Anyone concerned about the future of the state and local budgets should pay particular attention to what the state’s non-partisan legislative analyst had to say about Proposition 10, the ballot measure that repeals the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, including protections for tenants and single-family home owners.
The Legislative Analysts Office (LA) noted Prop 10 could cost local governments up to “tens of millions of dollars per year” in new costs and the state could lose up to “hundreds of millions of dollars per year” in revenues.
In the analysis, the LAO also noted that the value of rental housing would decline and that rental units also would likely be sold and no longer be available for rentals.
This, say experts, would work California’s affordable housing crisis even worse.
In addition, the LAO predicts that “If many localities enacted strong rent control legislation, other economic effects (such as impacts on housing construction) also could occur.”
What does all this mean? For one thing, less money for key government services from healthcare to childcare to transportation. Proposition 10 would create scarcity, not just in California’s already broken housing market, but in state and local coffers. That will set the stage for a new round of budget battles in Sacramento and in cities and counties across California.
Proposition 10 also will cost our state and our communities millions of dollars, reduce the number of available apartments and homes available for rental and could result in a housing freeze – which is the last thing California needs right now.
We all agree that the state needs to take steps to address the chronic housing shortage, and out-of-control housing costs in communities across the state. But Proposition 10 is the wrong solution. It will only make California’s affordable housing crisis worse.