Sen. Cindy Friedman heard enough of the arguments over what will really help the state’s housing affordability crisis Tuesday and pressed the opposing sides to get to the bottom of it themselves.
After hearing testimony for and against a ballot initiative (H 5008) capping annual rent increases, she urged proponents and opponents to get together and find a middle ground. That scenario could yield the kind of compromise that could take the ballot question off the table for November.
“I am just so frustrated by the extremes,” Friedman, the Senate chair of the Special Joint Committee on Initiative Petitions, said during a hearing Tuesday.
The proposed ballot question would limit annual rent increases to the Consumer Price Index or 5%, whichever is lower.
Opponents have said it would stymie housing production in the state while proponents say the reform is crucial to keep residents housed comfortably and from fleeing for less expensive states…
Mark Paul, an associate professor of economics at Rutgers University, responded by saying there is no peer-reviewed study published in the U.S. that shows rent control leads to a drop in housing supply and new construction. He related the issue to debates from decades ago over whether establishing a minimum wage would cause employers to layoff workers.
“The same thing is happening with rent control,” Paul said. “When we see states considering it, developers are saying ‘we’re going to leave’ but that really hasn’t played out.”