By David M. Greenwald
Executive Editor
Washington – On Monday, President Biden called on on corporate landlords to cap rent increases at 5% and takes action to make more public land available for housing.
Among the actions taken by President Biden on Monday included calling on Congress to pass legislation giving corporate landlords a choice to either cap rent increases on existing units at 5% or risk losing current valuable federal tax breaks.
He also called for the repurposing of public land sustainably to enable as many as 15,000 additional affordable housing units to be built in Nevada; and rehabilitating distressed housing, building more affordable housing, and revitalizing neighborhoods, including in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“Families deserve housing that’s affordable—it’s part of the American Dream. Rent is too high and buying a home is out of reach for too many working families and young Americans, after decades of failure to build enough homes. I’m determined to turn that 
around,” the President said in a statement on Monday.
He added, “I’m sending a clear message to corporate landlords: If you raise rents more than 5% on existing units, you should lose valuable tax breaks.”
The plan calls for Congress to pass legislation presenting corporate landlords with a basic choice: either cap rent increases on existing units to no more than 5% or lose valuable federal tax breaks.
Corporate landlords, under this plan, beginning this year and for the next two years, would only be able to take advantage of faster depreciation write-offs available to owners of rental housing if they keep annual rent increases to no more than 5% each year.
This would reportedly apply to landlords with over 50 units in their portfolio, covering more than 20 million units across the country. It would include an exception for new construction and substantial renovation or rehabilitation. The policy is a bridge to rents stabilizing as President Biden’s plan to build more takes hold.
National Housing Law Project director Shamus Roller called the move “historic.”
“Tenants across the country fought for years to get the federal government to care about the rent. We applaud the organizing that led President Biden to get real about what the federal government can do to increase housing stability for tenants,” Roller said in a release by the group.
“The President knows that fixing the housing crisis will require a whole-of-government approach. That includes directing Congress to pass major policies that put people over profit. While this is a short-term fix, we commend this proposal and the President’s focus on getting us to a long term solution for the 114 million people who rent,” Roller continued. “Biden’s proposal exemplifies how the federal government can shape housing policy that protects and empowers tenants. NHLP is committed to additional federal action that protects tenants from corporate landlord exploitation.”
But not everyone agrees with this approach.
UC Davis Law Professor Chris Elmendorf noted a paper he co-wrote in April with Professor Clayton Nall of UC Santa Barbara and San Oklobzija of Tulane.
Their paper called into question the amount that rising attention to the problems of housing affordability has translated into support for market-rate housing development.
“A tacit assumption of YIMBY… activists is that more public attention to housing affordability will engender more support for their policy agenda of removing regulatory barriers to dense market-rate housing,” they write. “Yet recent research finds that the mass public has little conviction that more housing supply would improve affordability…”
In a post on X on Monday, Elemendorf noted, “Right on cue. This is what @ClaytonNall, @stan_okl and I warned would be the likely outcome of housing affordability become politically salient.”
Oklobzija added that “if our paper inspired anyone in the Biden administration to come up with this dumb policy, we’re sorry. Our bad, folks…”
The White House noted, “The President believes that this combination of anti-gouging policies and historic levels of support to build more affordable housing effectively balances the needs of tenants without limiting incentives for more supply. The Administration looks forward to working with Congress to ensure renters are protected and corporate landlords comply with the intent of this proposal.”
