Proposition 33 is on the ballot in California in November. If passed, it would repeal the 1995 Costa-Hawkins Act, and allow cities and counties to enact their own rent control laws. The measure has split support among Democratic and Republican officials across the state. Though tenants’ rights groups largely support the measure, there’s one pro-housing group in full-throated opposition. They say Prop 33 will actually undermine pro-housing laws, which they say are at the heart of the state’s housing crisis. KPFA’s Zain Iqbal has the story:
Debbie Nunez and her family live in a comfortable two-bedroom apartment in San Francisco’s Lower Nob Hill. They have been tenants in the building almost 35 years.
“Sometimes I say I have a love-hate with the city. I work, you know, and, and I make a decent living and I cannot afford to move whether it’s in San Francisco, uh, you know, anywhere else.”
She says the family-owned building was bought by CitiApartments, a subsidiary of Skyline Realty owned by the Lembi family whose portfolio included several hundred properties in San Francisco. They were sued for alleged illegal practices as a residential landlord.
“We did experience some of that harassment at that time. It was not super overt, but it started with just a lot of a lot of construction in the building.There was materials, et cetera, left all over. We were getting constant phone calls, you know, did we want to move a, you know, we could, how much do you want to move sort of these buyout issues?”
Veritas Investments—one of San Francisco’s largest residential landlords— bought the property around 2016 after the Lembi’s filed for bankruptcy. Nunez says her rent-controlled apartment at well-below market rate, has been targeted for turnover.
“Giant corporate interest investors coming in, buying up blocks of buildings with a goal of getting the current tenant out, slapping on paint, outlets, new stove, fridge, what have you, and then, um, setting a new rate,” Nunez said.
Under San Francisco law, landlords can only evict tenants for “just cause,” like: not paying rent, destroying the property, or illegal use of the unit. That means, they can’t evict a long term tenant who has rent control, just to hike up rents when property values increase. It’s a blanket of security Nunez says every tenant should have. But most don’t. Only 39 out of 482 cities in California have strong rent control laws, according to the group Tenant’s Together. Proposition 33 could change that. And for Nunez, a seemingly ideal tenant with rent control protections, it could also provide another safety net in one of the most expensive housing markets in the country.
“You know I’m still working, one day I do want to retire. And if I’m not sure, you know what’s happening one day to the next or feeling as though, um, that I have a bullseye on my back solely because I’ve lived in my apartment for all this time.”
According to tenant’s rights groups, the goal of Prop 33 is simple:
“The language of Prop 33 just is very clear. It just says the state can’t get in the way of city’s passing laws,”said Fred Sherburn Zimmer, the Campaign and Policy Director at Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco.
“Cities will do very different things and we will have some fights here in San Francisco if it passes. Um, but we, it’s our right to decide that. You know? It’s tenants rights to be able to fight, to be able to try to stay in their houses, to not have their rents be doubled. To not have an anvil hanging over their head all the time.”
Proposition 33 would override the state’s limit on rent control known as the Costa-Hawkins Act. The Act, among other things, prohibits rent control on new developments. It’s repeal would clear the way for cities to expand and enact tougher rent control laws, if they choose. Zimmer says with passage of Prop 33, she hopes tenants will have more tools at their disposal to fight evictions and threats from landlords to create turnover in their buildings.
“We have all these new predatory equity companies coming in, backing these big corporate landlords. And it’s just like, And they’re promising crazy returns and the returns they’re promising you only can get if you push out the long term tenants. And the only way they can get those returns is because we can’t protect those tenants. We can protect them from eviction. These tenants are fighting, they’re staying. Building’s go up for sale–tenants who organize stay and they fight like hell because they have rent control. And, when they fight, they often win. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have to go through hell in the process.”
Annemarie Bustamante lived in the Vulcan Lofts in East Oakland. She says she went through hell trying to hold onto her home against the greed of real estate speculators. The complex houses about 200 lower-income, working class artists. (00:13)
“I’m a fashion designer also, so being able to afford housing didn’t happen for me in the Bay Area after college until, I found the Vulcan Lofts. And this was the first place I was able to have My own bedroom that I can afford, but it was lofted. So, I had my room and my sewing studio above,and it just made a huge difference,” she said.
