A California law lets landlords evict all tenants and pull an entire building from the rent-controlled market. But what happens to the people in these expensive cities who suddenly find themselves without affordable housing?
Upjohn Institute Economist Brian Asquith presents research on this question Friday, Jan. 3 at the Allied Social Science Associations’ annual meeting in San Francisco. See our full conference coverage.
The presentation, titled "Evicted from the Land of Opportunity: Evidence on Displacement from California Rent Control,” draws on research in progress from Asquith, Kate Pennington of the U.S. Census Bureau and Charly Porcher of Georgetown University.
San Francisco has limited rent increases and evictions for tenants of multi-unit buildings since 1979 and about three quarters of tenants there live in rent-controlled units. Although landlords can’t selectively remove tenants, a 1985 law called the Ellis Act gave them a tool to stop leasing rent-controlled units altogether, provided they evict all residents.
The research team is exploring the effects of these evictions on people’s wages, jobs and the kinds of neighborhoods they end up in. Results from San Francisco evictions show the lower-income tenants move to areas with higher unemployment and experience large income losses for years.
In particular, the researchers are examining effects on children, finding they end up in areas with lower-performing schools and go on to earn less when they enter the workforce.
Early results from Los Angeles suggest similar results and the research team plans to expand the analysis to other California cities.
Asquith presents the research at 2:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 3 at the 2025 ASSA annual meeting.
See a full listing of Upjohn staff participation at the Allied Social Science Associations 2025 annual meeting. Follow the #ASSA or EconConf feeds on Bluesky.
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