Bay Area lawmakers are throwing their support behind a new state bill to tighten rent control, a proposal cheered by tenant advocates but met with fierce resistance from landlord groups across California.
Assembly Bill 1157, dubbed the Affordable Rent Act, would lower statewide rent caps already in place for most apartment buildings and expand the restrictions to single-family rental homes. The bill advanced out of the state Assembly’s housing committee on Thursday.
“With renters making up roughly half of the state’s population, California must take every step to help keep families from being displaced, keep workers near their jobs, and ensure no one is pushed into homelessness due to a substantial rent increase,” the bill’s author, Assemblymember Ash Kalra, a San Jose Democrat, said in a statement…