Once again trying to kill any kind of tenant protection in California, the California Apartment Association is about to weaken a rent stabilization ordinance in the city of Concord in Northern California. As a result, Concord tenants will face a higher rent increase of five percent compared to the current three percent. Just that two percent difference can force a tenant to choose between paying the rent or medical bills.
Rents aren’t cheap in Concord, a city with a significant working- and middle-class population. Rents have been dramatically increasing for years as housing affordability and gentrification crises spread throughout the Bay Area, first starting in San Francisco and then moving east and north to cities like Concord. (Read the Housing Is A Human Right article “Concord Housing Activists Confront Political Apathy, and Empower Renters.”)
Today, Apartments.com reports that the average studio apartment in Concord is a hefty $1,909 per month, and one- and two-bedroom units are also expensive at $1,892 and $2,217, respectively.
Figuring out the math with a five percent rent increase, that’s a $95 per month hike for a studio or $1,140 annually. For a one bedroom, it’s a $94 per month jump or $1,127 annually. For a two bedroom, it’s a $110 per month increase or $1,320 annually.
Middle- and working-class tenants are not receiving annual salary raises, year in and year out, at five percent – or even three percent. So that puts them in a bind, forcing them to make choices between paying the rent or food and medications.
But the California Apartment Association, the front group for corporate landlords, showed no concerns about that at a Concord City Council meeting in late February. It’s a key reason why the landlord group is widely known as the “California Anti-tenant Association.”
Instead, the CAA and its members actually sought to end the rent stabilization ordinance entirely, holding signs and wearing t-shirts that read “repeal the ordinance” and “repeal rent control.”
One member held a sign that read “Stop Government Overreach,” even though rent control has been a long tradition in America, going back to World War I, that has protected tenants against predatory landlords who charge outsized rent hikes.
In fact, economists and housing experts widely agree that rent regulations are desperately needed today to rein in corporate landlords and other predatory landlords.
The CAA, though, shamelessly tried to frame Concord landlords as victims with one sign that read, “Stop the attack on housing providers.” But the high rent averages in Concord show that landlords are hardly struggling to make ends meet, unlike their middle- and working-class tenants. And rent regulations wouldn’t even be needed if the CAA’s members, especially corporate landlords, didn’t charge unfair, outrageous rents.
Laughably, the California Apartment Association, whose multi-million-dollar political and lobbying work is financed by corporate landlords, often uses the victimhood approach to misinform and confuse the public. The CAA is known for going anywhere in California to kill rent control ballot measures and ordinances, always crying poor.
In late February, the Concord City Council went along with the CAA and proposed a flat five percent increase that’s not tied to the Consumer Price Index, which is how rent stabilization ordinances usually work to take inflation into account. Perhaps that shouldn’t be surprising for a city government that includes “corporate goals” as one of its core missions – and doesn’t have the same kind of core mission for affordable housing.
On March 25, the Concord City Council will take a final vote on the five percent rent hike. The CAA will be there to not only push for that change, but also for “additional reforms,” according to a press release. That only means bad news for tenants.
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