A major test of rent control as a way to solve the Bay Area’s affordable housing crisis met mixed results at the polls last week.

Initiatives to establish formal rent-control programs appear to be on track to pass in Mountain View and Richmond but failed in San Mateo, Burlingame and Alameda. All were placed on the ballot by citizens who collected enough signatures.

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Rent control did not win “across the board, but more than anyone ever dreamed possible,” said Juliet Brodie, a Stanford Law School professor who helped draft Measure V, the citizen initiative in Mountain View.

She said the results will encourage more cities to adopt modern rent control, which limits annual rent increases for existing tenants. “I think that as these measures are implemented, people will see that rent stabilization is a balanced response to a market that is out of control.”

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In Mountain View, “We were totally grassroots,” Brodie said. “We didn’t run a TV ad. As far as talking points, they were only as good as the volunteer at the door.”