Recently I introduced a resolution urging the State of California to repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act. Oakland and the Bay Area are suffering from a rising housing crisis in which many residents are being displaced by skyrocketing rents, and where our vital workers cannot find homes they can afford in our communities.
This affordable housing crisis not only causes hardship to the people displaced as well as to their families; it also undermines the connections of our neighborhoods and makes it hard to recruit and retain people for vital jobs, such as our teachers.
As rents continue to rise and the negative impacts on our communities expand, it is important to recognize, and fix, one of the sources of this problem.
In 1995, the California State Legislature adopted the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act (California Civil Code Sections 1954.50-1954.535), allowing a property owner to establish a new rental rate for each new tenancy, allowing unlimited increases upon vacancy and then re-control of rents, exempting certain units from rent control, including single family homes, condominiums, and Oakland homes constructed after 1983.
There is a significant demand for rental housing, and inadequate supply, especially for affordable housing. This leads to rising rents and increased housing pressures for residents across a range of lower and middle income levels, warranting improvement in rent stabilization and tenant protection policies.
Our city of Oakland, and many others, has passed laws to protect tenants from excessive rent increases, but the state law, Costa-Hawkins, gives exemptions to these laws to many properties, especially those built after 1983. These exemptions deny many tenants the protection of the laws, and result in inadequate protection from excessive rent increases.
In this unprecedented housing crisis, it is important that we explore all options to preserve affordability and prevent displacement. The Bay Area needs to take significant action to improve our housing situation. We need to build more housing, especially affordable housing, throughout our region; make it easier and faster to build; and implement a regional jobs-housing impact fee to support affordable housing. Further, we must fight to restore the State affordable housing fund that was recently cut, and remove the exemptions in State law that deny so many tenants protections from excessive rent increases. By repealing Costa-Hawkins, we would be improving rent stabilization and have stronger tenant protection policies.
The Rules and Legislation Committee of the Oakland City Council will take up this Resolution on Thursday June 16, 2016.
Oakland City Councilmember At-Large Rebecca Kaplan was elected in 2008 and was re-elected in 2012. She is working for safe neighborhoods, for local jobs and for a fresh start for Oakland.
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