On March 10, the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) and other housing activists kicked off the campaign in the Bay Area for the Affordable Housing Act — a proposed ballot initiative that that will give cities and counties the power to adopt rent control measures necessary to address California's housing affordability crisis by repealing the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act. For the November 2018 ballot, the deadline for collection of 585,000 signatures statewide is May.

To please the powerful real estate lobby, Costa-Hawkins was passed by the state legislature in 1995 to prevent California cities from protecting tenants against unlimited rent increases and forced involuntary displacement. Activists say that after 23 years, if their initiative to repeal Costa-Hawkins makes the November ballot, Californians "will have a huge opportunity to blunt the housing crisis by curbing sky-high rent increases and forced displacements."

ACCE states, "Too many of us are paying 50%, 60%, even 70% of our income towards rent, which leaves precious little for food, healthcare and other basic needs. This isn't right. We all deserve housing security. And the very future of our cities is at stake. More and more of us who are poor, working-class and even middle-class are being forced by sky-rocketing housing costs to move out of our neighborhoods and cities, away from family and friends, often further from our jobs. We need to act now to stem the tide of displacement."

Tenants Together Endorses State Ballot Measure to Repeal Costa Hawkins | Because They Work: Rent Control & Tenant Protections

March 10: Bay Area Kickoff for Real Rent Control to Repeal Costa Hawkins

Lynda Carson has published numerous articles on Indybay about the Costa-Hawkins Act: Join the March 10 effort to repeal the extreme Costa Hawkins Rental Housing Act | Oakland weekly signature gathering events to repeal Costa-Hawkins Act | Oakland activists are collecting signatures to repeal Costa-Hawkins Act | Support AB 1506 to repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act | Rent control expansion is a prime option for renters throughout California

Related Feature: Rent Control Ballot Initiative Introduced in City of Santa Cruz