Certain to be a lightning rod in city politics, a ballot measure to restrict Mountain View’s apartment rents is expected to go before voters in November.
Members of the Mountain View Tenants Coalition on Tuesday morning delivered more than 7,300 signatures to City Hall. That number should give the measure’s advocates a sizable cushion to secure a spot on the ballot. To qualify their measure, the group says, they needed to submit 4,761 signatures from registered Mountain View voters.
The rental measure is certain to be a hot-button issue for the upcoming election since it takes direct aim at the skyrocketing housing costs that recently have taken center stage in local politics. In a concerted effort last year, hundreds of renters and advocates made regular appearances at City Council meetings and pushed the city to make their concerns a top priority.
The tenants’ group in April announced plans to place a ballot measure before Mountain View voters after most City Council members signaled they would not support direct restrictions on the local rental market. Instead, most council members backed a beefed-up mediation system to settle disputes between landlords and renters. While landlords would be obliged to attend these resolution meetings, they would not be required to accept any deal.
The city’s new mediation system took effect this month, and city officials have been holding educational seminars to teach landlords and tenants about the new policies. But critics have blasted the new program as essentially being toothless for avoiding any binding restrictions that would limit how much landlords can increase rents for current tenants.
Mountain View is not expected to be alone in bringing a rent-control measure to voters this November. Signature-gathering is underway for similar ballot measures in San Mateo, Burlingame and Alameda.
For these cities, it will be a “David versus Goliath” battle, said tenant coalition spokesman Daniel DeBolt. (DeBolt is a former Voice reporter.) Speaking to the Mountain View City Council on Tuesday, he referenced recent reports that landlord groups would spend a considerable sum on an opposition campaign to defeat these measures.
The tenant coalition’s proposed measure would create a system of rent control, restricting rent increases to a minimum of 2 percent and a maximum of 5 percent. For the most part, the measure would require that annual rent increases adhere to the Consumer Price Index for the Bay Area. The measure would also put in place just-cause eviction protections and create a new rental-housing committee that would oversee rent increases and other regulations.
The restrictions have become necessary since landlords have recklessly notched up their rents in recent years, advocates say. From 2011 to 2015, average rents in Mountain View increased 52.7 percent, according to a RealFacts market report cited by the Mountain View Tenants Coalition.
Landlord advocates have criticized the measure for potentially creating a disincentive for property owners to maintain rental housing in Mountain View. They argue the measure will ultimately worsen the housing shortage in the city because it would discourage developers from building new units.
Email Mark Noack at mnoack@mv-voice.com
