A bill to lift Georgia’s decades-old ban on rent regulation is expected to sputter out this year without so much as a committee hearing.
State Sen. Donzella James (D-Atlanta) sought to repeal the prohibition against cities and counties enacting any rent control laws as a way to keep housing affordable for Georgians, many of whom have been financially beset by the COVID-19 pandemic.
James told Atlanta Civic Circle in February that Senate Bill 125 was sure to face an uphill battle in Georgia’s Republican-controlled, landlord-friendly legislature. This time around, she’d hoped, allowing local governments to regulate rent would be more palatable than earlier efforts to lift the ban, because both the public health crisis and a surge of out-of-state investor interest have further strained the already tight housing market, both for metro Atlanta and statewide.
“Everybody knows somebody who has had this problem [affording rent] in the communities they represent,” she said of fellow lawmakers last month.
But SB 125 hasn’t even been heard by a Senate committee, much less the full Senate, so it’s unlikely to make it to Crossover Day on Monday, James’ legislative aide, Diego Santana, said in an email. That’s the deadline for any legislation with a chance at becoming law to win approval in one chamber of the statehouse and get sent to the other.
But Georgia’s legislative sessions run for two years. The bill could get another shot next year, Santana said, when the General Assembly convenes for the latter half of the current legislative session.
Though there’s historically been little appetite for rent stabilization at the Gold Dome, James said she had hoped to secure support from other lawmakers by communicating that local rent regulation measures today are very different from legacy rent control laws that cap prices in cities like New York.
Instead, James sought to clear the way for limits on the rate at which landlords can raise rent once a lease expires.
The bill had support from local advocacy groups and politicians, including Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, but no state lawmakers on either side of the aisle added their name to hers as of Wednesday.
The Georgia code currently bans local governments from enacting and enforcing “any ordinance or resolution which would regulate in any way the amount of rent to be charged for privately owned, single-family or multiple-family residential rental property.”
That means landlords can hike rent prices infinitely. At a time when hedge funds and private equity investors are buying up scores of starter homes and apartments in Atlanta and other big cities, only to leave them vacant to appreciate in value or transform them into luxury rentals, many are doing just that.
What’s better than rent control? A tax on vacant lots and unoccupied buildings. Whereas rent control makes it less attractive to supply accommodation, a vacant-property tax makes it less attractive NOT to! Such a tax, although sometimes called a “vacancy tax”, is not limited to what real-estate agents call “vacancies”, i.e. properties available for rent. It also applies to vacant lots and empty properties that are not on the rental market, and prompts the owners to get them occupied in order to avoid the tax.
Notice that a vacant-property tax is meant to be AVOIDED. It’s not meant to be paid. Better still, its avoidance would involve economic activity, expanding the bases of other taxes and allowing their rates to be reduced, so that everyone else—including tenants, home owners, and landlords with tenants—would pay LESS tax!
This is so sad. I was just hit with an almost 20% rent increase in Savannah.
Warnock, Ossoff where the hell were you in supporting this!
People can not afford these obscene rent increases when salaries are not increased by this.
I totally agree . I’m a senior in a fixed income. My rent went up $300.00 where will I get this money to live n pay rent. This is too unfair. Rent control is needed in Georgia.!!!
IF WE DON’T GET RENT STABLIZED THERE WILL BE ALOT MORE PEOPLE LIVING IN THE STREETS. THIS IS NOT FAIR TO PEOPLE LIVING PAYCHECK TO PAYCHECK. MY RENT WAS INCREASED BY 55% AND WHEN I WROTE MY CITY LEGISLATOR E I HAVE YET TO HEAR FROM HIM. WHEN YOU ALL RECOGNIZE THAT PEOPLE NEED SOMEWHERE TO LIVE IN ORDER TO YOUR SLAVE JOBS. EMPLOYERS ONLY INCREASE YOUR PAY 3% EVERY YEAR AND NOW WE HAVE TO DEAL WITH COST OF LIVING. WE ALL SHOULD BE IN FRONT OF THESE LEGISLATORS DOORS DEMANDING RENT CONTROL
There absolutely needs to be legislation in place to repeal this ban. Rent control needs to be a thing. Macon, which is by no means considered a major city, has rent parallel to Atlanta. It makes NO SENSE. The median of the neighborhood is around $35,000 yet units are listed for $1300. A STUDIO apartment is around $1000. What landlords are doing is criminal and legislators in Georgia are complicit in this crime.
I believe the reason that won’t take rent control more serious is because the people who make the decisions on rent control go home every night so it’s not important to them
I moved here from the Midwest area. And ever since I’ve moved here to Atlanta Georgia has been a nightmare with this out of control rent. Now I’m seeking to move out because the prices are outrageous and they keep raising rent every year, which will push everyone to be homeless. As a parent I wouldn’t advise no one to move here because the cost of living is too high. We need rent control into place!! Georgia cares about money and not the people in the state.
I agree rent is to high how many residents in Georgia make 3x the rent at $1900 -3000 which is $6000 to $9000 a months on a job minimum wage is $7-8.00 an hour
I live in a suppose low income development for senior and disability tenants, in 2019 we try getting help from our congress “was refer back to GCA which are the ones who approved it most of the tenants had a hard time paying $54.00, now as of 2024, estimated additional $59.00 dollars more
senior are being put in position where it’s possible some may be homeless including myself with inflation taking every cent.