The librarian and her husband, a freelance consultant, received notice of a $100 monthly rent increase last year and another for $150 this year, bringing the rent on their home outside Los Angeles to $2,350 a month. They can absorb the increases for now but not forever.

A lot of times people are like, Well, just try and pick up and move to someplace cheaper, the 44-year-old said. But I have a job locally, my family, my friends. It would be a big challenge to uproot my entire life chasing cheaper rent.

With rental prices skyrocketing and affordable housing in short supply, inflation-weary tenants in cities and counties across the country are turning to the ballot box for relief. Supporters say rent control policies on the Nov. 8 ballot are the best short-term option to dampen rising rents and ensure vulnerable residents remain housed.

Opponents, led by the real-estate industry, say rent control will lead to higher prices for tenants in housing not covered by rent caps, harm mom-and-pop landlords relying on rental income for retirement, and discourage the construction of badly needed affordable housing. They have spent heavily to stop ballot initiatives, even going to court to halt them.

In Orange County, Florida, home to Disney World and other theme parks, voters will consider a ballot initiative to limit rent increases to the annual increase in the consumer price index. But a court ruling last week means that even if it passes, it could be nullified.

Proponents in Orlando and other Orange County cities point to a population that has increased 25% since 2010 and rents that jumped 25% between 2020 and 2021 and experienced another double-digit increase this year. The housing shortage was magnified by Hurricane Ian, with an estimated 1,140 rental properties suffering $44.5 million in damage.

Ive had a lot of constituents reach out to me, and they are fearful of becoming homeless. They dont know what to do, said Orange County Commissioner Emily Bonilla, who authored the ballot initiative ordinance after hearing from tenants facing rent increases upwards of 100%.

Last year, voters in St. Paul, Minnesota, passed a ballot measure capping rents at 3% a year while residents across the river in Minneapolis backed a measure allowing the city council to enact a rent control ordinance.

This summer, Kingston, New York, became the first upstate city to enact rent control. The measure means around 1,200 units buildings built before 1974 with six or more units must limit rents to a percentage set by a rent guidelines board.

Bostons Mayor Michelle Wu was elected last year and made bringing back rent control to the city part of her campaign. The biggest hurdle to that proposal is that Massachusetts voters narrowly approved a 1994 ballot question banning rent control statewide.

Rent stabilization can provide protections for everyone, but do so in a way that really targets benefits to low-income renters, renters of color, renters who are most desperately impacted by housing instability, said Tram Hoang, a housing policy expert who was involved in the St. Paul campaign.

The fight over rent control has been most intense out West, where in 2019, lawmakers in California and Oregon approved statewide caps on annual rent increases. Californias annual cap cannot exceed 10% and Oregons is set at 7%, plus the consumer price index.

Both laws exempt new construction for 15 years, a compromise to encourage developers to keep building, and apply only to certain units.

But that hasnt quelled tenant activism in California, where nearly half the states 40 million residents are renters. Advocates say the statewide law which expires in 2030 does not go far enough.

Voters in the San Francisco suburb of Richmond and Southern California beachside city of Santa Monica will consider measures to further tighten existing rent caps to a maximum of 3%.

In the city of Pasadena home to the annual Rose Parade and Rose Bowl college football game voters will consider a measure to create a rent oversight board and limit rent increases to 75% of the consumer price index, which supporters say translates to 2% to 3% a year.

Rent stabilization advocates failed to collect enough signatures to qualify for the 2018 ballot, and they thought it would be hard this time around because the state had enacted protections. But campaign field director Bee Rooney said tenants financially wrecked by the pandemic were eager to back the initiative.

Any amount when youre not expecting it is a lot, Rooney said. Some people, their rent doubled or went up by 50%.

Pasadena retiree Paulette Brown received the state-allowed increase of 10% in July, bringing the rent on her two-bedroom apartment to $1,175 a month. Budgeting will be tighter.

