CALL TO ACTION: Say No to Rent Control

TELL THE ORANGE COUNTY COMMISSION TO OPPOSE RENT CONTROL

PARTICIPATE IN PUBLIC COMMENT

Email Template Instructions - Please copy and paste the email template provided below to contact the Mayor and our friends on the commission. Please note - We are not asking you to email the entire BCC. We have included a link to the email addresses of those we are asking you to contact, below.

SUBJECT LINE - Oppose Rent Control

Mayor Demings and Commissioners - 

I am part of the multifamily rental housing industry in Orange County. As an industry, our goal is to provide quality housing options for all Orange County residents and I commend the County for the strides that have been made to further this goal. 

For years, housing construction has been unable to keep pace with unprecedented levels of community growth. According to research from the Florida Apartment Association, Orange County currently has a shortage of 5,188 apartment homes and will have a shortage of 54,477 apartment homes by 2030. As an industry, we understand that identifying effective solutions not only to increase but bring new rental housing inventory, into the market, faster, is more important than ever. This is why I am concerned about the proposed rent control measure in Orange County. Rent control not only fails to address the need for new housing inventory but overtly threatens the much-needed production of new housing along with the quality of existing housing stock. 

From a project financing standpoint, with rent control in place, lenders and investors who fund new apartment projects will be far more reluctant to invest in development in Orange County. This will not only exacerbate our housing supply shortage but also result in a decline in property tax and building permit revenue for the County. One does not have to look far to find an example of this, just take the City of St. Paul. Between November 2021 and January 2022, multifamily building permits in St. Paul dropped nearly 82% and building permit revenue from January to May 2022 was $3.69 million, down from the 2018 - 2021 average of $4.176 million. 

Lack of supply is only one of the many challenges in our housing market. From skyrocketing insurance premiums to increasing property taxes, the apartment industry, like so many other industries, has experienced significant increases in operating costs greatly exceeding the rate of inflation.

In sum, rent control jeopardizes the quality of existing housing inventory and new housing construction at a time when it is needed most. It is for these reasons that I urge you to vote against the Rent Stabilization Ordinance up for a public hearing on August 9.

As an industry, we welcome the opportunity to work with the County to identify effective solutions to produce more housing supply.  

Thank you 

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