People across California are being grotesquely impacted by the ever growing cost of living, one main area being the increase in rental prices. It isn't enough for landlords and property management companies to have increased prices exponentially over the last five years. No, they also go out of their way to get every dollar they possibly can from tenants, meanwhile the average citizen struggles to afford the bare necessities. Landlords and property management companies take advantage of tenants vacating and exponentially increase the cost of rent for the next tenant. Currently the only Act that restricts rental increases is the Tenant Protection Act and this is only applicable for existing tenants, meaning once a current tenant leaves the landlord can increase rent with no regulations or restrictions. In addition, landlords have begun charging additional fees on top of rent with few restrictions, like pet rent. The problem with this is that they already charge additional security deposits for pets in the event that damage occurs while the tenant is living on the property as a way to protect the landlord from exponential repairs upon the tenant vacating. The addition of pet rent is an unnecessary, manipulative way to charge more for rent for no practical reason. The security deposit is enough to protect the landlords asset and there is no additional rent or security deposit required if you have children, which are likely to cause more damage than pets, or if there are multiple people living within the unit. 

If landlords continue having the flexibility to increase prices, or tack on additional fees with very few restrictions, the cost of living will continue its current track towards complete unaffordability. Not only will people continue struggling to obtain the bare minimum of food, water, and shelter but the percentage of the population struggling to obtain this will continue to grow. Due to this, our birth rate will continue to decline, our homeless population will continue its rapid increase, and the California economy will continue to be impacted, all at the expense of tax payers.

Implementing this restriction on landlords and property management companies not only helps address the ever growing cost of rent across the state, but it also sets a precedent. This would tell these companies that if they continue unjustly increasing the cost for families to live in this state we will not only hold them accountable but also find a way to restrict their power. The average cost of rent in this state has increased by around 39.2% just since 2020, if we continue allowing this to increase without implementing larger restrictions on how these prices are increasing we will reach a point of no return.

It is important that we act now, before we reach a point of complete monopolization of rental units by property management companies and no longer have any independent control of the rental prices. These companies and landlords have been left unchecked for far to long and we can clearly see this from the extreme increase in pricing over the last five years. And if you're thinking, "I don't rent, why should I care" I urge you to consider the fact that if these prices continue to increase without any regulations or restrictions it will be EVERY tax payer who faces the economic consequences.