywood and three other California cities survived its first Assembly challenge Wednesday despite the opposition of elderly renters.

The Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee approved the bill on a 6-2 vote, the exact margin required of the 10-member panel. Chairman Dan Hauser, an Arcata Democrat, broke with other Democrats and voted with the committee’s five Republicans.

The bill (SB 1275), a top priority of the California Apartment Assn., would allow landlords to engage in so-called “vacancy decontrol,” increasing rents when housing units are voluntarily vacated. Local officials could then reimpose controls on the new rents.

The bill also affects Berkeley, East Palo Alto and Cotati, a hamlet in Sonoma County. State Sen. Jim Costa (D-Fresno), the bill’s author, said rent controls in those cities are so “radical and extreme,” they prevent landlords from building affordable housing.

An overflow crowd of elderly renters jammed the committee hearing room and corridor outside to oppose the bill. Their representatives warned the committee that the bill would price low- and fixed-income Californians out of their apartments.

The bill, similar versions of which have been killed for the past decade, won narrow passage by the Senate last month. It now moves to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.