We finally crossed the finish line with Proposition 33 defeated. The impulse of local governments to impose rent control will continue to be tempered.

The decades-old law of Costa-Hawkins was on the chopping block on November 5th, but sober-minded Californians voted NO.

Eat your heart out, San Francisco lawmakers and others who were salivating at the opportunity to expand rent control. Along with other election results, the takeaway is that this is a government for the people and by the people.

The effort to defeat Proposition 33 has not been driven by an “us against them” mentality. Housing providers could not, on their own, quash the ballot initiative.

Renters also had to recognize that the passing of Proposition 33 would not be to their benefit. It would only be to their detriment with shrinking housing stock and the possibility that properties succumb to neglect.

We thank our industry partners for educating the masses about why this was an ill-conceived measure, but it came with a price tag of tens of millions of dollars. The question is whether we will go through this time and time again. We’ve already been through this in 2018, 2020, and now 2024. Is there an end in sight?

Proposition 34 was designed to slay the beast by requiring that 98% of the revenues from a federal discount program be used on direct patient care.

This would silence Michael Weinstein and the overreaching AIDS Healthcare Foundation, stopping them from diverting money away from patients and using funds to launch another crusade on expanding tenant protections. It appears, with 51% of the vote in at the date of this writing, that voters are in favor of this measure.

Ironically, the organization is a serial violator of tenant rights with horrid conditions in the buildings they own, but these are minor details.

We can breathe a sigh of relief that this assault on owner rights has been won, but rest assured, there will be more challenges that await us. As always, Bornstein Law can help you power through them.