Rent control

Landlords, Your Lease Is Up: A New Movement for Rent Control Is Spreading Across the U.S.

Nancy Buttanda, 68, has watched in horror as her rent check eats up more and more of her fixed income. The rent on her apartment in Federal Way, Wash., has increased annually at least $100 a month for three or four years, she says, and her landlord rarely makes repairs. She now pays $1,245 a month for rent, water and trash, while living on pension, Social Security and disability payments that amount to around $3,300.

Vallejo City Council To Review Mobile Home Rent Control Ordinance

The Vallejo City Council on Tuesday will get its first look at proposed amendments to the city’s mobile home rent control ordinance.

Last October, the council reinstated rent and vacancy control in the city’s mobile home parks after the original ordinance was mistakenly repealed in June 2016.

Changes before the council on Tuesday include creation of a five person ad-hoc committee to hear complaints related to the ordinance, and limiting rent increases for new tenants at fair market rents.

As Rent Control Debate Heats Up, Steinberg Proposes Alternative Solutions

The battle over rent control in the state and in Sacramento is heating up.
A local housing coalition is pushing for rent control and just cause in the city, while five industry groups have announced opposition to the measure. There's also a campaign across the state to repeal a decades-old law that limits where local governments can enact rent control.

Volunteers are already collecting signatures to get a rent control related initiative on the California ballot in November.

Annual Battle Over Raising Rents in New York Begins

The average rent for tenants living in rent-stabilized buildings in New York City grew by 3.1 percent in 2016, the lowest increase in six years, according to a new study released by the board that regulates rents in the city.

The smaller uptick suggests that the historic freezes imposed on some rents in 2015 and 2016 had a noticeable impact on tenants living in rent-stabilized apartments — though there were still modest increases for some apartments.

Rent-Control Advocates Accuse Opponents of Using Dirty Tricks To Dissuade People From Signing Petition

The campaign to collect signatures for a potential rent control vote in November officially started this weekend with a kickoff event at MacArthur Park but it didn’t take long for opponents and supporters to clash and now both sides are claiming to be the victim.

The rent control ballot initiative is being headed by a coalition of community groups including Housing Long Beach, a tenants rights group that for years has fought to bring stronger renters protections to a city that has about 60 percent of its residents paying rent.

As 'Personal Use' Evictions Appear To Spike in Toronto, Tenants Suspicious of Landlord Cash Grabs

Marc-André Giasson is joining a growing number of Toronto tenants who say they've been burned by a landlord claiming to need to their apartment for personal use, then putting it back on the market.

Giasson's apartment was sold to new owners several months ago, and his former landlord told him that they needed it for their own use.

So he signed a document agreeing to move out at the end of his one-year lease and began the onerous process of looking for a new place in a city where rental housing availability is at a 16-year low.

Rent Control Push Is Spreading Across the U.S.

Rent control, long the scourge of New York City landlords, is becoming more popular across the country.

Lawmakers and tenant advocates in California, Illinois and Washington state are looking to repeal laws banning cities from imposing rent control or limits to regulate rent increases, the Wall Street Journal reported.

California is poised to be the largest battleground this year. Advocates have gathered 100,000 of the roughly 365,000 signatures required to put a measure on the ballot in November to repeal a 20-year-old law that put statewide limits on rent control.

Glendale Tenants Union Files Proposed Rent Control Ordinance

The Glendale Tenants Union submitted a proposed rent stabilization ordinance on Tuesday to the city of Glendale, which began the formal process of placing the initiative before voters on the November 2018 ballot, according to a statement released by the organization.

The city now has 15 days to respond with an official summary, where the union must then collect 10,000 signatures to qualify for the ballot.

Written as the "Community Stabilization and Fair Rent Act," this is the organization's second attempt to introduce rent control in the city since forming last year.

Santa Cruz Launches Rent Control Ballot Initiative

SANTA CRUZ >> Advocates for rent control and just cause for eviction turned in the text of a proposed ballot initiative Friday to the Santa Cruz City Clerk.

Jeffrey Smedberg, retired county recycling coordinator, delivered the proposed Rent Control and Tenant Protection Act to interim City Clerk Bonnie Bush.

He was accompanied by Thao Le, a senior sociology major at UC Santa Cruz active in the Movement for Housing Justice, which is behind the ballot initiative.

S.F. Tenant Advocates Aim To Eliminate Landlord Incentives That Trigger Evictions

A week before Christmas, Linda Morales spotted a bright orange notice from the Planning Department taped to the side of her Potrero Hill apartment building.

The notice at 701 Hampshire St. informed tenants of planned renovations by the building’s landlord.

The plans include adding a fourth story to the six-unit apartment building — increasing its height from 26 feet to 37 feet — and removing five ground-floor parking spaces to make room for two additional residential units.

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