If voters approve Proposition 10, cities up and down the state will instantly regain broad authority to regulate rents as they see fit, including placing rent controls on apartments built after 1995, which are currently exempt under existing state law. At the crux of the debate is a polarizing policy banned by Costa Hawkins called “vacancy control,” which Berkeley, Santa Monica and the smaller cities of East Palo Alto and West Hollywood once used to prevent property owners from charging market rate for apartments even after a tenant moved out.

With the repeal of Costa Hawkins,“I think you’ll see people organizing all over the state to get or strengthen rent controls, and that would have an enormous ripple effect through the rest of the state’s politics,” said Stephen Barton, a former Berkeley city housing official and rent-control expert who is supporting the Proposition 10 campaign.

But critics of such strict rent control, including most economists, argue it will stymie housing development, worsening the state’s already severe housing shortage. Some landlords, they say, will simply sell their properties if it becomes far less profitable to rent them — as many did in Berkeley and Santa Monica decades ago.

Read More: https://www.chicoer.com/2018/09/27/california-and-rent-control-what-we-can-learn-from-berkeley-and-santa-monica/