CHULA VISTA, Calif. — The battle over rent control is heading to the ballot box as California voters decide on Proposition 33.
The Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act was passed back in 1995, preventing cities and counties throughout the state from imposing certain rent control measures.
Proposition 33 would repeal that.
In a cozy storefront office in downtown Chula Vista, Barbara Pinto never imagined that at almost 79, she would still be working.
'Who's going to hire me at almost 80 to do something and pay me?" she asked. "That's even more exciting, you know. I feel like I'm still worth something!"
Still working, she said, so she can afford to pay $1,550 every month to keep a roof over her head.
"As rents continue to skyrocket, I'm just caught in the web like everybody else," she told CBS 8.
Her need to work has now given her life a whole new purpose.
"To fight for laws for tenant protections, and that's what we're doing," she added.
An organizer for ACCE, a non-profit that advocates for renters' rights, Barbara sees this as more of a calling than a job.
"I am gung ho," she said. "I am ready! If it's anything that's going to help the renters, I am out there."
One of her missions now: educating voters about Proposition 33.
"The propositions are really a 'B'," she said. "Nobody gets half of this crap. They don't understand what they're talking about. You're voting one way and you're actually voting against something."
Prop 33, which ACCE is strongly supporting, would eliminate a state law that currently prevents local government from imposing their own rent control measures.
Right now, cities, including San Diego, can't set rent control on single family homes or apartments built after 1995.
"We want these protections to protect everybody that is renting," Pinto added.
Opponents of Prop 33, though, say that passing this measure would make California's current housing shortage even worse, warning that property values could drop, and that developers would likely stop building new housing.
Twice already, similar propositions have failed at the ballot box, which motivates Barbara even more.
"Keep on fighting," she said. "Keep on fighting."
She says it's everyone's job to exercise their right to vote on November 5, and that she plans to keep on working, hoping to change others' lives.
"I just put on my walking shoes and I just do it," she added, "I see it is so necessary."