Skyrocketing Rent Creates a Housing Crisis That Raises More Questions Than Answers
WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve is bemoaning a new monthly report showing the highest inflation rate since 1982 while housing advocates in the Senate Tuesday said the result could mean more families living in cars.
A day earlier was the first of the month.
“That means the rent was due,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. “For too many Americans, that rent is going up and up and up.”
Stories of hardships the housing crisis is creating were many during the Senate hearing but reaching agreement on a solution was elusive.
Democrats wanted more public assistance for renters. Republicans suggested reducing regulatory burdens on rental housing that get passed on as higher rents.
“We should pursue reforms that leverage the power of free enterprise,” said Sen. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa.
Both agreed a housing shortage they estimated at 3.8 million homes was keeping prices high, sometimes forcing tenants into the only substandard living conditions they could afford.
Matthew Desmond, a Princeton University sociology professor, said that in many places, one in four renters spends 70% of their income on housing.
He mentioned the example of Orlando, Florida, where rents rose 30% since March. Some of the renters are cutting back on health care and food to keep their homes, he said.
“This is the inflation problem on steroids,” he said. “They’re already living in the cheapest apartments available.”
He suggested expanding the federal government’s Section 8 vouchers, also known as the housing choice voucher program. It allows low-income applicants to receive Housing and Urban Development vouchers to pay their rent in privately owned apartments.
Another proposal Congress is considering would continue the Emergency Rental Assistance Program that started as a response to the economic downturn from the COVID-19 pandemic.
While millions of Americans faced eviction, Congress approved $46.5 billion under two funding packages to help tenants pay their rent or utilities. The money was distributed to states and local governments to pass out to eligible households under their existing or newly developed rental assistance programs.
Congress also is considering the Eviction Crisis Act, a bill introduced last year that would create an Emergency Assistance Fund with a $3 billion annual appropriation. It would be assigned to test, evaluate and expand strategies to help low-income persons maintain their housing during economic upheavals.
“Eviction is incredibly harmful to families and communities,” Desmond said.
He added, “Eviction is not just a result of poverty, it is a cause of poverty.”
Landlords who testified urged the Senate not to overlook the difficulties they face if they are unable to raise or collect the rent they need to pay their expenses.
The difficulties were exacerbated during the pandemic, when states and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ordered eviction moratoriums beginning in 2020 to prevent newly unemployed tenants from losing their homes. None of the moratoriums remain in effect.
Darion Dunn, managing partner of the Atlanta, Georgia-based real estate investment firm Atlantica Properties, said, “We must ensure that eviction moratoriums don’t encourage people to avoid paying their rent.”
Rather than relying heavily on public assistance, he said a greater supply of housing would reduce the demand, thereby bringing down rents.
Rosanna Morey, a small property owner in New York, said her state’s eviction moratorium sometimes became “a right to abuse the situation” for tenants.
She told about one of her renters who refused to pay rent during the moratorium despite the fact she was gainfully employed. She also damaged the property in a way her landlord was compelled to pay for repairs and cleaning.
“Landlords are not in the business of eviction but we should be able to in certain situations,” Morey said. “After all, we have families to support too.”
Economists are predicting rents will remain high through 2024 until inflation can be brought under control.
A contributing factor is the Federal Reserve’s decision this year to raise interest rates as the consumer price index continued escalating. The higher mortgage rates are forcing many would-be buyers to remain renters, keeping rents high.
Zumper’s National Rent Index reported a record high in July, making the median monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment $1,450, up 11% from a year earlier. New York City was the highest at $3,780 a month.
Low-rent states are attracting more of the rent refugees “as people continue migrating to these states in search of more space and friendlier cost of living,” Zumper’s reported.
Tom can be reached at [email protected] and @TomRamstack