Rent Control
Laws that control rent-stabilized apartments have been weakened over the last 25 years while the surging economy drives many of these units into the free market.
The New York Times
The measure would repeal the 1996 Costa-Hawkins Act that places limits on rent control ordinances. Repealing the act would allow cities with rent control to consider expanding rent control to provide tenants greater protections.
San Francisco Chronicle
Politicians are taking positions on a controversial California housing bill to densify by transit. Even after amendments were accepted on March 1 in response to concerns about displacement and demolitions, the mayor of Los Angeles remains opposed.
The Architect's Newspaper
Amendments are circulating for one of the most-closely watched, and passionately debated, pieces of housing legislation in the country.
Medium
The public perception of rent control has been dominated by apartment owner-funded studies and messaging for decades, fostering misconceptions about it's impact, according to poverty law attorney Parisa Ijadi-Maghsoodi.
UrbDeZine
Tenants' rights advocacy groups around the country are gaining steam, and supporters, as more and more renters are experiencing the shocks of an over-priced housing market.
The Nation
Cities and researchers are reconsidering the effects of the controversial housing policy known as rent control.
Governing
A short and simple "explainer" post makes sense of why there seems to be so little ground on affordable housing issues in expensive urban areas.
Vox
A small San Francisco landlord argues for repealing state restrictions on rent control.
San Francisco Chronicle
California's housing crunch finally became a top legislative priority in 2017. More of the same is expected in 2018.
Los Angeles Times
As California debates the future of rent control in its municipalities, a group of Stanford economists have conducted research that connects San Francisco's existing policy with higher housing costs.
The Mercury News
A statewide initiative has been filed by California tenant activists that would repeal the Costa-Hawkins Act, the 1995 legislation that restricts the type of rental housing regulated by local rent control ordinances.
The Sacramento Bee
It's still illegal to convert rental units into short-term rentals that act as a hotel business in Washington, D.C. A high-profile legal settlement will thus send a bumper crop of rental units back to the market.
Greater Greater Washington
Voters in Santa Rosa, California rejected a measure that would have retained the rent and eviction control ordinance that the city council had approved lasted August. The referendum was placed on the ballot by the California Apartment Association.
San Francisco Chronicle
For a long time now, rent control hasn't been an option to control housing prices in Washington state. Whether rent control works is another question entirely.
KUOW
A large swatch of downtown and an adjacent neighborhood can develop taller and denser after the Seattle City Council approved zoning changes this week.
The Seattle Times
The California Apartment Association released a report on what it will take to solve the state's chronic housing shortage. Cities that are loath to permit new residential developments, both affordable and market rate, will not be pleased.
Los Angeles Times
Enacted in 2015, Berlin's "Mietpreisbremse" ordinance limits rent increases on some (but not all) apartments. According to this study, results have not been ideal.
City Observatory
California law and a local ordinance prevent new apartment buildings from falling under rent control. But that need not prevent a developer from requesting it, as a developer in San Francisco's Excelsior District has done.
San Francisco Chronicle
A recent poll has found growing support for a repeal of the statewide ban on rent control in Oregon.
Portland Tribune
