California’s Renters’ Caucus is growing in size and influence
Good morning — Happy Thursday! This is the A.M. Capitol Alert.
‘A LITTLE LESS SMALL AND A LITTLE MORE MIGHTY’
In its sophomore session, California’s Legislative Renters’ Caucus is growing in size and influence.
“We started this caucus just a few years ago with just three of us,” Assemblymember Matt Haney, D-San Francisco, said. “There are now 10 members of the Legislative Renters’ Caucus across both the Assembly and the Senate.”
And notably, each chamber’s committee overseeing housing policy is chaired by a renter: Haney in the Assembly and state Sen. Aisha Wahab, D-Hayward, in the Senate.
Still, they acknowledged an uphill battle against lobbying for housing developers, landlords and other special interests.
“I’m going to be very honest, we will see bills die,” Wahab said. “We’re going to see them struggle.”
The caucus is made up exclusively of Democrats representing the state’s most housing-crunched areas: Los Angeles and the Bay Area.
Their 2025 priorities include:
AB 1248 by Haney, which would crack down on “junk fees” for things like trash or maintenance, which are increasingly being charged in addition to rent.
AB 11, a revived effort by Assemblymember Alex Lee to pass a social housing program, allowing the state to build its own affordable housing. He also has a companion bill with a $950 earmark. A similar bill failed in last year’s session.
AB 246 by Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, which would protect seniors from eviction if their Social Security benefits are delayed or cut. It “coincidentally” sunsets at the end of President Donald Trump’s second term, Bryan said.
AB 380 from Assemblymember Mark González would include rental housing in the list of things banned from price gouging during emergencies – an issue some Los Angeles residents displaced by wildfires ran into this year.
SB 52 by state Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez would ban the use of AI and algorithms to set rent prices.
and SB 436 by Sen. Wahab would would halt an eviction process if late rent is paid within three days.
A major priority for renter groups — a bill to cut allowable rent increases from 10% to 5% — isn’t getting a Renters’ Caucus endorsement yet because Haney said the caucus was starting with its own members’ bills.
The measure by Assemblymember Ash Kalra, D-San Jose, is slated for its first hearing before Haney’s committee today.
In addition to the six lawmakers running renter-focused bills, the caucus includes Assemblymembers Sade Elhawary, Tasha Boerner, Patrick Ahrens and state Sen. Jesse Arreguín.
SOME EXPENSES PAID
via David Lightman
Republicans will buy an airline ticket for Adam Gray to fly from Sacramento to El Salvador to meet with detainee Kilmar Abrego Garcia. But this is no act of compassion — the GOP offer comes with a political condition.
“Livestream the whole thing and snap plenty of selfies with his MS-13 buddies — the same violent criminals he is trying to re-import into American neighborhoods to rape, kill, and terrorize law-abiding citizens,” said the Republican National Campaign Committee.
Forget it, Gray told The Bee.
“I’m far too busy meeting with constituents and working with local governments to secure federal project funding for our communities to go on a vanity trip to El Salvador,” the Merced Democrat said.
Abrego Garcia has protected legal status in the United States, where he lives with his wife and three children, all of whom are U.S. citizens.
The federal Department of Homeland Security said he has been a member of the MS-13 gang. PolitiFact found “it’s unproven that Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13.”
The Trump administration has told the court that the deportation was an error, and the Supreme Court told the White House on April 10 to facilitate his return.
The offer to Gray is also being made to 24 other Democratic members of Congress, including seven in California.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., traveled to El Salvador last weekend to meet with Abrego Garcia, and this week several Democratic congressmen also made the trip.
President Donald Trump made getting tough with undocumented immigrants a big part of his 2024 campaign, and has since moved to deport as many as he can.
Gray, who won his House seat last year by less than 200 votes, represents a Central Valley district Trump won. He’s considered among the country’s most vulnerable Democrats.
REPARATIONS RE-BRAND
via Kate Wolffe
This week, a number of the California Legislative Black Caucus’ Road to Repair bills made it through their first committees. On Tuesday, AB 7, which would allow universities to consider descendants of slavery for priority admissions, and SB 437, which would require the California State University system to establish a process for determining descendants of slaves, moved forward.
But don’t call them reparations bills, asks Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, D-Los Angeles.
“Many of us agree that until we’re at a point where we are talking about direct compensation for past harms, perhaps we should lean into the reparative justice language,” Bryan said.
Bryan said the Black Caucus’ 2024 package was called the “reparations bill package” because it pulled many ideas from the 2023 California Reparations Report.
However, Bryan said “reparations” typically means direct payments, and the debate over what they should be called proved to be “a distraction.” Instead, he said “reparative justice” better describes what the bills are trying to do: “to redirect our civic institutions or build, kind of, new frameworks of thinking and access and opportunity.”
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I could probably afford a home (in Sacramento) but not in L.A.”
-Assemblymember Mark González at the Renters’ Caucus event
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