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Save Rent Control!

Why Renters Should OPPOSE Prop. 98: The Landlords’ Hidden Agendas Scheme to Eliminate Rent Control and Renter-Protections

Wealthy apartment and mobile home park owners are spending millions on a deceptive campaign to pass Prop. 98 for their own financial gain. These landlords want voters to believe that Prop. 98 – dubbed the Hidden Agendas Scheme – is about eminent domain. But their hidden agenda is to eliminate rent control so they can make hundreds of millions of dollars by raising rents on seniors and working families.

Unless defeated, Prop. 98 — The Landlords’ Hidden Agendas Scheme — would:

• Eliminate rent control and other renter protection laws. Proposition 98 would phase out rent control in California. It would prohibit future rent control laws and abolish rent control on units once existing tenants move. As a result, Prop. 98 would jeopardize affordable housing for thousands of seniors and widows on fixed incomes, single mothers and working families.
• Attack protections for mobile home owners. Under Prop. 98, mobile home park owners could not be prevented by state or local governments from pursuing what are called “condo conversions.” Under condo conversions, park owners can force mobile homeowners to buy the space their home occupies at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars per unit. This would leave mobile homeowners stuck in a lose/lose situation - forced to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for the land underneath their units, or tens of thousands to relocate. Unable to pay either of these costs, many seniors and low-income mobile homeowners could be forced out of their homes altogether.
• Destroy value of mobile homes. Because Prop. 98 would eliminate rent control as soon as the current tenant vacates the property, mobile home owners will face extreme difficulty trying to sell their units. Potential buyers will be discouraged from purchasing the mobile home because rent control protections on space will be lost when units are sold – destroying the equity in these life-long investments for many seniors.
• Gut laws that protect renters. Proposition 98 would also jeopardize dozens of laws that protect renters. It would:
  • Jeopardize laws requiring the fair return of rental deposits
  • Jeopardize laws requiring 60-day notice before forcing renters out of their housing
  • Outlaw local affordable housing and “inclusionary zoning” requirements
  • Jeopardize laws that protect seniors and the disabled from drastic rent increases and that require landlords to give them ample notice before forcing them out of rental housing

Prop. 99 is supported by a broad coalition of homeowners, business, labor, cities, counties and environmentalists who want straightforward eminent domain reform that gets right to the heart of the infamous Kelo decision.

Read more:

Conservation Impact | Environmental Impact | A Planning and Zoning Nightmare | Effects on Renters
Find out more: visit the No on 98 / Yes on 99 website

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