State Senator Donzella James (D-Atlanta) (pictured above) proposed Senate Bill 125 for the upcoming legislative session to allow local governments to impose rent controls, upending a nearly 40-year-old ban on the practice. The plan is supported by activist group Party for Socialism and Liberation, whose spokesman repeatedly endorsed rent controls to local media.
Current Georgia law mandates, “No county or municipal corporation may enact, maintain, or enforce any ordinance or resolution which would regulate in any way the amount of rent to be charged for privately owned, single-family or multiple-unit residential rental property.” James’ bill proposes repealing the entire section of law, opening the door for any Georgia city or county to impose rent controls.
Jacob Dallas-Main, with the Party for Socialism and Liberation advocacy group, told Atlanta First News that he is in favor of the legislation, and his group is pushing for rent control across the state. He stressed to the outlet that the bill “would not create rent control in our state,” but simply “give us a chance to act which is all we’re asking for.”
A longtime supporter of rent control, Dallas-Main was present at a July town hall held to discuss the issue in Atlanta. He told WSB Radio that inflation was only partially to blame for increasing rent, with “massive corporate profit” as “rent has absolutely just skyrocketed.” He pinned Georgia’s ban on rent control for making “cities like Atlanta nigh-unlivable,” the outlet reported.
“No restrictions on how much they can raise the rent,” Dallas-Main reportedly lamented. “They say you know, you can move, if you can’t pay it.”
Studies have found effects of rent control may be temporarily beneficial for tenants in the short term, but ultimately detrimental to communities over time.
An analysis by the Brookings Institution included research that found rent controls likely contributed to lower property values, lack of maintenance investment from tenants, and a “mis-allocation” of resources leading to “empty-nest households living in family-sized apartments and young families crammed into small studios.”
The analysts also found that rent control tends to decrease the interest from property developers and owners in low-income housing, with new developments predominantly catering to higher income earners. They explain that some property owners “choose to recoup some of their losses by converting to condo or redeveloping their buildings to exempt it from rent control,” while others “accept the rent control regulation, and no longer perform maintenance on the building and allow it to decay.”
Rent control policies are experiencing a resurgence in the United States, and property owners have warned that rising inflation, not corporate greed, is often behind the higher rent.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “State Senator Donzella James” by Georgia State Senate.
