Projections show rents will continue to surge in California. Renters in California concerned about the high cost of living here can now get some support. Tenants Together, a statewide organization for renters’ rights, is releasing a brand new toolkit to empower communities to fight displacement by passing rent control laws in their communities.
Communities Thrive with Rent Control expands significantly on Tenants Together's earlier toolkit, and will help advocates better understand rent control laws and how to push back on industry misinformation about these local policies.
The toolkit includes an overview on what rent control is in California, what key decisions a coalition needs to make about these local policies, common talking points from the landlord lobby, and how to counter misinformation about rent control.
Dan Harper, organizing director with Tenants Together says now is the time to get the toolkit out.
"Not only is there a statewide fight right now to repeal some of the state's wide barriers on rent control but there's also a lot of new cities looking to take rent control to the ballot in November of 2018," said Harper. "We think it's really timely and will hopefully help a lot of these communities formulate their campaigns."
Harper says this is the second launching of it. They've added more content this time around.
"It has a really important piece about how to counter a lot of the landlord's lies that are coming out right now and that's one of the new pieces that we've put in this time around, which we think should be really helpful," said Harper.
Rent control remains the only policy proven to immediately stop displacement and rising rents. Nineteen cities in California have some form of rent control, including San Francisco, Los Angeles and Oakland.
The toolkit is available in both English and Spanish. Click here to download the toolkit.