Opinion: Vote for Rent Control as if Life Depends on It—Because It Does

Credit: AIDS Healthcare Foundation

The affordable housing crisis is an existential threat to our way of life in California.

It is also a literal threat to hundreds of people in Orange County. The most recent OC Point in Time count found 5,718 people are unsheltered. According to the Sheriff’s Department, the number of deaths among people experiencing homelessness more than tripled between 2012 and 2021. Voice of OC reports 511 homeless people died in 2023.

The current situation is unsustainable. Housing is sucking up much too much of our income and is impoverishing millions. We need balance.

There is a raging debate about whether increasing the supply of housing versus rent control is the answer. There are academic studies arguing forcefully on both sides of the issue, but it is a false dichotomy. We need both.

People who say that building housing in California is too bureaucratic are correct. It is too expensive—correct. It takes too long—correct. However, there is no quick fix to building enough housing for everyone who needs it. The problem was created over decades, and it won’t be solved overnight.

California is in the emergency room with a gaping wound. We must stop the bleeding before we can heal the wound. If we allow more people to become homeless or to be strangled by high rents, it will make it that much harder to dig out of the problem.

We need immediate action to keep people in their homes. The only way to do that is to keep rent increases below the rise of the cost of living, and that can only be accomplished through rent control.

The argument that rent control will discourage new construction is based on a false premise that the rent in new buildings will become depressed, yet all local rent control laws in California exclude new construction. Most new construction is on the luxury end.

Well-heeled people will pay whatever the market will bear. The person on Social Security or disability cannot—you can’t get blood from a stone.

In order to create new affordable housing quickly, we must utilize existing older buildings. The adaptive reuse of older buildings is the low-hanging fruit that can house the most people in the least amount of time. We are awash in under-utilized hotels, office buildings, retail spaces, public buildings, and more. One former Motel 6 in Costa Mesa is being converted into nearly 90 units of affordable housing, and that’s just one motel.

In addition, we need a moratorium on converting low-income housing units into condominiums or other uses. And we need to require developers to include low-income units in their luxury properties, which depend on zoning exemptions and other city perks.

Unaffordable rents aren’t just a humanitarian crisis; they are an economic disaster. Half a million people have fled the state in recent years, leaving an even greater burden on the rest of us. And California is not a competitive place to attract new businesses.

All of this adds up to a declining quality of life. The New Year’s Day Rose Parade was always a massive advertisement for the California way of life. Now, 50 percent of the nation considers us to be on the decline.

The way to turn our storyline around is to adopt practical solutions that do not demonize the economic victims of high rents, but rather give us hope that we will dig our way out of it.

In the meantime, we need expanded rent control. Now is the time.