The lobbyists trying to kill rent control in Orlando also refused to help members of the U.S. military

A group of landlords who are so myopic they're malevolent

Photo credit: Grace C.

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A few years ago, military base commanders came to the Florida Legislature with a problem.

More and more service members, particularly those stationed in South Florida, were having trouble finding affordable apartments to rent.

The price of rent was rising, yes. But the bigger problem, advocates said, was that some landlords, who apparently did not want to rent to someone who might be shipped somewhere else mid-lease, were demanding service members pay excessive security deposits and advance rent.

In some cases, landlords were forcing service members to come up with as much as three months’ worth of rent before they could even move in.

Some sympathetic lawmakers tried to help — particularly Sen. Doug Broxson, a Republican who represents part of the Panhandle, which has a large military presence. Broxson filed legislation that would have prevented landlords from making service members pay more than two months’ worth of rent as a security deposit or advance rent.

“We have to do a little more to accommodate service people than we do the average citizen,” Broxson said during an April 2019 hearing. “Does it put the landlord in an adverse position from what they would normally get from a standard lessor or rentor? Yes. But it also puts us in a position that our men and women who are serving, sacrificially, can have an equal opportunity to be able to rent property in an area where otherwise they could not.”

The idea was simple, small and in support of a beloved constituency. And it failed. Republican leaders in Tallahassee killed the cap on security deposits in both 2018 and 2019. They even refused to pass a broader package of “military friendly” policies until this one provision was removed.

There was no one publicly lobbying against it. But there was someone fighting it in private: The Florida Apartment Association, a front group funded by apartment companies such as Camden Housing Trust and Mid-America Apartment Communities Inc., which own a combined 25,000 apartments across Florida — and turned a combined profit last year of more than $800 million.

Though apartment lobbyists never testified against the bill in the open, they met behind the scenes with committee chairs and other key lawmakers, warning them that a cap on security deposits for service members “could be problematic for individuals who require a higher security deposit.”

“As a result of FAA’s advocacy, the cap on security deposits and advance rent was removed...before the legislation reached the House and Senate floor,” the apartment association boasted in a message to its members following the 2019 session.

An except from the Florida Apartment Association’s 2019 “Legislative Wrap-Up

Though this all happened a few years ago, it’s worth remembering now, as the apartment association tries to shoot down a referendum in Orlando that would impose temporary rent control in one of the most unaffordable housing markets in the country.

It’s hard to imagine a more restrained form of rent control than the one that residents in Orange County are voting on right now: Referred to as rent stabilization, the measure would cap annual rent increases at 9.8 percent. The cap would be in place for just one year, and it wouldn’t apply to luxury apartments, single family homes or mobile homes. And landlords could exceed the cap if they can demonstrate that they need to charge a higher price to earn a fair return on their investment.

But that hasn’t stopped the apartment association from helping fund an intense advertising campaign against the referendum warning of a parade of horrors that will surely follow if voters decide to stop some landlords from raising the rent by more than 10 percent. For one year.

Just like they refused to allow a bit of help for military service members three years ago, the landlord lobby is dead-set against reining in the cost of rent even a touch for people living in Orlando — a tourism city whose economy cannot function without low-wage dishwashers and housekeepers and cashiers...who themselves cannot function without somewhere to live.

This is about protecting profit margins above all else, and who cares if an Army grunt or an Uber driver goes homeless in the process.

I mentioned earlier that two of the apartment association’s top funders are Mid-America Apartment Communities, which is based in Tennessee, and Camden Property Trust, which is headquartered in Texas.

Both companies are publicly traded. And both companies give their investors lots of ominous warnings about the threat posed by rent control or rent stabilization.  

“Certain states and local municipalities have adopted rent control or rent stabilization laws and regulations [and]... there are a number of additional states and local municipalities in which we operate also considering or being urged by advocacy groups to consider imposing rent control or rent stabilization laws and regulations,” Camden says to its stockholders. “Such laws and regulations could limit our ability to increase rents, charge certain fees, evict residents, or recover increases in our operating expenses and could make it more difficult to dispose of properties in certain circumstances.”

That might sound grim...until you realize that Camden turned a profit of more than $300 million last year.

Which it did by raising the rent more than 15 percent.