On July 7, in California, the Redwood City Council gave the green light to place a rent stabilization initiative on the local November ballot. Tenants and activists, led by Faith in Action Bay Area, gathered the signatures to make the measure a reality. If passed, Redwood City renters will gain much-needed protections against predatory landlords charging unfair, excessive rents.
“The number of signatures we collected speaks for itself: Redwood City wants rent control,” organizer and Redwood City resident Clara Jaecket told The Daily Journal. “We’re excited that now the voters will finally have a direct say on affordability, stability for hard-working families and the chance to stop the displacement of our neighbors.”
The measure, known as the Fair and Affordable Housing Ordinance, seeks a cap on annual rent hikes of five percent for qualified units. It will also broaden other tenant protections, such as relocation payments for tenants who face no-fault evictions.
(For more information about the pro-tenant campaign in Redwood City, click on this link.)
Due to the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, a highly controversial state law, the measure applies to only rental units built before February 1995. If passed, the initiative will cover around 19 percent of the city’s housing stock.
Redwood City Council members had the choice of passing the measure as an ordinance or placing the initiative on the November ballot so voters can make the decision to pass or approve the rent stabilization policy. City Council members voted for the second option, and several of them still oppose the initiative.
Regardless of the politicians’ stance, Faith in Action Bay Area collected more than 7,500 signatures to place the rent stabilization measure on the ballot – an impressive total that far exceeded the 4,500 minimum needed. Around half of the city’s population are renters, who activists say have faced skyrocketing rents and arbitrary evictions.
In 2024, the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project found that 87 percent of multi-family rental apartments in Redwood City are owned by corporations and real estate trusts and 79 percent of the city’s rental housing are owned by out-of-town corporations, trusts, or individuals.
It’s no surprise, then, that the California Apartment Association has popped up in Redwood City to oppose the ballot measure – the CAA is the powerful front group for many of the largest corporate landlords in the United States, including Essex Property Trust, AvalonBay Communities, and Equity Residential. In May 2026, the CAA announced that it’s “preparing to lead the campaign against” the rent stabilization ballot measure in Redwood City.
The CAA and corporate landlords are concerned that the Redwood City measure will end Big Real Estate’s ability to charge excessive rents year after year, cutting into their outsized profits. They’re also worried that if the Redwood City initiative is successful, activists and tenants in other California cities will be inspired to try to pass their own pro-rent control measures.
The California Apartment Association, which is funded by Big Real Estate, has a long history of carrying out expensive misinformation campaigns to stop rent control policies.
Between 2018 and 2024, for example, the CAA and corporate landlords raised roughly $267 million to kill three ballot measures that would have reformed or repealed the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, which created statewide rent control restrictions. AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the parent organization of Housing Is A Human Right, sponsored those initiatives.
Over the years, the CAA and corporate landlords have also spent millions of dollars in delivering campaign contributions to both state and local politicians, trying to influence housing policymaking. A Housing Is A Human Right special report found that the California Apartment Association and corporate landlords gave campaign cash to elected officials in 51 out of California’s 58 counties.
Another investigation found that, in 2024, the California Apartment Association and corporate landlords shelled out campaign contributions to kill a pro-rent control measure in Larkspur; repeal rent control policies in Fairfax; pass an election reform initiative in Richmond; pass a pro-density measure in San Mateo; and kill a parcel-tax measure that would have generated money to repair stress and improve parks in National City.
The CAA and corporate landlords routinely twist facts and confuse voters to get the election results they want.
Activists and renters in Redwood City will now have to battle a multi-million-dollar campaign funded by corporate landlords and carried out by the California Apartment Association. Californians will be watching closely to see if the underdogs prevail in November, creating sorely needed tenant protections.
Patrick Range McDonald is a veteran investigative reporter and the award-winning advocacy journalist for Housing Is A Human Right.