Editorial: Yes on Proposition 10

By addressing both housing affordability and issues of local control, Proposition 10 may just be killing two birds with one stone.

The board firmly endorses Proposition 10 as a means to better the lives of Californians. The measure would repeal the Costa-Hawkins Act, a law passed in 1995 that prohibits cities from passing rent-control measures on properties built after February 1995. A “yes” vote would give local governments the latitude to implement rent control on single-family homes.

That kind of leverage is sorely needed in California. Currently 54 percent of renters spend more than 30 percent of their income on rent. Rent increases can evidently tip people over the edge. A study in 2017 found that just a 5 percent increase in rent would send thousands of Los Angeles county residents into homelessness.

In the midst of the state’s affordable housing crisis, rent control can offer some relief to renters. By limiting the rate at which landlords can increase rents, the proposition would help prevent renters from being priced out of their homes. And in areas such as East Los Angeles, where gentrification has been a growing issue, rent-control policies in the interim might be able to limit the displacement of long-time residents.

That’s not to say there aren’t potential drawbacks from Proposition 10. Rent control in certain areas could make it significantly harder for residents to move in to those areas. It might even make housing more expensive.

In the end, however, the state shouldn’t have the power to determine whether or not cities can create policy on what is an inherently local issue. Local governments should be able to experiment with rent control to see how it affects affordability and scarcity in their locales.

All politics is local. Rent is even more so – and the policies governing it should be too.