Supervisors hear housing balance data and urge Sacramento to consider Costa Hawkins repeal; committee advances report and a repeal resolution

The Land Use & Transportation Committee heard the Planning Department’s fifth Housing Balance Report on Nov. 29, which staff and presenters said is intended to track the city’s production of affordable housing relative to net new housing, and to inform Board and planning decisions.

Teresa Ojeda, principal planner, summarized the report’s scope and calculation: the housing balance measures net affordable housing (entitled and permitted affordable units plus acquisitions/rehabs minus units removed from protected status) as a proportion of net new housing over a 10‑year reporting period. Ojeda reported that affordable housing constituted about 23% of net new housing in the most recent 10‑year period and that the report’s projected housing balance for entitled projects currently in the pipeline is about 16%.

Committee members asked for detail on the components driving losses from protected status. Josh Switzky provided the breakdown contained in the balance report: "of the a little bit under 4,200 units that were lost to protected status, about 2,300 were due to owner move‑in evictions (OMIs), about a little bit over 1,300 units was due to the Ellis Act, demolition was about 478 units, and condo conversion was only 69 units." The figures prompted supervisors to request district‑level breakdowns and to press for clearer accounting of buyouts and short‑term rentals, which public speakers said can remove rent‑controlled units from the long‑term housing stock without being captured in current reporting.

Public comment was extensive and largely focused on tenant protections and preserving existing rent‑controlled housing. Speakers cited buyouts that are not always filed with the rent board, predatory equity by large private owners (naming Veritas Investments as an example raised by several speakers), unsafe building conditions, and harassment tactics that tenants say force long‑term residents out. Tenants and advocates urged a package of reforms including fully funded right to counsel, vacancy control, expanded acquisition funds, and state action to repeal Costa Hawkins.

Supervisor Fewer framed item 7 — a committee resolution urging support for California Assembly Bill 1506 (AB 1506) to repeal the Costa Hawkins Rental Housing Act — as a necessary step to restore local authority over vacancy control and other rent‑control tools. "By repealing Costa Hawkins, we will be immediately changing our existing rent control laws," she said, and asked colleagues to send the resolution to the full Board. The committee moved the resolution forward with a positive recommendation without objection.

Staff and supervisors agreed on several technical follow‑ups: provide the breakdown of units removed from protected status by district, consider displaying housing balance both with and without RAD rehabilitation units (planning staff said RAD inclusion reflected a political compromise), and explore legislative or reporting changes to incorporate recorded buyouts or make the report’s treatment of certain categories clearer.

Committee action: the committee filed items 4 and 5 (informational hearings), forwarded item 6 (resolution to adopt the biannual Housing Balance Report) with recommendation, and forwarded item 7 (resolution urging support for AB 1506) with a positive recommendation to the full Board.

What happens next: staff agreed to provide requested district‑level breakdowns and to explore report display changes (with and without RAD); the resolution supporting AB 1506 will be considered by the full Board and any legislative changes to the housing balance calculation would require ordinance amendments or state action.