16 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY SEPTEMBER 17-23, 2026 www.montereycountynow.com Whether or not rent stabilization works is the key question with Salinas’ Measure H on the Nov. 3 ballot. A rental registry in Salinas took effect in 2023, followed by three additional renter protection ordinances in 2025. According to Salinas City Manager René Mendez, it’s too early for reliable data to show specific effects on the city. It might take a couple of years, well beyond the election. “The first year, all the uncertainty, we were all over the map,” he says. “I don’t think that’s reliable data to see what was happening and what was not.” Salinas’ experience with collecting data is not that unusual. It is difficult to find information about impacts on California cities comparable to Salinas that have enacted similar ordinances in the last several years. Oxnard, for example, an agricultural community with a majority of Latino residents like Salinas, passed two ordinances in 2022 and has yet to collect reliable data on impacts. A review by the Weekly of a number of studies and research papers on rent stabilization/control in general shows there is no straightforward answer to the question of if it works. Economicbased studies, of which there are many, tend to report negative outcomes, including that it reduces supply, raises rents for non-controlled rental properties, and deters building of new units, all while most benefiting those who obtain rent-controlled housing, who decrease their migration to other housing. Sociological research, meanwhile, leans toward highlighting the positive impacts. Lobbyist groups and conservative institutions tend to see rent stabilization or control as destructive to housing and the community, while other types of research groups and renters’ organizations saw positive outcomes for renters and their families. You could compare the search for an answer to a choose-your-own-adventure story. The choice of study or data set you consult—or what your desired end goal is—could determine your conclusion. ••• Protect Salinas Residents, the team wanting to repeal the ordinances with a yes vote on Measure H, starts with the contention that rent stabilization will have negative impacts on Salinas, its housing stock, economy and all of its residents. Leaders are leaning on studies that conclude rent stabilization/control is detrimental. “With these ordinances in place it will make it more difficult to come in and build additional housing,” says Hector Barajas of Protect Salinas Residents. He points to sources including a 2018 article from the Brookings Institution, a nonpartisan think tank with moderate or centrist stances on issues. That article considered data from San Francisco and Cambridge, Massachusetts to base its conclusions on. In Cambridge, where rent control was in place from 1970 to 1994—when a statewide measure to eliminate rent control narrowly won, ending it in Cambridge where 60 percent of residents voted to retain it— researchers concluded that the city’s property values rose by $2 billion while controls were in effect, with more than half of the capitalized cost of rent control being shouldered by owners of never-controlled properties. “Rent-controlled properties create substantial negative externalities on the nearby housing market, lowering the amenity value of these neighborhoods and making them less desirable places to live,” the article states. In San Francisco, where a 1979 rent control ordinance was expanded in 1994, researchers found that renters were less likely to move who otherwise might have. They also said there was an 8-percent increase in buildings converting to condominiums and a 15-percent reduction in the availability of small multi-family housing. That reduction, they claimed, likely led to rent increases in the long run. Conversions to condos contributed to more housing stock for higher-income residents. Another study noted by Protect Salinas Residents comes from an organization that lobbies in favor of apartment developers, the National Multifamily Housing Council. The NMHC study concluded that rent regulation interferes with the market leading to negative outcomes, including unequal distribution of lowered rents, a reduction in property values, followed by a reduction in city tax revenues. Like the Brookings review, the study also argued that landlords faced with reduced incomes will convert their buildings to condominiums, or even leave buildings vacant if the cost of repairs outstrips income, or demolish buildings. In the long run, says Barajas, rent control policies can lead to permanent changes in the housing supply mix, which could drive rents up. “The downside of rent control is that suppressing the return on rental property investment does little to incentivize investors to increase the supply, or quality, of housing,” he says. “The question for local governments and housing authorities becomes, how large are these effects?” ••• While those who want to see the With rent stabilization up for debate in Salinas, the question is: Does it work? By Pam Marino WORKING ORDER SALINAS RENTS VS. RENTER INCOME –Average multifamily residential rent –Average median renter income In 2024, consultants Economic & Planning Systems Inc. recommended rent stabilization in Salinas. Median household incomes increased 23 percent between 2014 and 2024, with growth coming from households with annual incomes over $75,000. Rents in multifamily residential buildings built before 1995 increased by 117 percent between 2020 and 2024, according to EPS.
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