Combatting Corporate Investors by Protecting Affordable Housing Initiatives
June 28, 2023
The Private Equity Stakeholder Project has released “Part 2: Challenging State Preemption of Local Affordable Housing Initiatives” as part of its Tools for Tackling Corporate Landlords report series. The series uplifts state and local policy options for mitigating the impact of private equity and other institutional investors on housing affordability and renters’ rights. You can read the first part here.
The second report in this series attempts to explain how state preemption functions to thwart local efforts to protect individuals, tenants and prospective homebuyers alike, from corporate housing consolidation. The report highlights the following key points:
- State governments have moved to preempt local initiatives to combat the nation’s housing crises.
- Researchers found that efforts to protect citizens from pandemic related housing issues by local governments in states like California, Florida, and Illinois were stymied to a varying degree depending on the level of state preemption employed.
- Passing state legislation to abrogate state preemption of local issues like income non-discrimination, inclusionary zoning, and rent control is key to winning housing policy victories at the local level.
- To move policy at the state level, it is necessary to organize powerful, reliable constituencies that will compel politicians to make concessions on preemption and ultimately hold them accountable.
Read the full report here.
