Real Estate Industry Coalition and Key Lawmakers React to Administration’s Blueprint for Renters Bill of Rights
This week, the Biden Administration released the Blueprint for a Renters Bill of Rights, a set of policy proposals with enhancing protections for renters. NAHMA and industry stakeholders provided a Statement in Response to the White House announcement and continue to monitor this situation closely. Upon the release of the Blueprint, the Chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, Sen. Sherrod Brown, made the following statement. “Too many renters in Ohio and around the country pay more than they can afford for homes that put their health at risk or live in constant fear of losing their homes through eviction. Home impacts everything in a person’s life, and today’s announcements are another important step to bringing everyone together – federal, state, and local partners, as well as landlords and advocates – to create a market that works for America’s renters.” Sen. Brown had previously wrote to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau urging them to protect renters from abuses by tenant screening companies and urged the Federal Trade Commission to review companies like RealPage for anticompetitive behavior by allowing landlords to collude in raising rents. Seeking to protect renters from predatory landlords and unjust evictions, Sen. Brown has recently held several listening session to hear from renters who were harmed by investor landlords, and three hearings on the growing role of private equity and institutional investors and poor treatment of tenants in the rental market.
Prior to the announcement, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) had already urged the White House to cap rent increases on millions of units in properties with government-backed mortgages, including those guaranteed by Fannie and Freddie. Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) sent a bicameral letter urging President Biden to pursue all possible strategies to address rent inflation, end corporate price gouging in the real estate sector, and ensure that renters and people experiencing homelessness across this country are stably housed this winter. “My community is being crushed by the burden of high prices and wages that can’t keep pace. Meanwhile, corporate landlords and other profit-driven companies are bringing in record profits. People simply cannot afford to live anymore. We must pursue all options on the table that will help renters stay housed in the short-term, while also continuing to collaborate on efforts to realize long-term investments in our nation’s affordable and decommodified housing supply. I look forward to working with the Biden Administration to implement the policies outlined in our bicameral letter and do everything in our collective power to keep renters housed.” said Rep. Bowman. “The cost of rent for Americans is simply too high. In addition to making robust investments to address the housing shortage, we must use all our tools to protect tenants and reverse consolidation in the housing market that has given corporations unchecked power to inflate rents. This is why Rep. Bowman and I are encouraging the Biden Administration to make use of these tools and adopt a whole-of-government approach to address the housing crisis in America.” said Sen. Warren.