Good morning, Inequality Insights readers. I’m Wendy Fry.
Local elected officials in San Francisco and Los Angeles have already shown interest in expanding rent control if Prop 33 passes, opening the door to such moves. CalMatters housing reporter Felicia Mello took a look this week at where the state ballot measure might have the most impact if California voters approve the ballot measure next week.
Prop 33 would repeal a state housing law limiting how cities can regulate rents. Most California cities wouldn’t see an immediate change. But a few cities like Berkeley already have laws on the books allowing more stringent regulation than current state law, Mello reported, and it’s in those places that renters would see the soonest benefits—and landlords the first headaches.
In San Francisco, city supervisors have already unanimously passed legislation that would kick in if Prop. 33 passes, bringing rent control to an estimated 16,000 additional units.
California caps rent increases for apartments and corporate-owned houses more than 15 years old at 10% per year but limits how much local governments can impose their own caps. Prop 33 supporters say that even increases allowed under current state law can place a significant burden on tenants. Opponents of Prop 33 argue that cities will enact rent control so strict it will stifle new housing construction at a time when the state desperately needs it. Democrat Toni Atkins, a leading candidate to be the next governor of California, is opposed to the measure because she says cities will enact rent control ordinances to avoid complying with state housing production laws.
Manuel Pastor, director of the University of Southern California’s Equity Research Institute, said more progressive coastal cities are likely to enact stricter rent increase caps while inland cities try to lure new development.
“If the proponents of Prop. 33 think this will solve our housing crisis, they’re mistaken,” he said. “If the opponents of Prop. 33 think that this will result in housing armageddon, they’re mistaken as well.”
DON’T MISS
- VA algorithm. An investigation by The Fuller Project and The Markup found an algorithm used by the Department of Veterans Affairs used to help direct suicide prevention outreach was prioritizing white, male veterans. The artificial intelligence program also gave preference to veterans who are “divorced and male” and “widowed and male” but not to any group of female veterans. Now, a federal bill introduced late last month by Sen. Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat who chairs the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, would force the department to overhaul the program. California has 1.8 million veterans, the largest population of any state, according to the latest state Census data available.
- Discrimination lawsuit. Two former staffers of “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of Fortune,” who are Black and Latino, filed employment discrimination, harassment, and retaliation complaints against Sony Pictures Entertainment after the company allegedly laid off workers for speaking out against toxic working conditions, according to the Los Angeles Times.
- Respiratory health. New research from the University of Southern California shows that dust from the shrinking Salton Sea is impacting the respiratory health of children who live nearby. The study, published in Environmental Research, found that 24% of children in the area have asthma — higher than the national rate of 8.4% for boys and 5.5% for girls. The abnormally high rate is raising experts’ concerns about the children’s health in a predominantly rural, low-income community of color 150 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
- CPR in schools. A school resource officer in Virginia tried to perform CPR on a Black teenager with a heart condition who had collapsed at school, but the officer stopped after less than 20 seconds, Word In Black reports. Kaleiah Jones, 16, died. According to a 2019 Journal of the American Heart Association report, Black children are 41% less likely to receive bystander CPR than their white peers in public settings. Experts say it’s because of implicit racial biases, systemic neglect, and poor training, and it puts Black students’ lives at risk.
- Sewage crisis. Gov. Gavin Newsom visited wastewater treatment facilities in Baja California and San Diego on Tuesday to draw attention to the ongoing sewage crisis, an environmental and public health issue. The South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant is being renovated, but Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre said an emergency declaration is also needed. The sewage crisis intensified in June when more than 14.5 billion gallons of untreated raw sewage, according to the International Boundary and Water Commission, fouled the California shoreline.
- Tax contributions. California’s undocumented residents paid nearly $8.5 billion in taxes in 2022, playing a key role in stimulating the state’s economy, according to the California Budget & Policy Center and data estimates from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). The figure includes sales and excise taxes paid on purchases, property taxes paid on homes or indirectly through rents, individual and business income taxes, unemployment taxes, and other types of taxes.
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The California Divide Team