The Rent Is Too Damn High!
Did you know that…
- One in three Californians are paying more than half their income in rent. In Los Angeles, there are 1.3 million tenants spending more than 30% of their income in rent.
- Without rent control, real estate developers and Wall Street corporate landlords are free to exploit tenants and transform our communities into high-priced markets.
- Rising rents lead to gentrification, displacement and homelessness. In Los Angeles there are over 56,000 unhoused people.
Across California, people are struggling to stay in their homes, as developers, landlords and Wall Street speculators are given free reign over our cities, exploiting tenants and contributing to the displacement and gentrification of affordable communities. We must protect our communities from skyrocketing rents.
How Do We Fight Rising Rents?
Passing the Proposition 10 in California this November will allow local cities and counties to establish stronger rent control that would address our housing affordability and homelessness crisis.
Proposition 10 is a ballot measure that will repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, which puts limits on how California cities can address the housing crisis and protect residents from displacement. Costa-Hawkins prohibits cities and counties from applying rent control to apartments built after 1995 (in LA, buildings built after 1978) or to single-family rental units and condos. It also allows landlords to raise the rent as much as they want when a unit becomes vacant ("vacancy decontrol").
What Is Rent Control? Rent control laws limit how much your rent can increase each year. Without rent control, landlords are free to exploit tenants and raise rents in any amount as often as they want (and we’ve seen rent increase by $800/month in LA!).
Housing is a human right, not a commodity for those who can afford it
As socialists, we believe that a system that puts the profits of landlords and developers above the basic right to shelter is barbaric. Passing the Affordable Housing Act is the first step towards building strong renter rights in LA and across California. The majority of Angelenos are renters and we must fight together to build a world in which healthy, quality housing is guaranteed to all, regardless of income.