Measure C will worsen, not improve, Sacramento’s affordable housing crisis. Vote no

There is no disagreement: Sacramento faces a housing crisis.

Every day, we see homeless people on our streets. We hear about the single mom who is barely making ends meet. The restaurant staffers who lost their jobs when the eatery closed due to COVID-19. The young couple who can barely afford their rent. The senior citizens whose grandchildren moved away in search of more affordable housing.

Although it’s being sold as a cure for our housing woes, Measure C will make our crisis worse.

That’s why we’re proud to join a broad coalition of more than 50 local neighborhood leaders, Sacramento businesses, labor organizations, veterans groups and local elected officials to oppose Measure C. Our coalition cares about our city and understands that Measure C will derail Sacramento’s progress toward increasing housing opportunities and a strong quality of life for all residents.

Measure C does nothing to address the root cause of Sacramento’s housing challenges — a severe shortage of housing for all income levels. It contains no requirement to build homes. It will only drive away affordable housing developers, costing good-paying construction jobs and further setting us back in our goal of building 10,000 new homes for local families.

Adding to the absurdity, Measure C will override the balanced renter protections that were negotiated with public support from most of Measure C’s proponents through a productive community dialogue that included both tenants and rental housing providers. The result was the strongest renter protection ordinance in Sacramento’s history.

Instead, Measure C establishes an elected rent board made up of politicians empowered to regulate all rental housing units in Sacramento: apartments, duplexes, single-family homes, and in-law units.

This board will have the power to determine its own budget, with the opportunity to tap into city resources from other programs, with no obligation that the money possibly borrowed from the fire department, parks or libraries is ever repaid. They will serve as a quasi-judicial body that can conduct investigations and subpoena witnesses.

These politicians can accept campaign contributions and be beholden to outside special interests. The board will cost millions of dollars a year to run and will operate independently of the rest of city government, without any oversight by the mayor, city manager, or city council.

This is not rational public policy aimed at helping address our housing crisis. It’s a political power grab and a recipe for mismanagement.

The Sacramento Superior Court recognized the problem with Measure C when it ruled that the rent board would unlawfully interfere with the operation of city government. If Measure C passes, it will lead to even more litigation, uncertainty and costs to Sacramento taxpayers.

Our city faces critical issue: recovering from COVID-19, reviving small businesses and creating jobs, achieving lasting social justice gains and making sure Sacramento is affordable for everyone.

That is why we have found common ground with so many others in our city. Rather than wasting money on unnecessary policies and costly bureaucracy, we want Sacramento to continue to find real solutions to our rental housing crisis. We cannot slow down Sacramento’s momentum on this front — such as establishing an affordable housing trust fund, funding renter assistance programs and making it easier to build more housing quickly.

If Measure C passes, this momentum will come to a grinding halt. We urge Sacramentans to join us in voting no on Measure C.

This story was originally published October 14, 2020 at 6:00 AM.