With Election Day less than a month away, the nation’s voters are gearing up not only to decide on the next president but to determine the fate of hundreds of state and local ballot measures.
Just over a dozen initiatives are directly related to housing law, multifamily or landlord-tenant relationships, with California’s Proposition 33 prominent among them. However, the removal of limits on rent control in the most populous state in the country is far from the only change that could come to the industry in November.
“High-profile efforts like [Prop 33] could dramatically impact housing providers,” Joseph Riter, senior manager of public policy at the National Apartment Association, told Smart Cities Dive sister publication Multifamily Dive, “but there are less notorious state and local ballot efforts that impact rental housing operators this year.”
Read on for a list of the housing-related ballot measures in play across the country. Be sure to check back after the election to find out how each of these fared.
Proposition 33
Out of all the housing-related ballot measures, Prop 33 has the most wide-ranging potential to affect the multifamily industry. If approved, Prop 33 would repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, removing California’s limits on rent control in local jurisdictions.
Under Costa-Hawkins, rent control cannot apply to single-family housing or any housing built on or after Feb. 1, 1995, according to the California Legislative Analyst’s Office, a nonpartisan fiscal and policy advisor for the state legislature. Local laws also cannot dictate what landlords can charge renters when they first move in — they can only limit rent increases for existing renters.
San Francisco has already passed a new rent control law designed to trigger if Prop 33 passes, according to the San Francisco Standard. Any localities with rent control in place when Costa-Hawkins passed in 1995 could not expand it to housing built after their existing limit — 1979, in San Francisco’s case. The new law would extend the city’s cutoff year to 1994, amended from November 2024 in the original proposal. Mayor London Breed has indicated that she will sign the legislation.
Opponents of rent control, such as the National Multifamily Housing Council, state that an inability to raise rents will lead to a reduction in the available supply of housing, a lack of new construction and the deterioration of existing stock.
“Without adequate supply, renters are faced with fewer and more expensive housing options in communities of choice,” the NMHC’s position reads.
Local measures
Beyond Prop 33, five local ballot measures could affect multifamily operations and the landlord-tenant relationship directly. They are:
- Berkeley, California, Measure BB. If passed, the city would use existing revenue to fund housing retention and homelessness prevention, remove certain rent control and registration exemptions, permit tenant associations and require owners to meet with them, modify certain eviction conditions, eliminate rent control suspension during high vacancy, limit the ways tenants can be charged for utilities and limit the maximum rent increase to 5%.
- Berkeley, Measure CC. If passed, the city would use existing revenue to create a fund for rent payments to property owners, expand exemptions from rent control, permit tenant associations, modify certain eviction conditions, remove certain powers from the city’s rent board and raise the maximum rent increase to 7.1% from 7%. This measure conflicts with Measure BB, and if both pass the one with more votes would become law, according to the city.
- Fairfax, California, Measure I. Repeals the city’s Just Cause Eviction and Rent Stabilization Ordinance, replacing it with state law and prior town code.
- San Anselmo, California, Measure O. Requires property owners with three or more units to provide longer notices, relocation benefits and right to return in a no-fault lease termination, as well as pay for temporary displacements.
- Hoboken, New Jersey, Ballot Question - Current rent control laws in Hoboken restrict rent increases to 5% or the Consumer Price Index rate, whichever is greater. However, if a unit has been occupied for three or more years and then goes vacant, a landlord can increase the rent by up to 25%. If passed, this ballot question would allow landlords to raise the rent on newly vacant rent-controlled units to market rates without restriction, regardless of the length of the previous lease, so long as the landlord makes a $2,500 contribution to Hoboken's Affordable Housing Trust Fund. The units would remain under rent control with increases restricted while occupied.
Affordable housing
Two statewide measures concern funding or approvals for affordable housing specifically. They are:
California Proposition 5, which would amend the state constitution to lower the supermajority vote requirement from 66.67% to 55% for local ballot measures related to issuing bonds for affordable and public housing. This would have a ripple effect on future local ballot measures approving affordable housing funding.
Rhode Island Question 3, which asks voters to authorize $120 million in bonds for housing acquisition, development and infrastructure, including $80 million for affordable housing development, according to Riter.
Local affordable housing measures include:
- Baltimore, Question A. Allows the city to borrow up to $20 million to operate its affordable housing program.
- Charlotte, North Carolina, Housing Bond Measure. Establishes a $100 million affordable housing bond, funded by an increase in city property taxes.
- Los Angeles County, Measure A. Repeals the Measure H tax — a quarter-cent sales tax that expires in 2027 — and replaces it with a half-cent sales tax to support affordable housing, among other causes.
- Oroville, California, Measure N. Approval of an 18-unit low-income housing property.
- San Francisco, Proposition G. Appropriates at least $8.25 million per year to pay for rental subsidies for extremely low-income affordable housing.