Comments Document

Testimony in favor of HB 278

My name is Charlie Davis and I support HB278. The bill gives localities the opportunity to establish critical anti-rent gouging provisions to address the escalating housing crisis. Burdened by Federal cuts to SNAP, Medicaid, and housing vouchers, Virginia families can no longer wait for new housing to solve this crisis. 5 of the top 10 cities with the highest eviction rates can be found in Virginia. Right here in Richmond, tenants are up against a city often cited as having the 2nd highest eviction rate in the country. In May of last year, Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority paused the distribution of housing vouchers. Those seeking assistance cannot even be added to the waitlist of 4,042 families that have been put in a state of limbo with no relief in sight. I’m a first generation college graduate and Richmond resident, I’m incredibly lucky to have landed a full time job as a case manager upon graduation. Although I earn a salary, without the support of federal loans I myself have moved south of the river into income based housing and still pay more than 30% of my income on rent. Facing a city gentrified in part by universities functioning as real estate hedge funds, locals are displaced and students are priced out upon graduation. Richmond is not an exception, this is the norm. This is not a failure of the market correcting itself, this is the result of an unregulated housing market where private equity and slumlords run wild. Currently there are virtually no protections for tenants against predatory rent gouging that is displacing Virginians as we speak. There is no significant safety net provided by social services, non-profits, or community organizations to catch families when they fall behind on rent. Crowd funding has become commonplace amongst my peers who fall behind on their exorbitant rent. In my work as a case manager working with folks coming out of VADOC, housing is the number 1 crisis my clients experience. Housing instability has been the most critical factor leading to reincarceration due to the stress and instability and anti-homelessness probation policy. I’ve seen first hand the incarceration of my clients who themselves on the streets due ordinances criminalizing homelessness. Inaction by the General Assembly is a commitment to increasing evictions, displacement, homelessness, and suffering. Virginians deserve the most essential and basic dignity to stay in the homes and communities they’ve invested in for generations without fear of exploitative rent gouging. I urge you to vote yes on HB278.

My name is Elizabeth Forbes, and I am a constituent from Newport News, speaking in support of House Bill 278. As a renter, I have experienced rent increases year after year, while wages and job opportunities have not kept pace. Even as a working professional, housing has become less affordable. Through my work as an aftercare coordinator and case manager, I’ve also seen how rising rents completely shut out individuals returning from incarceration, increasing housing instability and recidivism. HB278 is a solution because it gives localities the authority to address excessive rent increases and prevent rent gouging based on community needs. I respectfully urge you to vote YES on House Bill 278. Thank you

Our organization supports renters and know that many landlords end leases just to increase the cost without making any improvements to the property, we know that the cost of living is not aligned with the cost of rent, we know that all of the assaults on the workforce increase the number of people who can no longer afford or sustain their rent, while landlords increase rent and costs annually. We support this bill. If we are truly moving in the spirit of affordability, this is a significant bill for all renters.

Our organization supports renters and know that many landlords end leases just to increase the cost without making any improvements to the property, we know that the cost of living is not aligned with the cost of rent, we know that all of the assaults on the workforce increase the number of people who can no longer afford or sustain their rent, while landlords increase rent and costs annually. We support this bill. If we are truly moving in the spirit of affordability, this is a significant bill for all renters.

Hello...I am a landlord of three rental units located in northern Virginia. I am in support of the anti gouging rent bill (HB 278 and SB 355). As a landlord I feel a tremendous responsibility to my tenants. I have not raised the rent on my current tenants in the past three years. I could have done so but I found it to be an undue burden to them and not a responsible thing to do as a landlord. The 3% max hike per year is more than reasonable and giving tenants 90 days of notice allows them to prepare for the increase or find another place to live. Unfortunately, many landlords do gauge renters and controls must be put in place so this activity stops and folks who are renting have options and protections. I also hope this raises an awareness that just because you can doesn't mean you should. Thank you for considering my perspective. Lynn Morrow Annandale, Va

Comments Document

I appear before you today in opposition to HB 278. Please don’t make the same mistake that we made in Montgomery County (MC), Maryland. MC has gone from being the most desirable submarket for multifamily investment in the Washington Region to the worst. Since the passing of rent control in 2023, new multifamily construction has virtually stopped. Worse, MC has been red-lined by institutional grade investors and pension funds, without which there is no development. The unintended consequences we are experiencing, has our Council now considering a full repeal of the law. Rent control in MSA’s nationwide have failed to reduce housing costs, instead they degraded our housing stock and living conditions. Your constituents don’t want rent control, they want homes they can afford to purchase or rent. We lower the cost of housing for everyone when we build more supply, all types of housing, single family homes, towns, market-rate and income restricted apartments. Government has a moral obligation and duty to house its’ neediest residents. Income restricted, truly “affordable” housing doesn’t happen naturally or because of rent control policies, it only happens with Federal, State and local subsidies like LIHTC, state and local grants, property tax abatements and free land contributed by state and local governments. Rent control sounds like a great idea to the average citizen. Don’t expect your constituents to understand why it’s a failed policy that won’t reduce their housing costs. In fact, just the opposite, constraining supply has proven to only increase housing costs for renters and purchasers. Please don’t make the same mistake we made. Thank you for your consideration.

