page_title: Costa–Hawkins Rental Housing Act
section_title: By the legislature
hierarchical_section_title: Costa–Hawkins Rental Housing Act / Recent events in California / Efforts to repeal Costa–Hawkins / By the legislature
caption_attribution_description: English: Assembly member Richard Bloom
context_page_description: The Costa–Hawkins Rental Housing Act is a California state law, enacted in 1995, which places limits on municipal rent control ordinances. Costa–Hawkins preempts the field in two major ways. First, it prohibits cities from establishing rent control over certain kinds of residential units, e.g., single-family dwellings and condominiums, and newly constructed apartment units; these are deemed exempt. Second, it prohibits "vacancy control", also called "strict" rent control.
  If an apartment is under "vacancy control", the city's ordinance works to deny or limit an owner's ability to increase its rent to new tenant. It works this way even in cases where the prior tenant voluntarily vacated the apartment or was evicted for a 'just cause'. In other words, Costa–Hawkins, by now prohibiting "vacancy control" in the above voluntary or 'just cause' circumstances, mandates that cities allow an apartment owner the right to rent the vacancy at any price.
  Rent control in California is largely the creation of its municipalities. This ability of city governments is limited by the federal and state constitutions, as well as federal and state laws.
context_section_description: On February 17, 2017, in the California Assembly, Democratic members Richard Bloom, Rob Bonta, and David Chiu introduced AB 1506, a bill that if passed would simply repeal wholesale the Costa–Hawkins Rental Housing Act of 1995. Given the vacancy decontrol and exclusions of Costa–Hawkins, its repeal would leave local governments free to control much of the residential rental pricing regulations, their reach, and similar issues. By April the bill was facing stiff opposition and bleak prospects in the legislature. It was then "parked in committee" until next year.
  On January 11, 2018, chairperson Chiu (San Francisco) of the Assembly's Housing and Community Development Committee put Bloom's bill to a vote. It failed to pass. The two Republicans voted against. Democrats Ed Chau (Arcadia) and Jim Wood (Healdsburg) abstained, and commented that rent control would do nothing to increase the supply of housing and may discourage new construction at a time the state needs it the most.
  
  Perhaps a thousand proponents representing the opposing sides attended the vote.
caption: Richard Bloom, Assembly member; former Mayor of Santa Monica.
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