Rent control policies have long been a topic of debate, with proponents arguing for tenant protection and affordable housing, while opponents claim rent control has the opposite effect. In California, where the housing crisis is particularly severe, statewide rent control limits rent increases to 5% + CPI, with a max of a 10% annual increase. …
California voters may soon have to decide whether to enshrine a “right to housing” in the state constitution. Assembly Constitutional Amendment 10 provides, in its entirety: “The state hereby recognizes the fundamental human right to adequate housing for everyone in California. It is the shared obligation of state and local jurisdictions to respect, protect, and…
Below is an excerpt from the Monday Morning Quarterback from June 26, 2023. Adding Affordable Housing Is ‘Essential’ to Fixing California’s Homelessness Crisis The main barrier to fixing California’s homelessness crisis is the massive shortage of affordable housing for people with very low incomes, and fixing that is “essential” to solving homelessness, according to a…
The phrase “out with the old and in with the new” sounds great at first, but new often equates to expensive. On the other hand, doing nothing doesn’t help and ongoing maintenance only works for so long. If you qualify, a full roof replacement can often be avoided with a roof restoration coating. If…
To: Homelessness Task Force From: Business and Housing Network for San Jose At BAHN-SJ, we were very pleased to see you assist in leading the community for Mayor Mahan’s Homelessness Task Force. As your effort is considering appropriate Success Metrics for managing our homelessness crisis, please consider some of the metrics we, at BAHN-SJ, think…
Washington, D.C. – The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) issued a Request for Input (RFI) on tenant protections at multifamily properties with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises). Through their role as secondary market participants in the multifamily housing market, the Enterprises have a public mission to support the availability of…
This is an urgent request for all taxpayers in Los Angeles County to call the Capitol TODAY and urge a “NO” vote on Assembly Bill 1679. AB 1679 is a gut-and-amend bill, a trick used by politicians to strip all the language out of a harmless bill and turn it into something completely different. In…
How many headlines have you read over the years predicting a market crash by 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023? How’s that strategy working out? Many buyers are waiting for the housing market to crash and economic cycles tell us that markets do tend to go up and down, although the average is an upwards trajectory. …
How has tenant screening in California changed in 2023? For starters, the maximum allowable rental application fee that a housing provider can charge is now up to $59.67, thanks to inflation related to the CPI. The mystery shoppers are back out on the job, looking for landlords who might discriminate against applicants with Section 8…
More than 100,000 California tenants whose applications for COVID-era rental assistance were denied or delayed by the state’s housing department will get another shot at relief, thanks to a new legal settlement between the state and a coalition of anti-poverty and tenant rights groups. More aid isn’t guaranteed. But under the terms of the settlement signed at the…