With eyes on rent control, Tampa City Council votes to declare housing state of emergency

Today, Tampa City Council voted 6-1 to declare a housing state of emergency, and intends to let voters decide if rent control should be enacted in the city via the ballot box.

After months of resident outcry, more disenfranchised renters came to council today to share stories of skyrocketing rents, living under slumlords, and being on the verge of homelessness.

Members of council heard their woes, especially councilman Orlando Gudes, who made the motion to declare a housing state of emergency.

“I’m doing this because I understand what so many people are talking about, what  they’re going through,” Gudes told council after explaining that he had lived in poverty when he was young. “If you never experienced something you don’t know, but I’ve experienced those things.”

The motion was seconded by Guido Maniscalco, who thanked Gudes for taking a stand on the issue.

“I know it’s not easy,” Maniscalco said. “Nothing is, but I think we’ve heard the cries of the people and we need to take action. It’s up to us as a city council, it’s up to us as decent human beings to help one another in whatever capacity that we can.”

Just about every council member noted the hurdles Tampeños will face before rent control can become a reality. State law makes the process difficult, but not impossible.

Another obstacle council must consider is how to get rent control on the November ballot. To do that, council will have to pass an ordinance putting rent control on the ballot before Aug. 23, which is the deadline according to city attorneys. If the ordinance doesn’t make it in time for the November ballot, there is an upcoming March 2023 ballot opportunity as well.

Still, almost all of council was up to the challenge, and councilwoman Lynn Hurtak said she’s willing to make time for an emergency session to discuss it.

“I am happy to clear my calendar and I’m sure that several other members of council would do that,” councilwoman Lynn Hurtak said. “We have all of these lawyers that are sitting in retainer, let’s use them. Whatever it takes to get this on the ballot.”

The only no vote was from councilman Bill Carlson, who argued that rent control might do more harm than good for the renters of Tampa.

“I am not in any way going to support putting anything on the ballot,” Carlson said. “It is very clear that this is a short term initiative. I’ve lived in cities that have rent control, and if the state allowed us to have longer rent control and do this in a different way, that’s fine in philosophy. And for people who haven’t studied the state legislation, rent control sounds like a good idea.”

Carlson was referencing state law that city attorneys have also cited as an obstacle in enacting rent control.

 Florida Statute 166.043 presents a challenge to rent control measures, but doesn’t make them impossible.  The law prohibits local governments from imposing rent-control measures, unless the municipality provides a researched rationale as to why rents need to be capped.

The law makes it so that even if voters do approve rent control in Tampa this year, they then have to vote on it again the next year, after once again meeting all the criteria and jumping through legal hurdles to prove that the rental situation in Tampa constitutes a housing emergency.

Tampa enacting rent control would challenge the state law and bring attention to the difficulties it presents to renters during the unbridled housing crisis as landlords gouge rent across the state.

“It’s not going to be on my shoulders that we displace people because what will happen is that the landlords will double or triple the rent expecting that this rent control lasts at least a year and that it might be renewed,” Carlson said.

As Carlson mentioned, major cities like Los Angeles, New York and New Jersey have had rent control measures for decades. But for those cities, state laws were more friendly to rent control than Florida’s current rent control laws.

In April, Miami-Dade County declared a housing emergency in an attempt to also get rent control passed in the city; rent control has not passed there, yet.

Carlson suggested that residents instead lobby Tallahassee to change state laws before enacting any kind of rent cap locally.

Members of the Tampa Tenants Union, Florida Rising, Restorative Justice Coalition, Tampa Bay Community Action Committee and several other activist and faith groups have repeatedly come to council to sound off about the crisis.

“This would not have been possible without the sustained pressure that has been placed on the City government to act,” TTU told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “The Castor administration did their best to kill rent control and they failed because the people of Tampa continued to demand it in massive numbers. We’re tired of seeing our city be handed over to corporations and developers and we’re not going to take it any longer.”

Castor did speak against rent control saying it would “kill development,” and CL found that over half of her mayoral campaign PAC was funded by developers.

TTU said that the vote today shows that what every Florida city is missing to act on this crisis is simply political will from local officials.

“We know that rent control will pass on the November ballot,” TTU wrote. “This is a major victory but this is only the beginning. We demand housing as a guaranteed human right and we won’t stop until that is a reality.”

Robin Lockett of Florida Rising, who has been heavily involved in the push for rent control, also celebrated the decision today. She spends many of her days hearing the stories of people who are on the verge of homelessness and are living under slum lords.

She said that even if rent control is a battle, that “it’s a battle worth fighting.”

“I am elated,” Lockett said. “I’m proud of Councilman Gudes for having the courage to put this most motion forward, and I’m proud of council for having the courage to support it.”

This article appears in Jul 28 – Aug 3, 2022.