Larkspur is a city of renters. About half of all Larkspur households rent their homes. These are working families, seniors on fixed incomes, and young people trying to start their lives. Yet without local tenant protections, many are just a rent hike or two away from being forced out of their units.

It’s already happening at some of the city’s largest apartment complexes. In 2022, a giant corporate landlord called Prime Group bought Skylark Apartments for a staggering $300 million. Looking to maximize their profits and recoup their investment, they immediately began raising rents 10% per year for existing tenants, while ignoring their complaints about shoddy living conditions and threatening tenant organizers with illegal evictions. We can expect similar stories to unfold across the city if action is not taken now to stabilize rents and protect tenants from arbitrary eviction.

The rent stabilization law passed by the Larkspur City Council is a joke. That’s why we’re going to the ballot.

In the summer of 2023, the Larkspur City Council passed the weakest local rent stabilization law in the entire state, despite Marin County having the most expensive rents in California. The ordinance caps annual rent increases at 7%, far more than the vast majority of Larkspur renters can afford, and barely any better than existing state law. It’s a slap in the face for thousands of working families and seniors struggling to make ends meet renting their home in Larkspur.

That’s why we’re preparing to launch a ballot initiative to pass real rent control in Larkspur that will provide housing security for ordinary working-class renters.

UPDATE: Despite Larkspur’s existing rent stabilization ordinance being exceptionally weak, Bon Air Apartments, the city’s largest landlord, has launched a referendum campaign to overturn the law. They qualified for the referendum by using out-of-state paid canvassers to deceive Larkspur voters, convincing many renters to sign their petition, believing it to be in favor of rent control, when in fact it was intended to repeal rent control. Larkspur voters will be asked to keep or repeal the existing rent stabilization law on the March 2024 ballot.