Opinion: It can happen here too – California citizens reject Rent Control

California rejects rent control with Proposition 33, sending a message about housing affordability and regulation. File photo.

California voters are showing some common sense direction when it comes to housing affordability and Mark Harmsworth says we can do the same here in Washington

Mark Harmsworth
Washington Policy Center

California’s Proposition 33, which would have given local municipalities the ability to limit property owners from charging market rate rents, failed to garner enough votes Tuesday to pass. Voters overwhelmingly voted against the measure by 62%.

It shows California voters, unlike the proponents of Rent Control in Washington and California, have common sense pragmatism on what it takes to reduce the cost of housing.

In 2024 the Washington state legislature nearly passed a bill to impose rent control statewide. The house passed HB 2114, but the companion bill, SB 5961, died in committee in the senate. The bills would have capped rent increases on existing rental properties at no more than 5% in a 12-month period with exemptions for rental units that are less than 10 years old.

Calling the concept “rent stabilization”—based on allowing uncapped increases for new tenants–was an attempt by the bill’s promoters to get around state legal prohibitions on rent control while also attempting to soften harsh reactions some might have to the concept of rent control. This is similar to Proposition 33 which would have given local municipalities in California total control over rents in their jurisdictions.

The lack of affordable housing and the high homelessness rate in Washington are indisputable, rent control schemes fail to address those issues at every level.

In exchange for the expedient of locking in low rent increases for existing tenants willing to stay in their current rentals beyond the term of their current lease, rent control measures such as HB 2114 and Proposition 33 exacerbate the problems they claim to solve. They do nothing to address the primary cause of the housing unaffordability crisis, which is restrictive housing development regulations in the face of rapid population growth.

Rather than pursuing the nonsensical and failed idea of rent control, officials at all levels of government should focus on eliminating supply restrictions which have for decades suppressed the amount of housing stock required to meet the demand from a rapidly growing population.

Will an equivalent Proposition 33 in Washington finally put the Rent Control discussion to bed? Possibly, but in the meantime, California voters are showing some common sense direction when it comes to housing affordability. We can do the same here in Washington.

Mark Harmsworth is the director of the Small Business Center at the Washington Policy Center.