SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A new bill making its way through the California State Assembly aims to help Californians find housing by eliminating one of the financial hurdles tenants face when looking for a new place to rent: high security deposits.

Landlords in California can charge the first and last month’s rent as their security deposit, which means an apartment that costs $2,000 to rent could have a security deposit as high as $4,000.

Democratic Assembly member Matt Haney authored AB 12, hoping to make it illegal for landlords to charge any more than the first month’s rent as the security deposit.

If passed, California would become the 12th state in the country to limit deposits for rentals.