Summary

California faces a deep and worsening housing crisis. More than half of California renters pay more than they can afford, while rents are rising nearly twice as fast as wages. As rents climb, homelessness increases, and more Californians are unhoused than ever before. California's current rent cap – which only covers some homes and will expire in four years – is set too high to slow this growth. These conditions represent a growing public health emergency.

In January 2026, members of the Housing Justice as Health Equity Collaborative finalized distribution of the California Renter Health Survey, a new tool designed to understand how housing affordability, stability, and conditions affect renters’ health across the state. The survey received 577 responses from renters in urban, suburban, and rural communities throughout California, with particularly strong participation from the greater Los Angeles and Bay Area regions, as well as Orange County, San Diego, the Inland Empire, the Central Valley, Sacramento, and the Central Coast.

These preliminary findings offer an early glimpse into the health consequences of California’s high rents. They show that rising housing costs are driving stress, worsening mental and physical health, forcing households to cut back on basic health-supportive needs, and increasing fear and related stress of eviction and homelessness. The findings also indicate that capping rents can protect health, by helping to keep households stable, communities connected, and health workers able to do their jobs.

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Key Findings

• California’s high rents compromise health: Two-thirds of survey respondents reported increased stress and worry due to rising rents—stress that can trigger pathways leading to poor mental and physical health. Forty percent reported negative mental health impacts such as anxiety and depression, and nearly 30% reported physical health impacts including sickness, disability, and hypertension. Rising rents also forced households to cut back on essential needs, including food, medical care, health insurance, and savings, while increasing fear of eviction and becoming unhoused.
• Capping rents supports health, but California has an incomplete patchwork of protections: While California has a statewide rent cap, it is set too high to meaningfully slow rent growth and excludes many homes. Only a small fraction of California cities have local rent control ordinances. Among survey respondents living in cities with rent control, 86% reported that it helped keep rent increases manageable, with many also reporting improvements in mental and physical health. These findings align with growing public health consensus that rent regulations can slow rent growth, stabilize households, and reduce illness and premature death.
• Soaring rents strain the health and effectiveness of California’s health workforce: The survey included responses from 136 health and social service workers across roles such as nursing, public health, community health work, research, social work, and doula care. Eighty percent reported that California’s high rents make it harder for them to do their jobs and keep people healthy. Many described long, exhausting commutes, burnout, and concerns about whether they can continue to live and work in California—threatening both the health workforce and the systems communities rely on.

The corporate playbook is harming health

The findings reflect a familiar public health pattern: corporate actors prioritizing profit over well-being. Corporate landlords are buying up housing, neglecting maintenance, and using algorithmic rent-setting tools to drive up rents—mirroring tactics long used by industries such as Big Tobacco to block health-protective policies. These practices worsen housing instability and harm health, underscoring the need for strong public health leadership and policy action.

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It’s Time for Action: Cap Rents, Protect Health

The public health consensus is in: soaring rents threaten health. Early results from the California Renter Health Survey, coupled with findings from the recently released The Health Benefits of Rent Control show that our state’s high rents compromise health and strain our health workers to the breaking point, but that capping rents can be an effective tool to protect health. It is time to stop unchecked rent hikes and ensure that we all have housing and neighborhoods that enable us to thrive.