California Approves Rent Control to Ease Housing Crisis

         On Wednesday, California lawmakers approved a statewide rent cap to try and ease the housing crisis. San Francisco had already had measures like this, but they have done nothing to decrease the rise in homelessness and a housing squeeze.
         This new bill limits the annual rent increase by 5%. The governor, Gavin Newsom, had made the protection of tenants part of his first year in office. This new bill will affect about 8 million residents who rent homes and live in apartments. The crisis over housing has been so bad that leading employers and was unopposed by the state;s biggest landlord group.
         In passing this measure, California becomes one of five states to impose some form of rent control. Both California and Oregon have statewide rent control, while Maryland, New Jersey, and New York allow some forms of rent control. Other measures were introduced in Florida and Massachusetts to allow rent regulation in cities like Boston, Orlando, and Miami.

California State Statistics:
- Highest state poverty rate at 18.2%
- San Francisco's homeless rates have risen 17% since 2017
- Los Angeles' homeless rate has risen 16% since 2018.
- California contains about half of the nation's homeless population

        Because of this, California has started to propose steps like rent control to manage the situation. Though some argue that these laws ignore finding solutions to rising home prices.

California Approves Statewide Rent Control to Ease Housing Crisis

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