In what must be considered a positive omen for office building investors, Charlotte-based Bank of America Corp., America’s second-largest bank, has sent letters out to home-office employees, urging them to get back to work, in the office. Employees were given two weeks to comply.

According to the Financial Times, the “letters of education” informed the banking giant’s staff they could face consequences if they continued not to follow the bank’s return-to-office mandate.

BofA’s push for employees to return to the office comes as many companies are shifting back to a pre-pandemic working environment, despite various studies showing workers favor flexible work models or the ability to work remotely over working in an office setting. Citi and Chase have sent employees a similar warning letter.

The California Apartment Association (CAA) warned members about an upcoming statewide ballot measure, the Justice for Renters Act. If approved, CAA said, it would represent “an existential threat” to rental housing providers and “from a ballot measure that could overturn the state’s most important rental housing law and “unleash widespread and unbridled rent control at the local level.”

Spearhead by activist Michael Weinstein, the Justice for Renters Act seeks to overturn the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, which exempts single-family homes and properties built after 1995 or earlier if they were in cities with rent control when Costa-Hawkins passed. The exemption “has been important by encouraging the development of new rental units throughout the state, particularly in communities that have rent control,” according to CAA.

“If the Justice for Renters Act were to pass, it would invite a return to extreme rent control policies, like those observed in cities like Berkeley, San Francisco, and Santa Monica before Costa-Hawkins,” CAA said. “This would reduce the availability and quality of rental units and deter the development of new rental housing and any additional private investment in upgrading and maintaining quality units.”

The association will lead a campaign to defeat the measure, as it had done previously with Propositions 10 and 21, and is urging rental property owners and industry stakeholders to join the effort.