Legislature must stop interfering with local efforts to stabilize rents
In what has become an annual tradition, the Florida Legislature is poised to further restrict citizens’ freedom to address issues affecting our local communities. In fact, they are taking a sledgehammer to local freedom amid the worst housing crisis in our lifetimes.
Senate President Kathleen Passidomo (District 28) is pushing Senate Bill 102, which bans local ordinances capping rent increases despite the fact that an overwhelming majority of Florida voters favor limits on rent gouging. A poll coordinated by Local Progress Impact Lab and conducted by the African American Research Collaborative (AARC) of Florida voters ahead of last year’s election found 8 in 10 voters favor state action to reduce rent increases and showed wide, bipartisan support for local initiatives addressing this issue. Housing affordability registered greater concern from voters than any other issue, aside from overall inflation.
Meanwhile, the human toll from Florida’s escalating housing emergency is already staggering. More than a quarter of voters polled said they had recently experienced homelessness due to skyrocketing housing costs, or near homelessness such as being forced to sleep in their car or on a friend’s couch. Housing instability profoundly affects our lives, families, communities and economies. If state lawmakers aren’t going to do something about it themselves, they should at least stop interfering with local efforts to address this crisis.
In response to the growing concerns from community members directly impacted by rent increases, I led Orange County’s effort to place a rent stabilization ordinance before voters on last year’s ballot, a common-sense initiative blocked by state lawmakers and powerful special interests who place their own financial gain ahead of safe and secure housing — an essential human need — for our residents. Despite millions in misleading attack ads backed by corporate interests opposing the measure, the initiative easily passed with nearly 59% of the vote, but the result was never certified after legal challenges from Florida Realtors and the Florida Apartment Association — the lobbying arms of big real-estate interests and wealthy corporate landlords. Their argument relied on a 1977 state statute that requires a formal housing emergency declaration before any rent control ordinance is allowed on the ballot. While we await the Florida Supreme Court’s decision on whether to hear the case on rent stabilization, the Legislature seeks to thwart local democracy. Orange County residents, families and communities are still suffering as a result.
Since Ron DeSantis took office, homeowners in our state have been paying three times the national average for property insurance while the governor and his allies continue to side with the industry over everyday Floridians. Utility rates continue to climb and people who live in condos are paying as much as 50% more for insurance than the national average.
Passidomo’s housing proposal has some worthwhile provisions. Notably, it provides incentives for investments in affordable housing, including for seniors, military members and young adults aging out of foster care. It also directs more funding to various state housing programs. But blocking local initiatives on rent increases is a poison pill that should be stripped from the bill.
Everyone deserves the freedom to know that with hard work, they will be able to pay for an affordable place to live. But by seeking to take away the freedom to address skyrocketing rents at the local level, politicians have again favored corporate donors and lobbyists ahead of the hardworking people they were elected to serve. Floridians and their families deserve better from their elected officials.
Emily Bonilla is an Orange County commissioner and a member of Local Progress, a movement of local elected officials advancing a racial and economic justice agenda through all levels of local government.