California is in an affordable housing hole. It’s time to stop digging. Vote for Prop. 33 | Opinion

California’s current system of regulating rents is whatever the traffic will bear. Big Real Estate is selling us on the idea that the only way to stimulate housing production is to allow the marketplace to set prices regardless of how many people cannot afford them.

A measure on the ballot sponsored by the Los Angeles-based Aids Healthcare Foundation, Proposition 33, seeks to level the playing field with tailored local solutions that can only happen by eliminating an existing state law. Passing it opens the door to a new system of fair rents that will not frustrate new housing development.

In reality when it comes to housing, we are way past the point of what we can financially bear. California is in the zone of destruction. Communities are bearing the brunt of homelessness. Millions of renters ar paying too much of their income in rent. Despite billions of dollars spent to “solve the problem,” our state’s homeless population ballooned by thousands of unhoused people in 2024 and is up nearly 10% since 2022. Meanwhile, sky-high rent increases continue to outpace inflation rates and price Californians out of once-affordable communities.

Prop. 33 is a single paragraph that is simple to understand: ““Current state law (the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act of 1995) generally prevents cities and counties from limiting the initial rental rate that landlords may charge to new tenants in all types of housing, and from limiting rent increases for existing tenants in (1) residential properties that were first occupied after February 1, 1995; (2) single-family homes; and (3) condominiums. The measure would repeal that state law and would prohibit the state from limiting the right of cities and counties to maintain, enact or expand residential rent control ordinances.”

At the heart of the issue is affordable rents, which only can be achieved through rent control. Far from being a communist plot the way opponents describe it, rent control is a sensible approach to supplying and regulating a necessity of life. At a time when millions of people are struggling to afford even a basic California lifestyle, there should be no ban on rent control, and yet there is. Cities and counties should be empowered to do what’s best for their local residents and stop predatory corporate landlords from bleeding them dry in pursuit of excessive profit.

The status quo is punishing working class and low-income Californians. Under Democratic leadership, California has been on a luxury housing building spree. We are producing a glut of $5000-a-month apartments while we destroy affordable housing and fail to build or renovate buildings to replace it.

It has been strange to see liberal Democrats singing the praises of trickle-down economics. Their theory is that any housing —no matter how unaffordable —will trickle down to lower-income renters. There is no evidence that works.

In fact, the exact opposite is true. Luxury housing only makes adjacent housing more expensive and further displaces existing residents. And some are leaving the state altogether. Population loss is a death knell for any state. Revenues go down while needs go up.

When you are in a hole, stop digging. California’s first priority must be to keep people in their homes and preserve our affordable housing stock. Then, we must align incentives to make low-income housing our top priority. Our cities have millions of square feet of unused commercial space. There is a golden opportunity to rely on adaptive reuse to get people housed quickly and efficiently.

It will take some new leadership to ensure that the lion’s share of new construction accommodates those in greatest need, reducing permit costs and red tape to construct new affordable units.

Renters, meanwhile, deserve reasonable protections. California can take the lead on November 5th by voting Yes on 33, which is sponsored by AHF and endorsed by more than 100 elected and formerly elected California officials, as well as over 70 labor, senior, veteran, healthcare, and tenant groups.

A vote for Prop. 33 is a vote for a brighter future in California.