On Nov. 2, 2022, the town of Fairfax enacted two rent control ordinances with the goal of ensuring that renters do not get priced out of Fairfax. 36 percent of Fairfax rental households are low-income and are often members of underrepresented communities. Fairfax’s goal is to help them to be able to afford local housing. 

Town council member Stephanie Hellman highlights the importance of renters in Fairfax, noting that these ordinances are crucial to keep working class renters in Fairfax. The ordinances are also aimed at maintaining diversity in Fairfax, as 66 percent of Fairfax households who identify their race as other than white are renters.

“We have an affordable housing crisis in Marin County and many other places in California. Stronger tenant protections can help ensure that residents have stable and affordable housing options and prevent homelessness and displacement,” Hellman said.

Fairfax was the first town in Marin County to enact such rent control ordinances, but other towns are following suit. On Sept. 6, the town of Larkspur enacted its own rent control ordinance, becoming the second town in Marin County to take such actions.

Fairfax renter Joe McGarry believes these rent control ordinances are necessary. Drawing from his job at Good Earth, he explains that he has had coworkers who have been forced to leave Fairfax due to overpriced housing.

“We have a worker here right now who was a student at Archie Williams, and got a job here during school. He finished school and has been working here full time, his family are renters and are having to move to Sonoma because they can’t afford to stay here in Fairfax. Those are the stories we are trying to stop,” McGarry said. 

However, some members of the Fairfax community believe that the ordinances put a strain on mom-and-pop landlords, leading to the closure of certain local rental properties. Landlords feel that a financial strain has been put on them and say they were not included in the discussion from the beginning. They believe that this will change Fairfax’s rental economy for the worse. The Pitch reached out to several Fairfax landlords, but they declined to comment.

The Fairfax town council received criticism for these renter friendly ordinances, primarily from landlords. For this reason, the council passed the amended ordinances on Sept. 6 to address these concerns. These amended ordinances will take effect thirty days after their passage. Additionally, Fairfax has also placed tenant protections on the ballot, allowing the people of Fairfax to engage in the decision-making process.

According to the Marin Independent Journal (Marin IJ), “…a key issue is that landlords said they weren’t involved in the decision-making process that took place for nearly a year before the council approved the ordinances.” 

Although not all landlords oppose the rent control ordinances, the Town Council voted recently to certify a citizens’ ballot initiative that seeks to repeal the new rent control ordinances. While there are a sufficient number of supporters to put this repeal measure on the ballot, it is unclear whether there are enough votes to pass the measure in a general election. 

“We don’t want to delay this, creating more division, spending more money on meetings needlessly on this,” Michael Sexton, one of the supporters of the petition, said in a Marin IJ interview. 

Regardless of whether a ballot measure is placed before Fairfax voters, the coming months will demonstrate whether these ordinances have a significant impact on Fairfax tenants. 

This story was originally published on The Pitch on September 28, 2023.