The tenants are too hot, but California will not cool them. Why?

From Alejandra Reyes-BellardeCalmness

This story was originally published by CalmattersS Register about their ballots.

During the lowest heat wave in Los Angeles, Memphis Perez, his wife, three children and an elderly mother stuffed in a bedroom, the only room in their air conditioning apartment. He himself paid for the air conditioner, but believes that his landlord was supposed to be instead.

“It’s like being inside a toaster,” Perez said. Temperatures reached the above ninety years; Days by days was blurring. “It is fair for them to do their role and to provide an experienced experience in an apartment,” he added.

But it is unlikely that the state legislative body will happen this year, despite a report from the California Department of Housing and Community development that recommends the state to determine a Maximum standard for indoors from 82 degrees for all homes.

Senator Henry Stern, Democrat from Los Angeles, is the author of a bill that would make it a state policy That residents should be provided with convenient temperatures in the dwellings they hire. However, the bill was amended to remove any specific temperature purpose. Second Bill of the Assembly Damon Konoli, Democrat from San Rafael, would have Forbidden mobile homework From a ban on air conditioners.

Both measures face a final hearing today as they emerge from the tension files. If they fail to pass today, they are dead for the year.

Both suggestions are the latest Battlefronts in the ongoing conflict on how California adapts to the heat-controlled heat in homes. Housing and environmental defenders want the state to set a standard that will offer immediate relief, especially for low-income tenants who tend to live in older and less efficient buildings.

Landlords claim that it is not fair to force them to pay the cost of upgrading existing buildings to solve a problem they have not caused. Their opposition blocks actions to politics in the past.

“There is no political will, and also (the groups of landlord) have a lot of influence,” says Jovan Morales-Tilgren, a coordinator of the Housing Policy for Leadership Council for Justice and Accountability. “They have a lot of funding, with not so many words to kill a bill. This really limits what the defenders can do.”

Landlords “are not against” the rules – but still block them

Legislators tried before dealing with increasing heat with a temperature -specific standard for cooling for homes and apartments.

In 2022, former Member of the Assembly Richard Bloom I tried to set rules Appointment of standards for cooling new and existing units. Stern was the co -author of the bill.

Fighting the bill aggressively, California Association of Apartments spend $ 1.2 million and California Association of Construction Industry Spend $ 1.6 million to lobby in the total year in the same year.

Both apartment owners and the Construction Association want more research and smaller steps towards upgrading the residential stock for decades, said Bob Raimer, lobbyist who represents them. The groups also do not want the full responsibility to pay for it.

“Let me clear. We are not against cooling standards,” Raymer said.

But three years ago, Bloom and his co -authors amended the bill to ask for $ 5 million to get the state department to study the potential for rules, incentives and other forms of relief. The Association of Apartments and the Construction Association also opposed it. After the bill accepted, they wrote a letter asking governor Gavin News to veto the proposal.

This study led to a report that influenced Stern’s bill. He said he had introduced a subsequent proposal that he thought at time could be easier to reach-Takova, which includes only a temperature standard for newly built housing.

The tenants’ defenders call the original language of Stern’s present bill. The new homes and apartments are built on more energetically efficient codes, so they have a smaller problem with cooling.

This would not protect the tenants with low incomes, which most need cooling.

“In the conversations with (Stern) and his staff, we were able to change it in order to force the state to start looking at this broader way,” said Morales-Tilgren.

Stern admitted that his change replaced a rule with a more ambitious policy.

“I will admit that it is a little less sharpened and heavy than past efforts,” Stern said. “But we decided it was something we could go through this year.”

Unlike 2022, the main associations for apartments and construction do not oppose the current Stern Bill.

Debra Carlton, a spokesman for the California Apartment Association, says the group “was in conversations with the senator.” While apartment owners “understand the importance of dealing with extreme heat, we think it feels unnecessary,” she said.

However, the Southern California Housing Association officially opposes Stern’s bill. The spokesman Molly Kirkland said the organization sees the bill as a potential predecessor of the modernization mandate, who fears that rent owners can lead to unexpected expenses.

