Yesterday’s rent control advocates are suddenly getting cold feet regarding statewide caps on rental prices, as they realize belatedly that their market-busting schemes have constrained new housing development, exacerbating cost of living and homelessness. The usually liberal SF Grow Report says No to Prop 33.

On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors endorsed Prop 33. That is a mistake. The “Justice for Renters Act” says it will expand rent control in California, but it will actually remove critical state oversight on punitive rent control policies and remove financial incentives for landlords to renovate units after a tenant moves out. It’ll make building new homes nearly impossible by granting local governments draconian control of the process. 

Bad-faith NIMBYs will slap extreme rent control requirements on new projects as a way to keep renters out of their neighborhoods. The whole measure is written in one sentence, 23 words. The vagueness of Prop 33 “will enable rent control laws so bad [that] no one will build,” Max Dubler, policy manager for California YIMBY, told The Frisc.

More from SF Grow Report can be found here.

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