I really cant afford any mishaps, because Im not able to save anything, said the 64-year-old Brown, who lives with her daughter and grandson.

Opponents of the measure, which include the national and state realtors associations, say curtailing rent increases to a fraction of inflation will result in property owners taking rentals off the market and doing minimal maintenance.

Whats being proposed here is draconian and for the most part landlords who have good tenants arent trying to get rid of them, said Paul Little, president and CEO of the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce.

Michael Wilkerson, senior economist at Portland, Oregon-based ECONorthwest, describes both the California and Oregon state laws as anti-price gouging measures aimed at protecting the most vulnerable tenants from exorbitant increases, while encouraging new housing development.

Rent-control policies have been around for decades, put in place after World War II in New York City and elsewhere to combat rising housing prices and again in the 1970s in the Northeast and California. However, the real-estate industry has since succeeded in passing state laws that made it difficult, if not impossible, for many local municipalities to cap rents.

The data on rent control has been mixed. The policy, according to an Urban Institute report, was found to have reduced rent on covered units in Cambridge, Mass., San Francisco and New York but resulted in no significant decreases in New Jersey cities.

Some studies, however, have shown that rent control can reduce the number of housing units available and discourage landlords from maintaining them.

Opponents also say rent regulation can scare off developers. St. Pauls original ordinance, for example, applied to almost all housing and mandated landlords stick to the 3% cap even with new tenants.

Within weeks, council members were hearing from developers who blamed the new law for scuttling housing projects because they lost funding. Building permits issued for new housing through August plummeted 31% from the four-year average.

In response, the city council approved amendments in September to exempt low-income housing as well as new construction for 20 years. It also allows landlords to raise rents 8% plus the consumer price index after a tenant moves out.

Orange Countys ballot measure is up in the air after an appeals court rejected the proposal last week and suggested it wont be certified even if voters approve it.

The court, which acknowledged the state law set an extremely high bar for local governments to pass rent control ordinances, said a consultant hired by the county didnt identify a housing emergency a requirement under a 1977 state law preempting local rent control.

The county plans to file a motion for a rehearing and with ballots already out, the Orange County Supervisor of Elections said it has no plans to issue new ones. Supporters of the measure said they will keep campaigning.

For tenants like Jessy Correa, the setback means she faces a 20% rent increase on her three-bedroom apartment in Orlando come January. The 44-year-old mother of six is already struggling to afford the current rent of $2,300.

A recruiter at a faith-based nonprofit, she was hoping the ballot initiative would bring stability, give us a moment to breathe. Instead, she is now forced to make difficult choices, like getting another job.

Where is the American dream of being able to live, to enjoy? she asked tearfully after learning of the court ruling. What are we doing? Its frustrating.

Musk has said he wont make major decisions about content or restoring banned accounts before setting up a content moderation council with diverse viewpoints. But his own behavior as a prolific tweeter has signaled otherwise.

Hes engaged directly with figures on the political right who are appealing for looser restrictions, including a Republican candidate for Arizona secretary of state who credits Musk with enabling him to begin tweeting again after his account was briefly suspended Monday.

Musk even changed his profile to Twitter Complaint Hotline Operator with a photo of himself when he was a toddler holding a telephone. But it is almost impossible for those outside of Twitter to know what strings he is pulling or whose accounts have been suspended: The company has stopped responding to media questions, except for the few that Musk answers by tweet.

Musks promised interventions started last week on his first full day as Twitters owner. A conservative political podcaster shared examples of the platform allegedly favoring liberals and secretively downgrading conservative voices a common criticism that Twitters previous leaders dismissed as inaccurate. I will be digging in more today, Musk responded.

It continued when the daughter of Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, whose provocative critiques of politically correct culture and feminism are popular with some right-wing activists, appealed for Musk to restore her fathers account after a tweet about transgender actor Elliot Page that apparently ran afoul of Twitters rules on hateful conduct.

