The challenge
Rising rents threatened to push long-term tenants out of San Francisco.
The case
In 1994 San Francisco voters extended rent control to small multifamily buildings built before 1980. Economists compared buildings just covered by the change with similar buildings that weren't. Rent control reduced covered tenants' mobility by 20 percent and lowered displacement from the city, especially for older residents. But landlords of covered buildings reduced rental housing supply by 15 percent, by selling to owner-occupiers and redeveloping, which the researchers estimated drove up citywide rents by 5.1 percent.
Why the results were mixed
Rent control protected existing tenants but shrank the rental stock, raising costs for future renters. Pairing tenant protections with policies that add supply avoids that trade-off.
Sources
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