For years, the property owner, Madison Park Financial, and the tenants had good relations. But as the real estate market skyrocketed in the Bay Area, Madison Park looked for opportunities to develop the property. Even though tenants organized to protect the Vulcan under Oakland’s rent control laws, Bustamante felt her landlords were trying to push her out.
“Their whole method was to encourage people out. Because every time you emptied a unit, you could raise the price.”
Though Bustamante loved her space at the Vulcan Lofts, living there become untenable. “The roof would leak every single winter. There would be rats, there’d be mold and management, instead of work to restore the building and fix those problems, they’d rather just gaslight the tenants, harass us, find different reasons to, um, encourage us to leave.”
That’s why Zimmer and a consortium of housing rights group are supporting Proposition 33 amidst a statewide housing crisis. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation led the charge to get the measure before voters. ACCE, the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, Housing is a Human Right, and the ACLU also support it.
At face value, organizations opposed to Prop 33 are a veritable who’s who of landlord and apartment associations.
Californians for Responsible Housing, the leading campaign opposing Prop 33, has launched a media blitz ad campaign with videos, attacking it, as a threat to affordable housing and rent control.
https://www.facebook.com/NoOnProp33/videos/1513967685992248
Their campaign is sponsored by the California Apartment Association—the state’s largest landlord organization—who have put in more than $34 million to defeat the measure. Two prominent members of the California Legislature are also opposing Prop 33: Democratic Assemblymember Buffy Wicks and State Senator Toni Atkins. Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis is also on record as opposed to the measure.
KPFA reached out to the California Apartment Association, the office of Buffy Wicks, the Bay Area Council, and several other realty, landlord, and housing organizations opposed to Prop 33. They did not respond to a request for comment, save one: California Yimby.
“The key to rent control or any other piece of policy you want to do to try to address the housing challenges we have in California is to make sure you’re using the tools appropriately,” said Matthew Lewis, communications director for California YIMBY. His organization advocates for more housing in California.
He tells KPFA they support tenant’s rights but not Prop 33. “A lot of cities in California are very bad actors when it comes to housing. And giving them more power to continue to make the housing shortage worse is not a great idea.”
He says he fears Prop 33 could be used as a tool for some municipalities in California to limit construction of new homes. “Impede the ongoing development and construction of new homes, which are also another crucial toolkit to solve the affordability challenges that we face.”
Supporters of Proposition 33 disagree. “What they’re saying is that if they build enough housing, it will at some point trickle down to low-income folks. That has never happened,” said Suzie Shannon the campaign manager of Yes on 33. She says Prop 33 would help create the the kind of housing California so desperately needs: affordable housing.
“We’re building housing for people who are already housed. And so, we have 186,000 people who are unhoused. Where are they going to live? Where are people who are low income workers going to live?..In last 7 years the city of LA overbuilt 72,000 homes and underbuilt 35,000 low moderate income units, so without pushing for affordable housing, we’re never going to get it. So opposition to Prop 33 are corporate landlords who are more interested in making more profits. And don’t want anything that cuts into that.”
The promise of reigning in California’s housing crisis, has attracted broader support for Prop 33, than tenants advocates. The California Democratic Party, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, and several unions, including the California Nurses Association are also endorsing it.
Should voters reject Proposition 33, renters like Nunez in San Francisco fear their fate will be more tied to private equity speculators that manage buildings such as hers. What she wants is more parity between the two key interests: the owners and the tenants.
“You know, I hate to see this city kind of become an incubator, if you will, for this type of interest, because I think it degrades who we are. I have to tell you quite personally, it has made me feel very marginalized. You know, I’m an older person. I’m a senior very proudly now. And this is, I think one thing, you know, it’s a cautionary tale that we all have, like, you think it’s not going to happen to you. It’s going to happen to you,” Nunez said.
I’m Zain Iqbal reporting for KPFA.