Would rent control help renters in Southwest Florida?

If you are looking to rent a home right now, be prepared to pay a lot. Over the last year, prices have skyrocketed. That has some people thinking about rent control, but would it work in Southwest Florida or make things worse?

Most experts say the long-term effects rent control has on a community are not worth the short-term fix.

Rent control is already used in New York City and is an idea that is now being kicked around in some Florida cities.

WINK News asked Victor Claar, an associate professor with the Lutgert College of Business at FGCU, to explain the concept.

“Simply imposes a maximum rent per month on some designated apartments within a given city,” said Claar.

It sounds great, right? Instant affordable housing, but is it really affordable housing?

Claar said other cities across the country have tried rent control, and it didn’t pan out the way mayors, councilmen and people in need of housing hoped.

“When you put a limit on how much a landlord can charge for an apartment, then it weakens the incentive for that landlord to keep up the place because the money that that landlord will receive is now smaller per month than it used to be,” said Claar.

Claar believes rent control creates “unintended consequences.” Claar said, “Rent control, the way that it has historically been practiced, is probably not effective at delivering what it aspires to deliver, which is more housing at lower prices for the people who need it most. In fact, what we probably have is less housing. It’s less well maintained. And the people who are really good at manipulating the system can land those apartments.”

WINK News verified that in Florida, there’s a law on the books that prevents a county, municipality, or government entity from putting rent control in place.

There are rules around it, though. For example, Lake Worth in Palm Beach County just declared a housing emergency. That opens the door to having voters decide whether to put a rent control ordinance in place.

Even if voters say yes, the ordinance runs only a year unless voters vote to extend it.