California YIMBY Blasts Ballot Measure to Repeal Costa-Hawkins

California YIMBY announced its opposition to a statewide ballot measure funded by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the so-called Justice for Renters Act, which would repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act enacted in 1995. The group said the ballot measure, which is being promoted by AHF president Michael Weinstein, would likely stifle the construction of new homes across the state.

“The chief proponent of this measure, pharmaceutical executive Michael Weinstein, has a track record of not just opposing affordable housing, but of purchasing existing affordable homes — and letting them fall into a state of unsanitary and dangerous disrepair,” said Brian Hanlon, CEO of California YIMBY. 

He continued, “We support well-crafted rent stabilization and tenant protection programs, and have a record of campaigning for them. Our mission is to make California affordable for everyone, including vulnerable tenants and low-income Californians. The best way to achieve broad-based affordability and housing security is by building a lot more housing — not enabling NIMBY cities to ban new homes with a flawed ballot measure, written by the most well-funded NIMBY group in California.” 

The California Apartment Association is also working against the ballot measure. Earlier this year, CAA said, “If the Justice for Renters Act were to pass, it would invite a return to extreme rent control policies, like those observed in cities like Berkeley, San Francisco and Santa Monica before Costa-Hawkins.”