Team Max: White House Tenant-Centered Action Plan

Morning – A few of you have inquired about the White House “Tenant-Centered Action Plan” that was released yesterday. Here is the information that NAR is publishing to the members that has more of the details and the REALTOR position on behalf of the 40% of NAR members who own rental property.

For more information keep an eye on the NAR Advocacy Rental Housing Resource Page for resources and updates.

This morning the White House released a "tenant-centered action plan," which is being framed as a response to reports of increasing rent and a way of furthering fair housing principles. You can read NAR's official statement by President Kenny Parcell here in response to the announcement. NAR, along with several housing provider industry partners, has been in conversation with the White House and other federal agencies since last spring discussing rental housing issues and offering assistance to resolve their root causes – rising inflation and the housing supply shortage, which has led to a tightening in the rental housing market. For more background on these discussions you can read this NAR Washington Report from last week (Friday, January 20) which provides the full context and our messaging in them. Throughout these conversations we have made clear our positions on these issues. Broadly, NAR has stated that:

We oppose federal intrusion into rental housing policy, which is managed at the state and local level;
We oppose any form of rent control, which time and again has been shown to have a negative economic impact on communities, drives housing providers from the market, and can actually lead to higher rents due to fewer units;
We support improvements to existing federal programs which can alleviate some of these pressures, including directing State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds toward rental assistance and creating new affordable housing units and improving the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program to attract more housing providers; and
Any policy on rental housing issues must reflect both sides of the equation – housing providers, especially mom-and-pop providers, are also impacted by poor economic conditions and inflation, and should not be forced to bear additional burdens while others see theirs lighten.

For more specifics on this messaging, you can read this July 1 letter to the White House opposing the concept of a national "renters bill of rights," and this December 16 letter sent in response to discussions on "resident-centered property management practices."

While we are disappointed at the framing of this initiative by the White House, we are pleased that the most dangerous policy ideas they considered – such as rent control on GSE-backed rental properties and creating an arbitrary national notice-requirement for rent increases – were not included. At this point, the White House is focusing on research and studies on potential policies by the federal agencies that touch on housing. NAR will continue to engage the White House and those agencies as they do this work, and will continue to stress that the solutions lie in lowering inflation and increasing housing supply, not policies that will force housing providers – especially small, "mom-and-pops" – from the market.

We are committed to continuing our work with our coalition of housing providers – which includes the National Multifamily Housing Council, the National Apartment Association, the National Association of Home Builders, and the Mortgage Bankers Association – to push back against federal policies which intrude on the states' jurisdiction, impact the contracting power of housing providers, and will have overall negative consequences for rental housing providers. We are also committed to looking for proactive, non-prescriptive solutions for many of these issues, which is why we are partnering with IREM to produce resources for housing providers who wish to take voluntary action to assist their tenants. This will include information on available rental assistance, resources for participating in the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program, alternative credit scoring options for applicants with little to no credit history, success stories of NAR grants utilized by state and local associations on rental housing issues, and personal accounts of business practices housing providers have used to give their residents more flexibility in their rental payments.

At least 40% of NAR's membership owns rental housing property, and we are committed to advocating on their behalf, and stopping policies which will interfere with their ability to run their businesses, and to providing them with the best tools and resources to help them do just that. As the White House moves ahead with this action plan, we will be in the room advocating for housing providers and for common-sense solutions that address the actual issues, not their symptoms.

Please let me know if you have any questions, and in the meantime stay tuned and keep an eye on the NAR Advocacy Rental Housing Resource Page for resources and updates.

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Erin K. Stackley, Esq.
Senior Policy Representative, Commercial Issues
National Association of REALTORS® I Washington, DC
202-383-1150
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