Governor Gavin Newsom signs a statewide cap on rent increases (credit: KPBS).

SACRAMENTO—This week, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a statewide cap on rent increases, a mandatory Section 8 bill and several other pieces of legislation that will change the way California's rental housing industry does business in 2020. The statewide rent cap, AB 1482 by Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco, will place an annual 5% plus CPI cap on rent increases and create new standards for evictions across California.

The signing of AB 1482, officially the Tenant Protection Act of 2019, marks the most significant policy change for California's rental housing owners and tenants in a quarter century, according to the California Apartment Association.

"It is unfortunate that the California legislature and Governor Newsom chose to enact statewide rent control under AB1482. The bill represents the implementation of a failed policy that does nothing to increase the supply of housing affordable to all income levels, and it is contrary to the expressed will of California voters in last November's defeat of Proposition 10," says Robert Pinnegar, president and CEO of the National Apartment Association. "Thirty years of academic research and the tangible effects of rent control in cities show this to be true. It is no coincidence that three of the nation's most expensive places to live, including San Francisco, New York and DC, continue to grapple with housing affordability despite their long-standing rent control ordinances. The apartment industry will continue to advocate for policies that provide durable and sustainable solutions for California's housing crisis."