APARTMENT ADVOCATE
NATIONAL APARTMENT ASSOCIATION /
NATIONAL MULTIFAMILY HOUSING COUNCIL
Playing Whack-a-Mole with Rent Control
O
regon’s newly adopted state-wide
rent control law has opened up
Pandora’s box, and threats to the
industry abound. For example, housing
affordability challenges in the nation’s cities
are driving conversations about the return
of rent control to Massachusetts, pushes in
Florida, Illinois, Colorado and a renewed
fight over legislation in California, despite
the defeat of Proposition 10 last year. policy is seemingly simple to implement and
it provides short-term relief for low-income
households who are fortunate enough to
reside in the small segment of newly rent-
controlled apartments. These characteristics
tend to override the glut of economic
evidence showing its detrimental effects on the
long-term health of a city or state’s housing
supply, making rent control an enticing policy
choice for legislators to pursue.
Unfortunately, some policymakers are
unconcerned with investing in housing
affordability over the long-term. They
are seeking a quick fix to an emotionally-
charged issue affecting their constituents’,
in their words, basic rights to housing. Rent
control provides an off-the-rack solution.
The term is easy for voters to digest, the Additionally, rent control is seemingly
becoming more palatable as advocates and
their supporters in government reframe
this solution as an “anti-rent gouging”
campaign to determine reasonable rent-
increase amounts. The Oregon case
represents a successful implementation
of this reframing and advocates have
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begun using it as a template in rent control
campaigns in other areas, regardless of
the existence of state preemption laws.
Moreover, groups in areas with rent control
regimes are pushing their champions in
state and local government to achieve
broader coverage of property types by
closing perceived regulatory “loopholes.”
Examples include proposals to
eliminate vacancy decontrol provisions,
restrict when and how owners can remove
their properties from the rental market,
restrict rent increases for the purposes
of recovering capital improvement costs
and narrow the timeframe in which new
construction is exempted from regulation
In California, despite voters
overwhelmingly defeating Proposition 10
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