Posted on 05/07/2008 7:41:00 AM PDT by SmithL
Hundreds are expected to descend on San Francisco's Civic Center Plaza today to protest a June ballot measure that would end rent control across the state and, many argue, would push thousands of people from their homes through evictions or rising prices.
But the measure's backers say rent control is a failure and that approval by voters ultimately would mean more apartments and lower rents.
Proposition 98 was written as a restriction on eminent domain that would prohibit the government from taking property for the benefit of a private party. Opponents say it would do far more: define "private" and "take" in terms so broad as to effectively overturn the state's approach to managing development and affordability.
The clause attracting the most attention is one that would ban government-imposed limits on what landlords can charge tenants. The change wouldn't affect existing leases, but once renters move out, property owners in cities with rent control laws, such as Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco, no longer would have to limit price increases on those units.
"Prop. 98 would be devastating for California's renters," said Dean Preston, executive director of the San Francisco advocacy group Tenants Together, who says thousands could be evicted or priced out of their apartments if the law passes. "The measure pretends to be about eminent domain reform, and, in fact, it's just an attack on renters."
More than a dozen California cities have rent control statutes, which generally limit the amount landlords can increase rent by each year. About 71 percent of San Francisco's apartments are covered by rent control, which caps annual increases at 60 percent of the gain in the Consumer Price Index, or about 2 percent this year, for most buildings constructed before June 1979.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Don't be silly!
>thousands could be evicted or priced out of their apartments if the law passes.
damn free market trying to poke it’s head up out of the socialist hole that we dug for it.
Bad free market! Bad!
...
The change wouldn't affect existing leases, but once renters move out, property owners in cities with rent control laws, such as Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco, no longer would have to limit price increases on those units.
Never let reading comprehension get in the way of a good protest.
Dead-beat minimum-wage liberal artsy-fartsy types will now have to compete for property in more desirable locations with higher earning professionals that can actually afford the better views.
I wonder if they also cap property tax increases on rental properties?
Of course not. These vermin want to render the landlords as penniless. They never learned the lessons of rent control in NYC so they just have to try it again somewhere else.
First of all, these are not their homes. These renters have no equity, no risk, no property taxes, no insurance, and do not have to pay for maintenance or repairs. They are tenants, living there. They have a right to the space they rent and to establish a home inside. If costs go up, then so should the rent. This is not a communist country for crying out loud. EVERYTHING goes up in cost. Live with it—the rest of us have to.
When I moved up here to Canada, Toronto had rent control and it was nearly impossible to get a decent apartment at any price, even with “key money” (bribes) slipped to management. Rent control ended on the terms mentioned herein, and now there are places actually offering inducements to lure tenants. (For example, the old, shabby, micro-units in the desirable neighbourhood that I left for the place I am in now are offering an HDTV with a 13 month lease.) My new place bargained for my tenancy, and I ended up getting exactly what I wanted in the way of amenities without having to pay the extra fees they originally wanted to charge me.
Competition is a wonderful thing. While it does mean I had to move uptown from the much-more-desirable (for my purposes) neighbourhood where I had lived, it also means that I am able to afford “deluxe” space (632 square feet!) in an entirely acceptable and pleasant area that, thanks to the loss of rent control, is gentrifying.
Uh oh--they ticked off the Central Planners.
How nice that they think they can "manage affordability."
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