Anyone suspended for minor & dubious reasons will be freed from Twitter jail, Musk pledged. He had months earlier said in reference to Peterson that Twitter was going way too far in squashing dissenting opinions.

One of Musks first big moves was an open letter to advertisers Twitters chief revenue source promising that he would not let Twitter descend into a free-for-all hellscape as he follows through with his plans to promote free speech on the platform. And hes suggesting asking users to pay $8 for a coveted verified blue check mark as a way to diversify revenue.

The check mark has been criticized as a symbol of elitism on the platform. But its primary purpose has been to verify that accounts in the public eye such as politicians, brands and journalists are who they say they are. Its been a tool to prevent impersonation and help stem the flow of misinformation.

But some still have their worries about Musk opening the platform to a flood of online toxicity thats bad for their brands. General Motors has said it will suspend advertising on Twitter as it monitors the platform under Musk, and others are facing pressure to review their own plans. On Tuesday, more than three dozen advocacy organizations sent an open letter to Twitters top 20 advertisers, calling on them to commit to halting advertising on the platform if Twitter under Musk undermines brand safety and guts content moderation.

Over the weekend, the billionaire posted then deleted an article that contained baseless rumors about the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosis husband. And much of his commentary in recent days has been a response to appeals from conservative voices.

In a text exchange with The Associated Press, Mark Finchem, the Republican running to become Arizonas secretary of state, said his access to the platform was restored quickly after reaching out to Musk via his personal Twitter handle. Asked why his account was suspended, Finchem said: Perhaps you should reach out to Elon Musk. We were banned for an unknown reason, we reached out to him and 45 minutes later we were reinstated.

Finchem, who questions the results of the 2020 presidential election and was at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has drawn national attention for his statements about election security and his ability to change election rules if he wins the states top election post next week.

Musk tweeted Monday evening that he was Looking into it in response to a complaint about Finchems apparent suspension. The complaint came from attorney Jenna Ellis, who was a legal adviser to former President Donald Trumps campaign. About 40 minutes later, Finchem posted a test tweet on his account, which was followed by a lengthier post thanking Musk for restoring his ability to use the site.

Thank you @elonmusk for stopping the commie who suspended me from Twitter a week before the election, Finchem wrote in the Tweet. Twitter is much better with you at the helm.

Jared Holt, a senior research manager at The Institute for Strategic Dialogue, said big social media companies have typically operated on the whims of their owners. But that problem is especially glaring when somebody like Elon Musk takes the reins and kind of establishes himself as king of the platform, rather than an owner trying to run a coherent business, Holt said.

At the same time, Musk has sent mixed signals about his intentions. Despite overt examples of appealing to conservative calls and complaints about Twitters policies, theres also plenty of evidence that the platforms policies on combating misinformation are still in effect. Separately, Musk has defended Twitters ongoing head of trust and safety, Yoel Roth, after some conservative users called for his firing over past comments expressing liberal views.

Roth remained on the job this week after other top executives were fired or resigned. And apart from Musk, he appeared to be the chief public voice of Twitters content moderation, explaining that the company spent the weekend working to remove a surge in hateful conduct following Musks takeover.

Weve all made some questionable tweets, me more than most, but I want to be clear that I support Yoel, Musk tweeted in response to a complaint from another conservative commentator. My sense is that he has high integrity, and we are all entitled to our political beliefs.

Some longtime Twitter observers have expressed skepticism about the effectiveness of Musks planned content moderation council. In part, thats because Twitter already has a trust and safety advisory council to address moderation questions.

Truly I cant imagine how it would differ, said Danielle Citron, a University of Virginia law professor who sits on the council and has been working with Twitter since 2009 to tackle online harms, such as threats and stalking. Our council has the full spectrum of views on free speech.

Citron said shes still waiting to hear if the council will be having its next meeting, scheduled for the day after the midterms.

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