“It’s not just about investing an air conditioner or cooler,” Kirkland said. “If it becomes truly significant resulting from modernization, it may mean termination of hiring to achieve this.”

Stern still wants a standard for cooling based on temperature and believes that his bill will lead state policy in this direction. “These are the political realities of how big the battle you want to choose with the hostess lobby immediately at the gate,” he added.

Living in a crowded, old and uninsulated Lincoln Heath apartment with her extended family, Perez is tired of waiting for help.

“The temperatures here in LA are rising every year,” he said.

Costs, complications and justice

The protection of tenants from heat would require a thorough state analysis of the housing stock and significant help to finance landlords, says Stephanie Pincet, director of the California Center for Sustainable Communities at UCLA.

Pincetl says it is not really fair for state policy to displace the owners of buildings responsible for the modernization of old buildings to meet new state construction standards.

“Just the requirement of landlords to make these buildings more thermally executing is something like a cheap way to do this to the responsibility of a state, which only recently had better construction codes,” she said. “This is a very difficult situation that has no easy answers at all.”

The passage of an internal standard for maximum temperature throughout the country will require the installation of cooling systems such as heat pumps or upgrades such as adding insulation or cool roofs.

This can cost between $ 6,000 and $ 13,000 per unit for installing heat pumps without including upgrading electric panels, if necessary, said Maya Offke, analyzer of research at the UCLA Sustainable Communist Communities Center.

“The point is that people need cooling, there is no doubt,” Pincet said. “But how you get there is really difficult.”

Negotiating the cost of a complicated solution

As landlords, tenants and state, they are shaking who pays the price of adaptation, experts agree that the decision is likely to include a combination of strategies.

Defenders and landlords admit that cooling all homes in California would be extremely expensive and will require the state to offer financial incentives to make it possible. But faced with a $ 20 billion state budget deficit, legislators may hesitate to spend money.

This can cost between $ 6,000 and $ 13,000 per unit for installing heat pumps without including electric panel superstructures, if necessary, said Maya Offam, analyzer of research at the UCLA Sustainable Communist Communities Center.

With the help of the state through no interest loans, grants or tax loans – landlords may be able to cool a room in any residential unit in the state, said Raymer, Lobbyist Lobby and Construction Groups. But the requirement of landlords to cool any building in the country without any help is unrealistic, he said.

Stephanie Pincet, director of the California Center for Sustainable Communities in UCLA, has no position on the Starten Bill. But she agrees with Raymer on this last point. The state needs more data on the housing composition and energy efficient cooling to create a strong policy, she said.

“Just the requirement of landlords to make these buildings more thermally executing is something like a cheap way to do this to the responsibility of a state, which only recently had better construction codes,” she said. “This is a very difficult situation that has no easy answers at all.”

The locals lead, with the state remains behind

Five years ago, during a brutal heat wave, Maria Seraphin created a portable air conditioner in her living room to cool her family. The next month, after the electricity account of $ 500, she distributed the air conditioner; She is a tenant in an affordable housing community. She just has fans now.

Seraphin is one of the many Californians who predominantly support the determination of a state cooling standard according to a 2023 UC Berkeley PollS

In the absence of a state rule, cities and cities began to take action on problems with the warmth of the housing. Two years ago, Palm Springs required Property owners to provide cooling to maintain a maximum temperature of 80 degrees.

Earlier this month, Los Angeles County adopted an ordinance that requires large landlords to maintain homes in unaccorporated regions of the county on or above 82 degrees Starting in 2027, local leaders have denied the opposition of the associations of landlords, who made many of the same arguments they made to the state.

Serafin lives in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Wilmington. LA has studied the possibility of requiring air conditioning in homes, but the city has no temperature -specific standard. Seraphin said that if the city authorities make such a rule, it would help.

“It’s like hell,” she said. “My head hurts. I feel tired and anxious. I can’t cook or do housework because I’m starting to feel desperate and annoying.”

Stern said he hoped the local actions accumulate inertia as the state tries to understand its strategy.

“There are so many other things we do: wild fire, utilities, oil, restriction and trade program,” Stern said. “This is the silent killer. And it always remains behind.”

This article was Originally Published on CalMatters and was reissued under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Noderivatives License.