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NEWS

Commissioners discussed Orange County rents, which have increased an average of 30% over the past year.

SCREENSHOT VIA ORANGE COUNTY GOVERNMENT

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As rent increases surge, Orange County considers rent stabilization — and faces a showdown with the state, if they try to pass it.

BY ERIC TEGETHOFF

By the end of their last board meeting, Orange County commissioners agreed: The rent is too damn high.

But does it mean a cap on rent increases is coming to Central Florida? That answer is still a few months away — and will likely provoke a showdown with the state.

The housing crisis landed with a heavy thud in commissioners’ laps at their April 5 board meeting. During the public comment period, people lined up to tell harrowing stories about their struggles to keep up with rent increases — some topping $500 — and to avoid homelessness. One commenter said a family was living in the woods behind her house, despite the fact that the parents were working.

Orange County rents have increased an average of 30% over the past year.

Disney employee Rachelle Edee-Pierre is a single mother of two who recently adopted her 13-year-old brother. She’s a Winter Park resident who has watched her rent steadily rise. Edee-Pierre has applied for federal assistance through Our Florida, the state’s federally funded emergency rental assistance relief program, but says every step of the process has been a hassle.

“I cannot provide my kids a better future,” she told Orlando Weekly. “Not because I’m not working, not because I’m not trying or finding that money. It’s mostly because the rent of the apartment is too much.”

At the meeting, Commissioner Emily Bonilla proposed a measure for November’s ballot that would cap year-over-year rent increases at 5% for landlords who own more than four properties. The board rejected a similar measure to freeze rents from Bonilla in 2020 in a 5-2 vote, with only Bonilla and Commissioner Maribel Gomez Cordero voting in favor.

The rent stabilization ordinance is largely aimed at big apartment corporations. Bonilla said some publicly traded companies operating in Orange County have seen soaring gains.

According to Bonilla’s presentation, Blue Rock Residential’s year-over-year profits are up 1,295%, Camden Property Trust up 526% and the Preferred Apartment Communities up 425%.

But even this measure, which wouldn’t reach all renters, faces a big legal hurdle. A 1977 Florida law prohibits rent control unless a “grave emergency” in housing is declared. (This type of preemption by the state has become a common refrain. See the state’s anti-mask rule for public schools and a law preventing cities from ditching oil and gas, for recent examples.)

The 1977 statute begs the question: What constitutes an emergency? The answer has been frustratingly opaque for elected leaders. In the 45 years that the rent control ban has been on the books, there have been no court challenges that might clarify this.

Other cities and counties in Florida have recognized the problem but stopped short of action. In St. Petersburg, a city committee voted down a measure recognizing a housing state of emergency. Although housing advocates have pushed for it, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor has balked at the idea of rent stabilization, deciding instead to subsidize the very landlords raising rents. Before this year’s legislative session, two dozen lawmakers urged Governor Ron DeSantis to declare a housing state of emergency, but to no avail.

Prospects look better in Miami-Dade County, where a housing affordability crisis has been declared. Mayor Daniella Levine Cava has announced a program to help renters, including covering up to 20% of a tenant’s rent if it’s raised by that much.

So far, no one has butted heads directly with the state. But some Orange County commissioners have signaled that they’re prepared to do so.

“We have to do something, right?” Commissioner Nicole Wilson said to Orlando Weekly. “We can’t just sit on our hands and say, ‘Well, Tallahassee, they’re gonna come for us.’ There’s nothing worse to me than deferring to another level of government knowing that these are our neighbors, these are our friends, this is our community.”

Commissioners want to consider other measures as well. At their recent meeting, Wilson suggested the county pass an ordinance requiring landlords to give 60 days notice before raising rents more than 5%. She said the county could do this on its own without having to deal with blowback from the state.

Still, commissioners held back from voting to draft a rent stabilization ordinance. Commissioner Christine Moore was the most skeptical of the plan.

“We know this is a problem,” Moore said at the meeting. “We need a more comprehensive solution. I’m not ready to go ahead and just vote on this as the one and all solution.”

Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings remains concerned about the proposal’s legality and has insisted the board wait until a study of the region’s housing crisis is complete.

“If we’re going to take some action, it needs to be effective action,” Demings said. “The results of that action needs to accomplish what we’re trying to do, which is to stabilize the rent. And if we aren’t able to do that, then we have created a false expectation, I think, for our constituents.”

The study, which should be ready by the end of May or beginning of June, could provide the evidence Orange County needs to justify a state of emergency. On April 5, the council unanimously agreed to commission a study and revisit a ballot proposal at their June 7 meeting. If the commissioners approve it, they’ll need to get the measure to the Orange County elections office by early July.

But housing advocates say stretching out the discussion on this issue is cause for concern.

“Within those two months, I know that the school year for many children will come to an end,” Shakhea Hinton, Florida Rising’s Central Florida regional director, told Orlando Weekly. “So if there isn’t an agreement between those two months, we’re putting kids and seniors and, you know, everyone in jeopardy of being without a home.”

She says it’s even more frustrating to consider that a ballot measure means we won’t know until November if voters approve of rent stabilization. On top of that, if voters pass it, the ordinance likely wouldn’t be implemented until 2023.

If current trends continue, thousands of people could lose housing between now and then. There have been more than 1,000 evictions filed in Orange County in each of the first three months of 2022.

The state’s rent control statute contains one more landmine that could make any measure Orange County passes less effective. Price caps would only apply to apartments with rents lower than $250 as of 1977. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Inflation calculator, that’s the quaint sum of $1,200 in 2022. It feels almost fanciful to imagine finding rents that low in the Orlando area today. There’s also no guarantee that, in the event of a legal challenge, a judge would adjust the $250 threshold for inflation.

Then there’s the backlash from rental property owners. As one landlord, Matthew Zaccarino, opined — in a rather tonedeaf appeal — at the county’s board meeting, “Haven’t landlords suffered enough?”

He and others say rent control will actually decrease the supply of what the region needs most: more housing. Apartment associations and landlords warn that rent stabilization will mean less money invested to build housing.

The board, too, wants to focus on housing, but believes the approach needs to change. But Commissioner Wilson said most of the housing built in recent years isn’t affordable.

“People will say, ‘Well, we built all these apartments over the last 10 years.’ And I challenge them to find one under $2,000-a-month rent.”

For Hinton at Florida Rising, any delay to a measure that helps renters puts too many people at risk. However, she said the commission’s recognition of the issue has given her some reason to be optimistic rent stabilization could be coming.

“I’m very hopeful about that. I am. I can’t deny I am definitely hopeful about it.”