A bill to end Georgia’s decades-old ban on rent regulation is expected to come out this year without a committee hearing.
State Senator Donzella James (D-Atlanta) sought to lift a ban on cities and counties from enacting rent control laws to keep housing affordable for Georgians, many of whom have been financially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
James told the Atlanta Civic Circle in February that Senate Bill 125 was sure to face an uphill battle in Georgia’s Republican-controlled, pro-landlord legislature. This time around, she had hoped, allowing local governments to regulate rents would be more palatable than previous efforts to lift the ban, as both the public health crisis and a surge in interest from foreign investors have further strained the already tight housing market , both for Metro Atlanta and nationwide.
“Everyone knows someone who had this problem [affording rent] in the communities they represent,” she said of other lawmakers last month.
But SB 125 hasn’t even been heard by a Senate committee, let alone the full Senate, so Monday’s Crossover Day is unlikely, James’ legislative adviser Diego Santana said in an email. That is the deadline for any legislation with a chance of becoming law, to get approval in one chamber of the Statehouse and be sent to the other.
But the legislative periods in Georgia last two years. The bill could get another shot next year, Santana said, when the General Assembly meets for the second half of the current legislative session.
Although there has been little appetite for rent stabilization at Gold Dome in the past, James said she hoped to enlist the support of other lawmakers by communicating that local rent regulation measures today are very different from the old rent control laws that cap prices in cities like New York.
Instead, James tried to pave the way for caps on the rate at which landlords can increase rent once a lease expires.
The bill drew support from local advocacy groups and politicians, including Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, but as of Wednesday no lawmakers on either side of the aisle added their name.
Georgia law currently prohibits local governments from “making and enforcing ordinances or orders that would in any way regulate the amount of rent to be charged on any privately owned, single-family or multi-family rental property.”
This means that landlords can increase rental prices indefinitely. At a time when hedge funds and private equity investors are buying up dozens of entry-level homes in Atlanta and other major cities, only to leave them vacant to appreciate in value or convert them into luxury rentals, many are doing just that.
