As housing prices surge, rent control is back on the ballot

SAN FRANCISCO — Liberty McCoy was out Saturday urging voters to pass a Nov. 8 ballot measure to limit rent increases in Pasadena because she’s afraid she’ll be priced out of the city where she grew up and where her aging parents live.

The librarian and her husband, a freelance consultant, received notice of a $100 monthly rent increase last year and another for $150 this year, bringing the rent on their home outside Los Angeles to $2,350 a month. They can absorb the increases for now — but not forever.

“A lot of times people are like, ‘Well, just try and pick up and move to someplace cheaper,’” the 44-year-old said. “But I have a job locally, my family, my friends. It would be a big challenge to uproot my entire life chasing cheaper rent.”

With rental prices skyrocketing and affordable housing in short supply, inflation-weary tenants in cities and counties across the country are turning to the ballot box for relief. Supporters say rent control policies on the Nov. 8 ballot are the best short-term option to dampen rising rents and ensure vulnerable residents remain housed.

Opponents, led by the real-estate industry, say rent control will lead to higher prices for tenants in housing not covered by rent caps, harm mom-and-pop landlords relying on rental income for retirement, and discourage the construction of badly needed affordable housing. They have spent heavily to stop ballot initiatives, even going to court to halt them.

In Orange County, Florida, home to Disney World and other theme parks, voters will consider a ballot initiative to limit rent increases to the annual increase in the consumer price index. But a court ruling last week means that even if it passes, it could be nullified.

Proponents in Orlando and other Orange County cities point to a population that has increased 25% since 2010 and rents that jumped 25% between 2020 and 2021 — and experienced another double-digit increase this year. The housing shortage was magnified by Hurricane Ian, with an estimated 1,140 rental properties suffering $44.5 million in damage.

“I’ve had a lot of constituents reach out to me, and they are fearful of becoming homeless. They don’t know what to do,” said Orange County Commissioner Emily Bonilla, who authored the ballot initiative ordinance after hearing from tenants facing rent increases upwards of 100%.

Last year, voters in St. Paul, Minnesota, passed a ballot measure capping rents at 3% a year while residents…