The Housing Solutions Coalition (HSC), a broad coalition of housing groups, today issued a statement regarding President Biden’s proposed 5% corporate rent cap:

This proposal amounts to typical election year rhetoric. Rent caps, also known as rent control, have never been viable solutions to the ongoing affordability challenges facing our nation’s rental housing market. These flawed policies often exacerbate housing shortages, leading to higher rents and lower quality housing. As the country faces a massive housing deficit, common sense solutions are desperately needed that prioritize building more housing, not erecting additional barriers to housing development.

Among the several policies we champion are regulatory and financial incentives for home builders and multifamily owners/operators, a solution that would bolster new housing development now and in the future. Additionally, increasing subsidies for those in need helps reduce the financial burden on low-income families, ensuring they have access to safe, stable and affordable housing. Rent caps do the opposite, hindering new development while keeping existing units out of the rental market.

As former President Obama’s chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, Jason Furman, said to the Washington Post, “Rent control has been about as disgraced as any economic policy in the tool kit. The idea we’d be reviving and expanding it will ultimately make our housing supply problems worse, not better.”

HSC members welcome thorough discussions with the Administration and Congress on this issue and stand ready to work on reasonable and effective solutions.