🏡💚 GND bills on hold

On Tuesday, two GND priority bills were put on hold, both in the Assembly Judiciary Committee.

The first was AB 1157, The Affordable Rent Act, which would have strengthened the state’s Tenant Protection Act by capping rent increases at 5% (or 2% plus inflation, whichever is lower), expanding protections to single-family homes, and making the Tenant Protection Act permanent by removing the 2030 repeal date. This was a top priority by many housing and tenant groups from across the state, and was co-sponsored by ACCE, Housing Now, PICO, Public Advocates, and UNITE HERE Local 11.

Just the day before, hundreds of people from all over the state descended on Sacramento to voice their support for this bill (including me and a number of you!). People from all walks of life showed up to share their story, and the very real impacts of what happens when the rent is too damn high. In my group that met with legislators, I was with a family, both parents and their two kids, who had come all the way from LA to talk about the fears they have that the rent will go up and they will be unable to afford staying in their home. Another person in my group was a young women from San Diego who was currently homeless — she was unable to pay the rent and was sleeping in her car, but even her car got recently towed away. Someone she knew in San Diego was an ACCE member, and had encouraged her to take the long bus ride to the Capitol to tell her story.

These are just small samples of the stories from over 800 people who turned out on Monday. After a press conference, the rally turned into a march, with a brass band leading the raucous crowd through the streets of Sacramento and into the offices of the California Apartment Association.

But already on Monday, word began to go around that the bill was unlikely to make it through its next policy committee. On Tuesday, the bill’s author, Assemblymember Kalra, withdrew the bill from consideration before the Judiciary Committee, effectively putting it on ice for the rest of this year. Since we are in the first year of the two-year legislative cycle, bills can be suspended this year and brought back in 2026. Knowing that they didn’t have the votes they needed in the Judiciary Committee, they decided to pull the bill and allow more time for discussion.

So the good news is that this bill and the fight to lower the rent cap aren’t dead. But it is surely disappointing that it was held so quickly, despite the outpouring of support. This bill was directly aimed at the issue of affordability by trying to reduce the biggest cost burden for most people in the state: the cost of housing. For all of the talk right now that legislators are singularly focused on the ‘cost of living and affordability crisis,’ this was a proposal to do just that would have no impact on the state’s budget.

In one sense, it’s no surprise — advocates knew this would be a very steep uphill climb, given the power and influence of real estate in California. But as it turned out, it wasn’t just the California Apartment Association and the Realtors who were vocally opposed; YIMBY groups also voiced their concern and opposition to the bill. I won’t go into all of the YIMBY dynamics (maybe for a future newsletter…), but this move by YIMBY effectively gives cover to the real estate industry. As witnessed in some of the reporting on this, some media outlets talk about how “pro-housing allies” worked with landlords to defeat the bill. In their statement about the bill, California YIMBY takes on a regretful tone as they go on to say that rent control has unintended consequences. But they go on more forcefully to say “The message should be clear: We don’t have a rent control crisis… We have a homebuilding crisis.”

I think it’s understandable and reasonable to be concerned about the challenges around housing production. But it is absurd to deny the dire crisis of rent affordability, where more than half of the state’s renters are considered rent burdened.

This played out during the last election with the attempt to repeal Costa-Hawkins and allow rent control. A major question will be how this fight evolves moving forward. California will need to decide if our solutions to the housing crisis will be comprehensive and multi-faceted, addressing the immediate needs of renters while also investing in housing preservation and new construction (maybe of permanently affordable green social housing…), or if we will singularly focus on trying to streamline new housing production.

For now, the legislation to lower the rent cap is on hold. But the fight goes on.

The other big news coming out of the Assembly Judiciary Committee was that Assemblymember Addis decided to postpone the vote on AB 1243, the Assembly version of the Polluter Pays Climate Superfund bill. This comes just a few days after Senator Menjivar’s version of the bill, SB 684, was also pulled from the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Unlike AB 1157, both of these bills have an ‘urgency clause,’ which means both that they require a 2/3 supermajority vote to pass, but also that they’re not subject to the same timeline as other bills. So it’s possible for these both (AB 1243 and SB 684) to come back up for a Committee vote later in the session. The strategy and organizing continues for the Climate Superfund bill, and that coalition is still meeting to plan their next steps.

But like AB 1157, this is also a disappointing result. Last year, Senator Menjivar’s version of the bill made it to the Senate floor before running into a roadblock. This year, the bill had a huge groundswell of grassroots support. There has been a lot of media coverage on the bill, with additional spotlights from high-profile celebrities like Jane Fonda. It was inspiring to see so many actions from across the state, from mass youth mobilizations and calls, to days at the Capitol, to op-eds all calling for polluters to be the ones to pay for the climate damage they’ve profited off of.

At least so far, this hasn’t been enough to sway legislators to move the bill forward (and we know the biggest challenges usually come after the first policy committees). The fates of these bills are a humbling lesson in power, and what it takes to go up against the biggest industries in the state.

Whether it’s lowering the rent cap or making polluters pay, both of these ideas are trying to address the state’s biggest needs. Right now, the state is facing budget deficits and a hostile federal government that together threaten to make big cuts to important social services and state programs. We face the reality of the climate crisis, with fires devastating communities in LA while we move toward what is likely to be another record-breaking summer of heat. We face an affordability crisis and housing crisis, with almost 200,000 people experiencing homelessness in the state, and the cost of living outpacing wages for most Californians.

And yet, it’s not enough. These crises, the mass organizing in support of these bills, it’s not enough to galvanize the legislature to take action to meet the scale of need. At the same time that legislators deny votes for these bills, I have yet to hear their alternative. What’s their solution to these massive challenges?

We don’t need to wait for an answer. While these setbacks are disappointing, we’ve undoubtedly built momentum and put these demands on the agenda. The lessons from this week just inform the strategy moving forward, as we continue to plan and organize for what happens next.

Make polluters pay!

WHAT WE’RE READING

• Heat Pumps Can Lower Energy Bills for Californians Today (RMI)

• Some Los Angeles fires victims are rebuilding their homes without gas appliances (LAist)

• Elders unionize after landlord refuses to clean their smoke-damaged Altadena apartments (LA Public Press)

Feel free to reply any time! I always enjoy hearing from people and getting any feedback/questions/additional thoughts.

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