April 25, 2025
One of the fiercest legislative fights of 2019 was over a bill limiting the amount that many California landlords can hike rent.
Six years later, legislators were back at it again as the Assembly’s housing committee took up a bill Thursday, authored by Democratic Assemblymember Ash Kalra of San Jose, which would:
- Reduce the cap from 10% to 5% (or 2% plus the current inflation rate, whichever is lower);
- Extend the law to single-family homes (currently exempt);
- Make the law permanent (current law sunsets in 2030).
If crowd size at a mid-morning weekday committee hearing is any indication, Assembly Bill 1157 is among the most contentious bills of the year. Advocates on both sides crowded into the hearing room and blocked the hallway outside in color-coded droves. Tenant advocates with the nonprofit Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment sported yellow; landlords allied with the California Apartment Association made up a sea of red.
Supporters of the bill argue that the current statutory cap is far too high for low-income renters, especially given the punishing inflation of the last few years, and that the carve-out for single-family homes is unfair.
- Tammy Alvarado, a San Diego County renter and bill proponent: “Most people’s American dream is to buy a house and ours is just to remain in our house. Unless something changes, becoming homeless is a reality for my family.”
The bill passed the committee, but narrowly, 7 to 5.
Many Democrats, particularly in the Assembly, have trained their legislative focus this year on making it easier, cheaper and more enticing to build new housing. Even some of the lawmakers who voted for the bill Thursday did so half-heartedly, lamenting the cooling effect the policy might have on the construction of new homes at a time when the state is desperate for more overall supply.
As with current law, the bill would not apply to homes that are 15 years old or newer. Most economists agree that rent control measures do tend to discourage the construction of new homes and the upkeep of old ones, while providing financial stability to long-time renters. And as with any policy, the details matter.
The tension between supply boosters and skeptics is likely to become a dominant theme in this year’s legislative session. On Monday, a major housing production bill stalled and another only barely skated by in the Senate Housing Committee, when the chairperson called the bills’ lack of hardcoded affordability requirements a “non-starter.”
Two days later, over in the Assembly, Speaker Robert Rivas, a Salinas Democrat, issued his list of priority housing legislation. Notably, AB 1157 did not make the cut.