Rent control on ballot in Santa Cruz, statewide

“There are no silver bullets on fixing this housing policy,” says City of Santa Cruz Mayor David Terrazas.

Terrazas admits there is a problem with rental costs in the city – a lack of availabilities has helped make prices sour. But he says rent controls that come with Measure M would be “catastrophic.”

“I think the net effect would be that it increases in rental costs and decreases in the supply of rental housing here in the city.”

He fears rental home owners would decide to simply sell their properties.

But Zav Hershfield, an activist supporting Measure M, says don’t blame rent control for that. “That the fault of the person who is trying to get around the restrictions of rent control so they make more profit of someone else’s home they just happen to own.”

The writers of Measure M cite Zillow’s rent index to show why change is needed.

It shows that rent for a two-bedroom Santa Cruz home is more than $2800 a month, and rent has increased nearly 10 times more than wages in the city since 2013.

The measure would tie rent control to the area’s inflation rate. It would add eviction protections, including possible landlord payments for 6-months rent for relocation assistance. Measure M would also install a city rent board.

The board would initially be paid for by the city, and opponents worry the costs to maintain it would run into the millions.

Measure M says that would eventually be covered by taxes on landlords of between six-20 dollars per month, per unit.

“Comparing that to the amount of money that people are charging for rent is a pretty small amount
of money to make sure tenants can stay in the homes they live in,” Hershfield says.

To be effective, Hershfield says California’s Costa-Hawkins rent control and eviction restrictions must be repealed.

Proposition 10 would do just that.

If passed, local governments would be able to control rent prices. Gone would be restrictions for single family home, and housing built after February 1995.

What’s unclear is how many cities would add policies like Measure M, although there is clear motivation.

The state’s legislative analyst office writes “renters in California typically pay 50 percent more for housing than renters in other states.”

But, arguments against Prop 10 are similar to Measure M’s – the funding of rental boards and landlords removing homes from the rental market.

The LAO reports that removing and devaluing rental properties could result in the loss of tens of millions of dollars every year in revenue.