☆ Key City Commission rejects Housing Dept's plans to increase rent control in SJ
Less than five months after the City Council rejected the Dept's misguided COPA proposal, a key citizens housing commission declined to approve the Housing Department's latest moves to turn SJ into a twin of collapsing SF. The commission rejected the HD's proposals to expand rent control and other misguided interventionist housing policies. The Opp Now team reports in this exclusive.
On August 10th, San Jose's Housing and Community Development Committee (HCDC) voted to reject a series of proposals from the Housing Dept regarding rent control and other misguided efforts that, experts say, will actually make the affordability crisis in San Jose even worse.
The HCDC was voting on the Housing Dept's Rent Stabilization Program (RSP) Draft Strategic Plan. According to local housing providers, this "strategic plan" is in fact a Trojan Horse of Left-wing housing aspirations: a vaguely written, tremendously expansive framework of tenant protections from which any number of extremely hostile measures to housing providers could emanate.
"The draft Strategic Plan is not only one-sided, but it’s so vague and open-ended that it could mean many additional regulations for both Apartment Rent and Tenant Protection Ordinances. More regulations will make San Jose even less business-friendly, and it will push more and more mom-and-pops out of business, which results in fewer naturally affordable housing units for our renters," said Jenny Zhao of the Business and Housing Network.
Some of the embedded proposals that were called out by opponents of the framework and rejected by the HCDC include:
More rent control: The draft plan would eliminate the 5% annual allowable rent increase and instead limit rent increases to the rate of inflation or less.
More overcrowding: The draft plan calls for expanding the rent registry filing requirements and new occupancy standards, which will legalize overcrowding.
Free lawyers for tenants: The draft plan also proposes a “Right to Counsel” program to provide taxpayer-funded attorneys to tenants facing an eviction. On average, these cases cost at least $5000/each.
Local housing providers predict that the Housing Dept will ignore the HCDC vote and attempt to bring the full misguided framework to a City Council vote.
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