Responding to a letter sent earlier this month by congressional radicals like Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez urging the president to take executive action to prevent evictions and lower rent prices, Joe Biden has initiated a series of actions that will eventually lead to a national rent control law.
Under the Biden plan, the president is directing the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to look at limits “for future investments and actions promoting renter protections,” according to a report in Yahoo Finance.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) have been enlisted to “root out practices that unfairly prevent applicants and tenants from accessing or staying in housing,” according to the report.
Please define “unfairly.” I don’t think that Senator Warren or AOC define the term the same way that you, I, or most landlords would define it.
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“In the absence of robust investments in fair and affordable housing, it is clear that additional timely executive action is needed to address the urgent issue of historically high rental costs and housing instability,” the lawmakers wrote. “We urge your Administration to pursue all possible strategies to end corporate price gouging in the real estate sector.”
Specifically, lawmakers had called on the president to direct the FTC to issue new regulations defining excessive rent increases and enforce actions against rent gouging, suggestions that are [morel ] aggressive than what the administration has so far put forth. The letter also asked to have FHFA put in place rent protection for tenants living in properties financed with government-backed mortgage properties, which is more closely aligned with what the president outlined on Wednesday.
In Wednesday’s announcement, the administration also sought to rally state and local governments — as well as the private sector — to protect renters.
Since the beginning of the republic, laws governing rent and leases have been local matters. If a landlord is cheating renters, local and state governments have the authority and the tools to punish the landlord. And being much closer to the problems of renters and landlords than anyone in Washington, local and state governments have a much better handle on the local rental housing situation.
But now, the federal government doesn’t believe that landlords should be compensated for owning rental property. They’re “gouging” renters. This is after more than two years of preventing landlords from evicting renters for non-payment of rent. And in a period of rapidly rising inflation, landlords are being accused of “profiteering” at the expense of renters.
“We believe that the administration can go significantly further to help tenants struggling to pay rent as soon as next week,” Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) said. “We need actions that will urgently address skyrocketing housing costs, keep people housed, and rein in corporate profiteering…I look forward to continuing to work with the Biden Administration on this issue.”
It’s a ridiculous charge given that 98 percent of all rental property owners, or 80 percent of all rental properties, are owned by small business entrepreneurs who own five units or fewer, according to a study in Business Wire.
These rules, and any legislation supported by AOC, would destroy the rental housing market and make it much harder to find affordable housing. What small business owner wants to be beholden to Washington for their business? Rental housing will disappear — perhaps the intended purpose of the new rules.
The narrative of corporate greed being responsible for rent increases is a far easier sell than small businesses struggling to keep their properties during an inflationary economy that Warren, AOC, and Biden are mostly responsible for.
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