Voters in City of Santa Barbara Split on Rent Control Measure
Failed Proposition 33 Won Majority of Votes on City’s Eastside While Other Districts Rejected It
This article was underwritten in part by the Mickey Flacks Journalism Fund for Social Justice, a proud, innovative supporter of local news. To make a contribution go to sbcan.org/journalism_fund.
State- and county-wide, voters said “no” to Proposition 33, which would have expanded California cities’ ability to enact rent control. But election result data show that in the City of Santa Barbara’s District 1, the city’s Eastside neighborhood, voters supported the measure.
The city’s certified election results, when broken down by precinct, show that approximately 54 percent of District 1 voters supported Prop. 33, with 46 percent opposing. Just under a third of registered voters did not vote on the initiative.
These results come after District 1 elected City Council candidate Wendy Santamaria. Santamaria’s campaign centered on housing policy, including rent control. Four of the six council members on Santa Barbara’s City Council have shown support for rent control measures — including District 3’s Oscar Gutierrez (who also won reelection), District 4’s Kristen Sneddon, and District 6’s Meagan Harmon.
In District 3, Santa Barbara’s Westside neighborhood, voters were divided in a 50-50 split on the proposition, and in District 6, the city’s downtown area, voters narrowly supported the proposition: 52 percent for compared to 48 percent against. About 33 percent of voters in District 3 and 27 percent in District 6 did not vote on the initiative. In Districts 2, 4, and 5, which includes the Mesa, Riviera, and Mission districts, most voters rejected the initiative.
To equate Prop. 33 to rent control is a simplification. If passed, the proposition would have repealed a 30-year-old housing law called the Costa Hawkins Act, which bars cities from capping rent for buildings constructed after 1995, condominiums, and single-family homes. Its elimination would also have allowed “vacancy control,” meaning cities could have restricted landlords’ ability to raise rents when tenants move out. Currently, as part of the 2019 California Protection Act, the state has a 5 percent annual rent cap plus the change in cost of living. This year, Prop. 33 was the most expensive ballot initiative in the country. The Los Angeles nonprofit AIDS Healthcare Foundation, headed by CEO Michael Weinstein, spent more than $41 million to fund the proposition. This is the third time in the last 10 years Weinstein has heavily supported rent control initiatives. A total of $50 million was raised by supporters of the initiative. Opposing groups had raised more than $124 million against the measure, with the California Apartments Association donating $11 million, and funding Prop. 34, which will restrict the AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s ability to fund ballot measures in the future.
