People were projecting “Lower the rent! It’s too damn high” onto the State Capitol building Sunday night, and renters are rallying there again today, in support of a statewide rent control bill that would cut maximum rent increases from 10% to just 5%.

You may have seen a dust-up in the news a couple weeks ago, where it was discovered that some landlord-affiliated group was paying fake activists to protest against rent control in Concord, as that city mulls rent control laws like those we have in Oakland and San Francisco. But a similar battle is playing out statewide, as NBC Bay Area reports on a statewide rent control measure that’s brought renters out rallying in Sacramento both Sunday night and Monday.    


They were at it Sunday night, projecting “Lower the rent! It’s too damn high” onto the California State Capitol building, and more demonstrations are planned for Monday. The bill itself, sponsored by East San Jose state Assemblymember Ash Kalra, passed its first committee vote last week.

“With renters making up roughly half of the state’s population, California must take every step to help keep families from being displaced, keep workers near their jobs, and ensure no one is pushed into homelessness due to a substantial rent increase,” Kalra said when announcing his bill. “I am honored to author AB 1157, the Affordable Rent Act, and grateful to be joined by a large coalition in support and coauthors who recognize existing law is not enough — these are safeguards we must bolster.”

As CalMatters explains, Kalra’s bill would lower the annual allowable maximum rent increase from 10% to 5%. It would also extend rent control to single-family homes, and make permanent some rent control measures that are scheduled to sunset in 2030.


As we see above, SF’s own state Assemblymember Matt Haney voted for the rent control measure when it passed the Assembly's Housing Committee last week. But it’s a contentious bill, and the California Apartment Association is gearing up to fight this one hard, saying that it would end up taking housing off the market.

“Single-family homeowners, they come from the Bay Area,” California Apartment Association executive vice president of state government affairs Debra Carlton told that committee before their vote. “They will not be able to continue with these types of rent caps and have indicated they will not. Many of them also suffered from COVID, they did not get any rent for those three years.”

Of course, California voters rejected the Prop 33 statewide rent control measure just this past November, which opponents of this measure will surely point out, as the bill heads to the Assembly's Judiciary Committee.

Related: Rents Rose Last Year In SF Faster Than Any Other US City [SFist]

Image: @HousingNowCA via Twitter