Housing Measures on the Ballot in November

In an article for Multifamily Dive, Mary Salmonsen highlights 13 proposed laws on city and state ballots across the country this November that could pave the way for more multifamily housing in several cities.

The most prominent of these bills is California’s Proposition 33, which would eliminate the state’s limits on rent control in local jurisdictions and allow rent control to include buildings built after 1995, currently precluded by state law. “San Francisco has already passed a new rent control law designed to trigger if Prop 33 passes, according to the San Francisco Standard. Any localities with rent control in place when Costa-Hawkins passed in 1995 could not expand it to housing built after their existing limit — 1979, in San Francisco’s case.”

The article highlights five other local measures, four in California and one in New Jersey. Berkeley, California’s Measures BB and CC are two counteracting measures: BB would fund housing assistance and homelessness prevention, while CC could raise the city’s maximum rent increase from 7 percent to 7. 1percent and funnel existing revenue to rent payments for property owners. If voters pass both, the measure with more votes would take effect.

A proposed measure in San Anselmo, California would require property owners with three or more units to provide longer notices and relocation benefits to no-fault lease termination tenants.

In Hoboken, New Jersey, a proposed law would allow landlords to raise rent as much as they want on newly vacated apartments (compared to the current limit of 25 percent) as long as they contribute a one-time $2,500 payment to the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

At the state level, California Proposition 5 “would amend the state constitution to lower the supermajority vote requirement from 66.67% to 55% for local ballot measures related to issuing bonds for affordable and public housing. This would have a ripple effect on future local ballot measures approving affordable housing funding.” In Rhode Island, Question 3 would authorize $120 million in bonds for housing acquisition and development.