People are simply unable to pay the rent

Published: 2018 | UCLA Luskin Center

Abstract

Drawing on our history, this paper proposes a range of options to ameliorate the economic vulnerability and anxiety of a growing number of our city’s rent-burdened residents. These options include extending the city’s rent stabilization law to certain units built after 1978 as well as to singlefamily homes; modifying the “vacancy decontrol” provisions of the city’s ordinance to better maintain what remains of its affordable housing stock; and extending just-cause eviction protections to all renters. Many of these proposals require amending or repealing the state Costa-Hawkins law, a 1995 statute that largely pre-empts local government’s regulatory power in the rental housing space. Other options include more fully engaging the public in enforcement of the rent stabilization law