OPINION: To address California’s affordable housing crisis, vote yes on Prop 10

Amid the upcoming midterm elections, it’s easy to lose sight of local politics. It’s easy to think of our representation as centralized to Washington, D.C., but every other year, California ballots carry votes that do more than merely choose representatives — they decide residents’ rights. The list of propositions on the ballot, now 11 entries long, each hold the power to affect Californians’ daily lives — and one of the most impactful propositions is Prop 10.

Proposition 10, commonly referred to as the “Rent Control Initiative,” tackles one of the largest social issues in Los Angeles: affordable housing. It would address the fact that even people who have lived here all their lives can’t afford rent by allowing cities to expand rent control policies to more buildings and protecting tenants from excessive rent hikes on privately owned properties. Prop 10 would give cities more freedom to decide how to implement rent control, and should be passed not only because of its possible effects on affordable housing, but also because it would better address the issue of housing in a state as large and diverse as California.

While many students’ rent prices are stabilized by the University, the sheer lack of affordable housing affects both students and local community members who live in non-university housing. Residents of  Exposition Boulevard, Flower Street and countless other neighborhoods throughout South L.A. have been evicted due to rising rent costs, which are outrunning the median income increase and inflation. According to the California Housing Partnership, the median rent in Los Angeles County has increased 32 percent in the last two decades while median renter household income has decreased by 3 percent. Those who can’t afford rent are sometimes forced to live on the streets, contributing to Los Angeles’ growing homeless population.

Prop 10 is under scrutiny from both sides regarding its efficacy in reducing homelessness, increasing affordable housing and solving L.A.’s housing crisis. But contrary to criticism from advertisements and rebuttals, Prop 10 would not change any local rent control laws. Rather, it would repeal a past law and give the community the opportunity to decide “a landlord’s right to establish and increase rental rates on a dwelling or housing unit.”

The central provision of this proposition is the repeal of the 1995 Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, which regulated rent control. The act essentially prevented state rent control on apartment complexes constructed after 1995, and stopped local governments from controlling rent on all single family homes.

In 2009, Costa-Hawkins was used to defend developers in court, and they were not required to create affordable housing within their developments.Locally, Costa-Hawkins has become outdated as L.A.’s population grows and more measures to create affordable housing are being taken.

Economically, Prop 10’s creation of rent caps would create a shortage of money for landlords. Landlords would not be able to charge a rent they find fair, and  could end up selling or not renting out their property. Dwindling supply would yield a surge in collective prices, and the rent cap would become pointless. But the shift in responsibility to the local government to establish rent control creates a solution for communities to address their specific needs. Los Angeles has the second-highest homeless population with only 8 percent of houses sold this year in Los Angeles considered “affordable.” The responsible application of Prop 10 would ideally keep rent low but allow both landlord and renter to mutually benefit.

There has been a slight decrease in homelessness (4 percent) thanks to L.A.’s 2016 Proposition HHH, which allocated $1.2 billion in bonds to go to creating 10,000 supportive housing units for the homeless, and Measure H, an estimated $350 million annually through sales tax to go toward fighting homelessness. But these measures could be accelerated by the passage of Prop 10, which would ensure the maintenance of affordability, stabilizing longer term solutions.

It’s understandable that cities with less dire housing situations do not want additional legislation to control their rent decisions. But with such a large homeless population, Angelenos must think about housing issues now. As the housing market changes, local governments must understand how it affects their community and should take action. Passing Prop 10 is the only way to do that, and the only way to ensure its passage is to show up to vote yes on Nov. 6.