Comments
HOUSING - It is unfortunate that the history of our state and nation is stained by immoral laws. Article 1, Section 2 of the US Constitution stated that slaves would be counted as three-fifths of a free person and neglected to afford women the right to vote.
In what is widely regarded as its worst decision, the Supreme Court ruled in the Dred Scott case that the Constitution did not extend American citizenship to Black people. The overturning of Roe vs. Wade is a shameful runner-up.
I nominate the Costa-Hawkins (CH) Act for California's Legal Hall of Shame. This law, enacted on a bipartisan basis in 1995, stripped cities and counties of most of their ability to regulate rents. I can imagine that your first reaction is that raising an obscure housing law into the pantheon of legal abuses is a stretch. However, when you consider how much harm this law did to so many, I hope you will see the case.
Let's start with the simple fact that this law severely limits the power of localities to regulate their own affairs. If you subscribe to the idea that decisions should be left to the bodies closest to the governed, then there must be a powerful reason for the state to usurp local control. The sole reason Costa-Hawkins was passed was to placate the landlords who are among the most powerful lobbies in Sacramento. So not only is Costa-Hawkins immoral, but also, it is undemocratic. It is a one size fits all approach that benefits billionaire landlords and their ilk and deprives average citizens, who have a much better chance to influence their councilperson at City Hall than to make it to the State Capitol to have their voices heard.
That is just the beginning. Costa-Hawkins has set off a pricing spiral that is grinding millions of tenants into the dust, onto the streets, or out of state. Year by year, rent hikes are greater than pay increases. Tenants become more rent burdened. We know that we have gone past the breaking point.
No one questions the fact that more low-income housing is necessary or that the housing crisis is complex. Yes, we need to make it easier and more cost effective to build more housing. Yes, we need to adaptively reuse older buildings which is cheaper and faster than new construction. However, it is undeniable that the best way to stem the current bleeding is to keep as many people as possible in their current homes. There is one tried and true way of doing that - rent control.
Sacramento is the worst place to make these decisions. The state capitol is the place where corporate lobbyists have the most sway. Every year, a bill is introduced to repeal Costa-Hawkins, and most years it won't even get a hearing. Of course, the California Apartment Association (CAA) will bleat about the hardships of mom-and-pop landlords, but CAA won't tell you that they are controlled by a small group of billionaire corporate landlords.
The harsh reality is that money talks, the average person cannot be heard, the humanitarian crisis worsens, and the band plays on. People are dying on our streets. Californians are choosing between shelter and food and medicine.
You can trace this downward spiral to the day in 1995 that Costa-Hawkins became law. The rest is history.
(Michael Weinstein is the president of AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global HIV/AIDS organization, and AHF’s Healthy Housing Foundation.)
