Biden proposal would cap rent increases, something Arizona legislators have mostly avoided

As Arizona faces a shortage of affordable housing, President Joe Biden unveiled a plan designed to convince corporate landlords to limit future rent increases.

Biden is calling on Congress to pass a new law incentivizing landlords who own more than 50 units to limit rental increases to 5% annually over the next two years. Under the plan, landlords that do not comply would lose access to certain tax breaks.

Georgia Congresswoman Nikema Williams, a Biden campaign surrogate who serves on the House subcommittee on Housing and Insurance, said the plan will increase the availability of affordable housing across the country.

“If they are not willing to make sure that everyone has access to affordable quality housing, then ... It's a decision that they can make, because what would happen is their tax benefits they're currently receiving would not continue,” Williams said.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates there are just 24 affordable rental units available in Arizona for every 100 extremely low income renters.

So far, most policies that have made any progress through the Arizona Legislature to address the issue – including those backed by Democrats – focus on growing the housing supply by removing local zoning rules to make it easier to build new units rather than controlling rents.

Those policies have support from the development community, which has long argued that rent control policies like what Biden is proposing will only exacerbate the shortage.

“Our housing crisis is a supply-side issue, and any policy that negatively impacts adding supply is a step in the wrong direction,” wrote Nick Erickson, executive director of the Housing Affordability Institute, an arm of the Housing First Minnesota home builder trade organization.

Williams said Biden's proposal would primarily impact what she called “corporate landlords,” not individuals who may own a second property they rent out.

She blamed those larger property owners for pricing out low-income renters and exacerbating the housing shortage by buying up available land.

“We've seen corporate landlords pricing people out of the housing market, not just for rentals, but also home ownership, buying up massive property and then raising the cost for people to access something as fundamental as basic housing, and so this would put a cap on that,” she said.

But that cap isn’t likely to pass Congress anytime soon. Axios reported that the Biden administration acknowledged the proposal would be a priority if Biden is re-elected in November.

Williams, who also leads the Georgia Democratic Party, said she still believes Biden is the right candidate to face former Republican President Donald Trump in November despite calls from a growing number of her colleagues in Congress for Biden to drop out of the race.

“I look forward to being there with the Georgia delegates to make sure that we loudly and proudly re-nominate President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee for president,” Williams said. “We have work to do, about 110 odd days, and I'm going to have a conversation with everybody who will listen, and some of those who don't want to listen, about why we have to turn out and high numbers in this election.”

But Williams acknowledged that the rental cap plan is a campaign pitch as much as it is a policy proposal.

“Elections are about a contrast, and I think President Biden said it best when he said, “reelect me and send me a Congress to work with.”