Rent control spreading to suburbs

Associated Press

ALAMEDA, CALIF.

Charles Edwards is a merry self-described hillbilly from Tennessee who knows much about Victorian-era railroads and not so much about political campaigning.

But this year, the 77-year-old retired city gardener will be knocking on doors in Alameda to persuade voters of this maritime city on San Francisco Bay to support a citizen initiative to cap rent increases. Last June, the rent on his one-bedroom flat increased 24 percent to $1,300, leaving him $289 a month for utilities, food and other expenses.

“Like I say, I don’t like doing it, but I’m pushed in a corner, I feel like,” Edwards said.

Once upon a time, the concept of rent control was largely limited to costly, coveted cities such as San Francisco or New York where there were too many people and not enough apartments.

But tenant demand for protections is shifting to San Francisco Bay Area suburbs as priced-out workers flee to sleepy bedroom communities in search of cheaper dwellings. The region known for a sizzling tech-fueled economy has added 440,000 jobs but only 50,000 new housing units, according to the business-sponsored Bay Area Council.

State legislation approved last week to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2022 is expected to help tenants afford increasing rents, but can only do so much in a region where the median rent is $3,350, according to real estate data firm Zillow.

Zillow calculates that a single earner would need an hourly wage of $67, or $33.50 each for two, in order to reasonably afford the rent.

“At least you’re taking a step in the right direction to address income inequality,” said Zillow’s chief economist Svenja Gudell, but added that, “$15 doesn’t move the needle all that much.”

Last year, a raucous city council meeting over rent control in Alameda, population 75,000, resulted in two arrests. Farther north, city leaders of Sonoma County’s Healdsburg, population 11,000, approved voluntary guidelines to keep rent increases to 10 percent or less.

Tenant activists in Alameda and Richmond – a waterfront industrial town of nearly 110,000 – are fighting to place rent control on municipal ballots this fall.

Economists, landlords and developers say rent control makes the situation worse by restricting supply, resulting in run-down apartments and driving market prices higher. Tenant advocates, however, argue that caps on increases and other renter protections are critical in a housing market that’s ousting seniors and families.

Runaway rents are an issue nationally as the gap between wages and housing prices widen amid greater demand. Rent control is outlawed in 35 states, including Washington where Seattle proponents have asked state lawmakers to overturn the ban.