Could rent control work in Miami? Orlando takes the issue to voters, and we’re watching | Editorial

The rent in Miami is, as they say, too damn high. But what should we do about it? One Central Florida community has an idea, one that’s tentatively under consideration here as well.

In Orange County, which includes Orlando, a sharply divided county commission agreed on Tuesday to let voters decide in November if rent increases there should be capped.

The “rent stabilization” measure would impose a one-year, 9.8% cap on rent hikes, a percentage increase that’s keyed to the increase in the Consumer Price Index in the South, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

There are lots of carve-outs — short-term rentals, timeshares, any dwelling unit considered a “luxury” apartment, mother-in-law suites — and the referendum is sure to get serious legal challenges based on Florida’s law against rent control.

But the fact that the issue of rent regulation is set to go to voters at all is a sign of just how unaffordable the state, once known as a low-cost-of-living haven, has now become.

A 1977 law passed by the Florida Legislature sets a high bar for this kind of measure — so high that no local government has even tried to institute rent control in the ensuing 45 years. The law requires that the county establish that there is a housing emergency, backed up with evidence, and then pass an ordinance. After that, the question goes to voters, and it can only be approved a year at a time.

That’s a lot of work, and yet that’s exactly what they’re doing in Orlando. Rents there have jumped some 30% in the past year, so it’s a measure of their desperation that it has gotten this far.

Orange County isn’t alone, of course. Miami-Dade County and South Florida in general have seen similar increases. In April, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava declared the county was in a deep housing-affordability crisis. The next month, the County Commission passed a Tenants Bill of Rights. One commissioner, Kionne McGhee, sponsored legislation to study whether the county’s housing emergency is grave enough to warrant putting the question of rent control to voters here.

But will it even work?

In Orlando, commissioners met four times on the issue before finally approving it this week, 4-3. Some commissioners said builders may go elsewhere if voters approve rent control, and that it’s more important for the county to focus on other measures such as rental assistance. Other objections: Rent stabilization amounts to little more than window dressing for a complicated problem. Landlords argued that their costs have gone up.

But one of the commissioners who voted for the measure, Emily Bonilla, said landlords have been “bleeding” tenants. Exasperated, she also pointed out it was “only one f---ing year.” And when the vote was held and it passed, tenants cheered and hugged.

For Florida, this is a big experiment. Communities like Miami-Dade, and others, no doubt will be watching to see how it goes. But it’s also a warning: People are fed up with rent increases, and with wages that come nowhere near to keeping up.

This story was originally published August 11, 2022 at 6:45 AM.