Santa Rosa rent control beaten at ballot box

[tommy]

Please see the article below. The "No on C" (opposing Rent Control & Just Cause Eviction) outspent "Yes on C" (in favor) by approximately 8 to 1.The Real Estate community is obviously a strong lobby. Yet from research I've done on Rent Control, it's a mixed bag, with as many opposing it as in favor.

Listening to the Roseland Report on KBBF this afternoon, the Host Louie Gutierrez had a guest who said that the Ca Apt Assn spent so much in this election, to protect their vested interests... that in capitalistic economies, money = power, that the "No on C" campaign had all the money, that working people will have to move to Lake or Mendocino County for cheaper rents, & that it was a slim majority of a few % that won the election.


What do you think?
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Santa Rosa rent control beaten at ballot box

KEVIN MCCALLUM
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT | June 6, 2017, 8:47PM

Santa Rosa voters soundly rejected the controversial rent control law passed by the City Council last summer following the most expensive political campaign in city history.

Final returns Tuesday night showed Measure C failing with 52.5 percent of the vote compared to 47.5 percent in support.

The results suggest residents want to see the city take more active steps to solve the affordable housing and homelessness crises instead of placing restrictions on existing rental housing in the city, said Rob Muelrath, the political consultant who ran the No on C campaign. “It’s a clear signal to the City Council that we need to address our homelessness problem and we need housing and we can’t wait for it. We need it now,” Muelrath said.

But to supporters of Measure C, the takeaway was not that rent control is bad policy for Santa Rosa, but rather that regional and national real estate lobbies with a 5-to-1 financial advantage over local groups were able to buy the election. “This is out-of-town interests protecting their profits,” said Terry Price, chairman of the Yes on C campaign.

Price called it “a scurrilous lie” to say that the City Council was not taking steps to address the affordable housing crisis in the city, citing the council’s housing action plan and increased spending on housing. Just last month the council agreed to spend $2.75 million to create additional affordable housing units in pending developments.

Price said the rent control piece of the city’s plan was aimed at keeping people “from being kicked out of their homes and made homeless” while the city worked on its long-term housing strategy.

Continues here