Right to a Roof: The Fight for Rent Control and Tenant Protections in California 1978-1995
Humanities
HIS195B
This thesis explores tenant protections and the fight for rent control through an analysis of tenants movements broadly, the
context of rent control campaigns in California during the late 1970s, and then centering on two
cities in particular. First, I will discuss the context of housing unaffordability in California,
particularly demonstrating how stagflation and urban renewal intersected to exacerbate the
housing shortage. Secondly, I will draw on previous tenants movements in California prior to the
1970s to illustrate both the long-standing inequalities between tenants and landlords and the
legacy of tenant activism outside of rent control battles. Thirdly, I will discuss San Francisco, a
city located in the heart of the Bay Area and one of the most developed urban cities in the state.
In 1960, the city had a total population that was over sixty-five percent renters and had a nonwhite
majority. The second city I will analyze is Santa Cruz, a small city south of San Jose and
what would later be called the “Silicon Valley.” Prior to the 1960s, Santa Cruz was a small
agricultural and tourist town with an over ninety percent white population and a significant
population of elderly tenants. With the founding of the University of California in 1965, the
character of the city transitioned from a once affordable beach community into a million-dollar
housing bubble. These two cities with contrasting demographics, levels of urbanization, and
political histories provide two strong examples of how despite rent control’s endorsement by
many on the politically left, both progressive and conservative cities grappled with the rent
control question during the late 1970s. Finally, I will evaluate the role of real estate
corporations and their financial influence over state and local politics and how housing activists
both lost and won battles in this arena.
