Black people across Georgia are desperate for rent relief, but state lawmakers don’t appear poised to pass legislation to directly address the problem.
Only one bill specifically addressing residential rent prices or homelessness secured passage in at least one legislative chamber by Thursday night as the Gold Dome’s fabled Crossover Day came and went.
Crossover Day is the annual deadline for bills to be approved in either the state House or the state Senate in order to get passed during the latest 40-day legislative session, which began on Jan. 8 and is scheduled to end on March 28.
Left out were at least two measures introduced by Black legislators that sought to repeal Georgia’s 40-year-old, statewide ban on rent control.
Senate Bill 125, and House Bill 1353, sponsored by state Sen. Donzella James, D-Atlanta, and state Rep. Eric Bell, D-Jonesboro, respectively, failed. James’ proposal stalled in the GOP-controlled legislature for the second year in a row, while Bell’s didn’t even get a hearing.
James, Bell, and other Democratic lawmakers say members of their party have introduced multiple housing-related bills since January, including measures that would increase tenants rights and limit HOA foreclosures. Lawmakers declined to advance those bills as well.
The state House did pass a state housing trust fund measure on Crossover Day that was sponsored by state Rep. Chuck Efstration, R-Auburn. The proposed law would create a commission to help people facing homelessness in Georgia.
But several Democrats say SB 125 and HB 1353 were the only legislative items directly aimed at reducing the cost of rent, which has a growing burden for Black and poor Georgians.
“There is no bill out there that’s stressing rent or fair housing,” Bell told Capital B Atlanta on Friday. “We have a crisis as far as housing is concerned.”
James noted that language from measures that failed to get approved by Thursday can still be added to other bills that advanced in at least one chamber before the end of this year’s legislative session.
No help on housing costs?
James hosted two hearings in support of SB 125 last year, during which struggling Black renters and affordable housing advocates aired their grievances and explained why they support the proposed law.
On Friday, she urged folks concerned about the high cost of housing and rising homelessness to contact GOP lawmakers in the coming days and tell them to add amendments to active legislation that tackles both issues head on.
“We need to do something to take care of the citizens who are experiencing [high housing cost] problems, especially our veterans, our seniors,” James said Friday. “It’s a real problem, and the problem is getting worse.”
Repealing Georgia’s rent regulation ban would allow local governments to set limits on rent prices amid a years-long statewide affordable housing crisis that has strained the finances of many Black folks and contributed to a 33% rise in metro-Atlanta homelessness last year.
Black people made up 83% of unhoused people surveyed roughly a year ago, according to Partners for HOME, the advocacy group that conducts the annual homeless census.
Critics say rent control policies can have unintended consequences that worsen housing affordability by reducing the number of available market rate apartments.
James’ hearings helped convince members of the state Senate’s Urban Affairs Committee, which she chairs, to approve advancing SB 125 earlier this month. But they didn’t persuade members of the GOP-led Senate Rules Committee to allow the measure to do the same prior to Thursday’s deadline.
James said the Rules Committee’s Republican leaders could only advance a limited number of bills for full Senate hearing and consideration by Thursday. She said they chose not to do so for SB 125.
GOP members of the committee haven’t responded to a request for comment.
“[There were] too many bills on the Rules calendar, and I had several on there,” James said. “They were [voting] down party lines with the legislation they were allowing to go on the floor of the Senate.”
James and Bell stressed that there’s still time for state lawmakers to act, and hearing from their constituents may convince them to do so.
“Call Republicans,” Bell said. “Call them and let them know, ‘I’m a Georgia citizen and the rent is too damn high. Do something.’”
A victory for voting rights?
A series of bills opposed by voting rights advocates also failed to advance on or before Crossover Day.
Republicans declined to host a hearing on SB 446, a proposed law that would reduce the early voting period in primary and general elections by five days. HB 922 — a bill sponsored by Ken Vance, R-Milledgeville, that would widen the scope of Georgia’s criminal trespass statute to include entering a property without the owners’ consent — also failed to get a hearing by Thursday.
Georgia’s current trespassing law only bars people from entering a property “with an unlawful purpose,” according to the ACLU.
Leaders from Black Voters Matter visited the Gold Dome on Wednesday to lobby against both proposed laws, which they argue were designed to limit voter access and hinder voter mobilization efforts such as door-to-door canvassing and phone banking.
A staffer for the ACLU noted Thursday that the language from these bills can still be added to other legislation that ultimately gets signed into law later this year.
No RICO for bail fund operators?
Republicans also chose not to advance SB 359, a bill that would expand the list of crimes that can be prosecuted under the state’s statute on racketeering. Critics contend the measure was designed to further criminalize protestors demonstrating against the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, aka “Cop City,” and other progressive causes.
