On July 26, the California secretary of state announced the third rent control initiative sponsored by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation in four election cycles had qualified for the Nov. 2024 ballot. Californians defeated the two other initiatives in 2018 and 2020.
The 2024 initiative would repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, which prohibits rent control on single-family homes and houses completed after February 1, 1995. The initiative would replace Costa-Hawkins with a law that allows cities and counties to limit rent on any housing and limit the rent for a first-time tenant and prohibits the state from limiting “the right of any city, county, or city and county to maintain, enact or expand residential rent control.” Any local laws currently inoperative under Costa-Hawkins would take effect upon its repeal.
The final random sample count concluded that 616,823 of the 813,112 signatures filed were valid. The initiative had a 75.9% signature validity rate. In California, initiated state statutes need 546,651 valid signatures (5% of the votes cast in the 2022 gubernatorial election) to qualify for the ballot.
