Apartment Trends Magazine June 2019 | Page 19

2018-2019 MILESTONES INDUSTRY MILESTONE ASSOCIATION MILESTONE EVENT MILESTONE RENTAL HOMES IN METRO DENVER RENTAL HOMES REPRESENTED IN AAMD MEMBERSHIP OWNER / MANAGEMENT ATTENDANCE AT MAINTENANCE OLYMPICS 352,872 AS OF MAY 2019 237,487 AS OF MAY 2019 1,369 ACHIEVED IN APRIL 2019 RENT CONTROL DEFEATED... FOR NOW S enate Bill 19-225, was introduced on April 1st at the Colorado State Capitol. It repeals the statewide ban on rent control and grant local governments authority to impose rent control policies. This proposal relinquishes state responsibility to more volatile local governments. Proponents of the bill believed this bill will solve the housing affordability issue. Housing issues are best addressed on a regional level, but this bill if implemented would have created a patchwork of rental housing pricing policies set by local governments that would impact the entire community. The Association was founded to fight rent control back in 1968. Now over 50 years later, we formed a Colorado Rent Control War Cabinet with members who www.aamdhq.org volunteered and stepped up to the plate to defeated this legislation. Our team consisted of our top industry leaders, our Novitas PR Firm, and our lobbyist team at Axiom Strategies, the National Apartment Association (NAA) and the National MultiHousing Council (NMHC). However, the fight is not over, as it is widely assumed rent control will be coming back this next legislative session as well as talk of a ballot initiative in 2020. Decades of rent control in cities like New York and San Francisco have shown that the policy hurts renters in the cities in which it is imposed and has a significant negative spillover effect to neighboring non-rent controlled cities, which is why local control was so alarming when it was being imposed in Colorado. As we go into the next legislative session in 2020, our Rent Control War Cabinet hopes to present solutions and work with legislators and the community on finding real solutions to the affordability issue in Colorado, including: • Finding new opportunities to build more supply that includes a wide variety and range of housing options • Seek opportunities to increase the rental housing supply – especially near transit corridors and job centers • Encourage public-private partnerships such as LIVE Denver that create more affordable housing in the areas it is most needed, and increase direct financial assistance to families in need. The upfront short impact of rent control implementation is strongly outweighed by the longer-term marketplace distortions. The bottom line is rent control restrictions have negative and unintended consequences compared to what policymakers and activists intend. The aftermath of implementing rent control policies will include fewer apartments to be built, supply of housing lessens, gentrification will be fueled, and rents will escalate (on non-rent control housing), all of which worsen the housing crisis. JUNE 2019 TRENDS | 17