California’s legislature has approved statewide rent control in an effort to ease the housing crisis and burgeoning homeless population across the state.
The new bill, which California Gov. Gavin Newsom has said he will sign, caps annual rent increases at 5% plus inflation. The legislation also places new restrictions on evicting tenants.
“The housing crisis is reaching every corner of America, where you’re seeing high home prices, high rents, evictions and homelessness that we’re all struggling to grapple with,” said Democratic Assemblyman David Chiu, the bill’s author. “Protecting tenants is a critical and obvious component of any strategy to address this.”
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If Newsom signs the new bill into law, California will be the second state to have enacted statewide rent control. Oregon passed a law limiting annual rent increases to 7% plus inflation in February.
Maryland, New Jersey, and New York have rent control laws in certain areas of the states.
