Is Rent Control Coming? Here?

Could Rent Control happen here?

Some  states and many cities, municipalities, and counties worldwide have enacted laws, policies, and ordinances supporting the concept of price controls on residential rental units.  Ostensibly these policies are to allow for more affordable housing options for those citizens and families in areas of high rental costs and low housing availability.

Pensacola/Escambia County have significant poverty combined with a shortage of attainable housing units.

Is this something that could happen?  Is rent control coming here?

The concept of price controlled housing is generally panned by most private landowners, economists, apartment operators, and conservatives--while it is supported, generally speaking, by liberals, social science (and egghead) academics, and idealogues.

It's a concept that has failed just about everywhere it has been implemented.  Read about some of the epic failures and arguments against rent control here, here, and here.

But according to a recent report from the National Multifamily Housing Council--these policies will be moving again in the new year--and incredibly Florida is listed as a strong candidate for price controlled rent (not at the statewide level; state maintains preemption).  This is because at the local level Florida law specifically allows a municipality/county the option to implement rent control if a successful ballot initiative of the affected citizenry passes in such an area authorizing such price control.

I don't see it happening in Escambia County.  At least not for my vote and I doubt it would get three votes.  But how about in the city of Pensacola?  Perhaps?

I hope not:  because I philisophically disagree with the construct and I believe the market should dictate rental prices---not bureaucrats. Foisting draconian price terms and conditions on private market developers and apartment owners will stifle new investment and actually reduce the supply. And the quality of the housing that is available currently will deteriorate. 

That's what happens in real life---- not in imaginery, make-believe worldview aspirational economies. 

But I guess we will see what happens in the new year in the city.  Again, I don't see this happening in the county at all.

Read all about this topic and where it is gaining traction nationwide here.

Is the Push for Housing on OLF-8 Actually About "Affordable"---------- or is it Really All About "Upscale" Rental Housing?

If the push is for "affordable" rental units to be constructed on OLF-8--I don't see how rents of between $1,000 and 2,000 Monthly on a proposed 900 such units on the OLF-8 property fits that bill....$1,000 monthly for a studio sounds like a Luxury rental in Pensacola.....

The surreal revelations of last week surrounding our supposed BCC consultant's recommendations for OLF-8 have taken a dramatic series of sideways turns as I have now read through all the emails previously provided via a public records request.

As I have now pointed out in a series of blog posts--It appears that our consultant was working against some of our priorities as it relates to OLF-8.

But why the unwavering, uncompromising lobbying by DPZ for rental housing on OLF-8?----why the dogged, unflinching push by them to build more residential housing on this field that was acquired by the county to create jobs?

The first red flag was their outright refusal to consider the value of jobs and payrolls from companies that might become employers on that field--when attempting to rate/rank the "value" of plans they would bring before us.  This resulted in apples to pineapple comparisons of plans that were faulty.  We finally got them to bring an analysis from the Haas Center of the power of payrolls on our area---- if the right jobs are targeted and placed on OLF-8.  Now we are getting a better analysis of the economic value and power of jobs.

But initially--the vision from DPZ focused solely on the ad-valorem revenue the structures built on OLF-8 would generate for the county.  (Which are significant--yet paltry when compared to the impact of payroll dollars from a large employer rippling through an economy yearly--generating home purchases, retail purchases, gas tax and sales tax for the county.)  As an example of this at Thursday's meeting I pointed out something important that I learned earlier in the week after speaking with Escambia County Property Appraiser Chris Jones.  Navy Federal Credit Union has built about a Billion Dollars worth of facilities adjacent to OLF-8.  And if you peel off the incentives applied via eDATES provided to NFCU---the ad valorem value of the facilities constructed comes to about $4 Million yearly.  (The county only collects about half of that, though.  The balance goes goes to the School Board, the Sheriff's MSTU, and the Library MSBU).  The payroll that the 8400 Employees of NFCU generate, by contrast, is estimated to be in excess of $350 Million per year.

What's better:

$350 Million per year for jobs     or    $2 Million per year in the county's coffers as ad valorem revenue.

But wait!  It's not an either or.  We get both--as long as we put good companies on the field!

What we don't get, if we build a bunch of residential and low-wage retail on the field, is BIG PAYROLL dollars rippling through the economy.  We only get the facilities' ad valorem tax revenue. Which as I illustrated in the example above is paltry in comparison...

So I went back to the complete draft Weitzman study from last August and looked at the pages our DPZ Communications Subcontractor was highlighting in emails I have seen.  Pages 248-251 were what he