A California Attack on the Poor

California’s Proposition 98 (California Property Owners and Farmland Protection Act) and Proposition 99 (Homeowners and Private Property Protection Act) have misleading titles. Both are about preventing government from redeveloping blighted areas where the property will be returned to private ownership. In other words community redevelopment agencies would be eliminated because no redevelopment would be permitted. Slums could go on existing indefinitely.

Proposition 98 goes one step further by eliminating rent controls on apartments and mobile home parks. Apartment owners associations and mobile home park associations couldn’t be happier. The consequence of that will be the dislocation of the poorest in our society.

The ongoing issue of affordable housing in Los Angeles has been well documented. Proposition 98 would allow legalized unreasonable rent hikes on those least able to pay. That includes the poor and the elderly. Mobile home parks are commonly occupied by the elderly as a form of low cost housing. Most of those living in those parks are on social security and have little in the way of additional forms of income.

Who is supporting Proposition 98? The primary contributors are mobile home park owners and apartment associations. The information is listed on the California Secretary of State’s web site.

Who is supporting Proposition 99? The California League Of Conservation Voters http://www.ecovote.org/. This organization says its mission is “to protect the environmental quality of the state by increasing public awareness of the environmental performance of all elected officials, working to elect environmentally responsible candidates, and holding them accountable to the environmental agenda once elected.” What’s the connection between this conservation group and Proposition 99? They do not say on their web site. When I telephones them to ask about their support for this imitative I told someone will be calling me back later in the week. They are the only group that has donating money to support this issue. The state says they have donated $300,000.00.

This website, http://rentersrights.blogspot.com/, is a good place to start in fighting these two laws.