The community-led effort to introduce a historic Redwood City rent control and tenant protection measure last year, which failed, got a second wind.
Faith in Action Bay Area, a nonprofit coalition of faith and community leaders, filed a new Fair and Affordable Housing Ordinance on Wednesday for the November 2026 ballot. The measure would cap rent increases, protect renters from certain types of evictions and guard against landlord harassment.
Last fall, organizers gathered over 7,000 signatures for the measure, which didn’t prevail because many of those who signed weren’t registered Redwood City voters. This time around, the organization feels they’re “more prepared than ever” to ensure the ordinance qualifies for the ballot, a Faith in Action press release noted.
“We feel like we need to get almost double the signatures required,” Martha Beetley, a Faith in Action advocate and Redwood City resident, said, “so we cover our bases well and have almost no chance of a repeat of last time — and we have no doubt that we can get that.”
She said the signature snafu was because many folks who live in unincorporated parts of the county, like North Fair Oaks, contributed, as well as those who forgot to update their registered address. The organization will need 10% of Redwood City voters to sign on in support of the ordinance, which is approximately 4,500 folks.
Critics of the ordinance include the California Apartment Association, whose Senior Vice President Rhovy Lyn Antonio stated, “Faith in Action and their cohorts want to sow division and community instability through failed policy that has proven to increase the cost of housing for all renters.”
Instead of supporting Redwood City’s Anti-Displacement Strategy, which “aims to strengthen protections and increase subsidies for renters,” Antonio asserted, Faith in Action is choosing an “all or nothing approach,” based on either “bad advice” or “false rhetoric.”
She cited Propositions 10, 21 and 33, which all failed in the last decade, as examples of the local disapproval of rent control.
The San Mateo County Association of Realtors also disapproves of the measure. Fernando Peña, the association’s director of government affairs, said that “ballot proposals such as this one only serve to discourage supply and affordability.”
The mission behind the measure is to combat “corporate landlords” by making neighborhoods more affordable for tenants and fair for “mom and pop landlords,” according to the press statement.
Should the ordinance pass, landlords would only be able to raise rent by a maximum of 5% each year and could petition for higher rent increases if their operating expenses go up. Single-family homes, condos and all new units built since 1995 would be exempt.
The measure would provide relocation benefits to renters who are evicted “for a reason that is not their fault,” and would equip renters with the right to return after renovations. The Fair and Affordable Housing Ordinance would also offer them more options if a landlord does not complete basic repairs or meet local and state health and safety standards too.
The city manager and city council would have to establish annual guidelines, provide community education, connect tenants and landlords with legal services, collect data on rental rates and supervise the process for petitions and hearings in addition per the ordinance.
One Redwood City Faith in Action leader, Fabiola Fierro, said her organization has “heard continuously” from thousands of neighbors that the cost of rent and utilities is “out of control.”
“We need to change that if we want Redwood City to stay a place where essential workers can live and families can put down roots,” Fierro said. “The people of Redwood City overwhelmingly support rent control.”
Almost nine out of 10 multifamily homes in Redwood City are owned by corporations and real estate trusts, compared to just over 1.5% owned by “mom-and-pop” landlords from Redwood City, a 2024 study found. Moreover, corporate owners charge the highest rents, which drive up asking rents across the neighborhood, the study showed.
According to Zillow rental data, the average price of rent for a two-bedroom in Redwood City is about $3,800. According to Faith in Action Bay Area, many tenants are being pushed out by “mistreatment from ‘bad actor’ corporate landlords,” including “harassment” and “uninhabitable living conditions.”
Redwood City Council member Chris Sturken is sympathetic to the initiative.
“I understand that the rents are too damn high,” Sturken said. “It’s exciting to me to see the community take matters into their own hands and exercise their civic duty.”
Faith in Action, in its statement, said “there is a shortage of safe, dignified and affordable housing” in Redwood City. “Without bold action,” the organization stated, “the crisis continues to increase homelessness, create anxiety and instability for hardworking neighbors, and decrease the health and educational outcomes for children.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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“Bold action” should not be rent cotrol but rather reducing fees, requirements, costs, red tape, uncertainty, etc. to encourage more housing development. This measure would do the opposite. Terrible idea.