by Anastasia Foster, Rent Control Board Chairperson
The SMRR Steering Committee has endorsed SB 466. Short of creating any changes to vacancy decontrol, SB466 by Senator Aisha Wahab, D-Hayward, would simply expand the quantity of existing housing stock that could come under the current form of Rent Control, if a local jurisdiction like ours exercised the will of the voters to do so. This would provide predictable and clearly defined rent increases, processes and protections to the tenants of buildings built after 1979 and those in buildings that are 15 years old or more on a rolling basis, depending on which date a city chooses to draw the line.
Currently, Costa-Hawkins freezes the ability of Santa Monica and other early adopters of Rent Control to move forward with the times and bring more units under the Charter, stopping it at buildings built in or before 1979. Senator Wahab’s SB466 would change that.