Comments Document

HB278 is a commonsense policy solution that allows localities to set reasonable limits on rent increases while incentivizing new supply and safeguarding responsible landlords. 1 in 3 Virginians are renters and 42% are cost-burdened. Virginia is home to 5 of the top 10 cities with the highest eviction filing rates. Virginians are facing an unfair, unhealthy, and increasingly predatory market at the renter's expense. Even as new units are built, the rental market is increasingly plagued with private equity acquisitions of multifamily, single-family, and manufactured housing communities; aggressive rent hikes and fee stacking; algorithmic rent-setting tools that artificially inflate prices; racial, disability, and voucher discrimination; unaddressed health and safety violations that worsen housing insecurity; gentrification pressures that displacement-prone communities cannot withstand; corporate consolidation that reduces market competition and bargaining power; ordinances that criminalize homelessness which punish vulnerable unsheltered people; and data-center driven utility costs that burdens renters. Private equity companies now own 13% of the Virginia rental market. Some localities have larger shares of private equity ownership, such as Richmond City at 20%. Housing is NOT a commodity to be hoarded and then bartered on the open market. It is a human right and it should be protected as so. The housing crisis is beyond simply a shortage – increasing supply alone will not fix the crisis. Unchecked rent increases are a major driver of shrinking affordable housing stock. Without protections and enforcement, adding new units risks accelerating gentrification, fueling slumlords, and predatory practices, NOT providing stability. Virginians need immediate, durable protections that prevent displacement and safeguard renters now. Anti-rent gouging ordinances offer the missing piece: an immediate solution against displacement while new units come online. With most new construction targeting higher-rent units and overall building speed depressed by high interest rates and construction costs, tenants should especially be protected from rent gouging while these structural issues are fixed. Anti-rent gouging provides a timely solution that the market will not. While we work to increase housing supply, preserve affordable housing, and expand assistance programs, we also need to protect tenants from the extreme rent increases that are squeezing households’ budgets and displacing families right now. Supply and stability must work together to deliver true affordability. Anti-rent gouging is a cost-effective and data-driven tool to stabilize households, prevent homelessness, and preserve affordable housing at scale. It empowers communities to respond to urgent local needs, complements supply-side strategies, and protects both renters and responsible landlords. We strongly urge the Subcommittee to vote in support of this bill. The circumstances could not be more critical. The time to act is now and Virginians demand their right to stay.

I am writing to you today as a resident of Northern Virginia who is currently witnessing the devastating reality of our unregulated housing market. I live in a single-family rental home. Recently, after my initial two-year lease ended, I faced a situation that felt less like a business negotiation and more like an ultimatum. My landlord initially demanded a $1,100 monthly rent increase, justifying it simply as the "fair market rent" for a house of this size. After pleading my case that I simply could not afford such a staggering jump, we "settled" on a $700 increase. While $700 is less than $1,100, it is still an enormous burden. In what other part of our economy is it considered "fair" to hike the price of a basic necessity by nearly a thousand dollars overnight? In Northern Virginia, we are seeing a disturbing trend: landlords of single-family homes are imposing rent increases that far exceed those of managed apartments. They use "market rates" as a convenient shield to hide behind, but the reality is much darker. When wages aren't even coming close to rising at this pace, these massive hikes aren't just market adjustments—they are a form of systemic exploitation. It feels like institutionalized extortion disguised as a legal contract. Currently, single-family home rentals in Virginia feel like the "Wild West," with almost no protections or guidelines to keep increases reasonable. Why are these homes treated differently than commercial apartment properties? A family living in a house deserves the same stability and protection from predatory pricing as a family living in an apartment. We must stop treating housing as a purely speculative tool for the wealthy to extract maximum profit from the working class. I strongly urge the legislature to: Establish Rent Stabilization for Single-Family Homes: We need a cap on annual increases to prevent these arbitrary $700 or $1,100 spikes that tear families apart. Create Fair Guidelines: Single-family rentals should be subject to the same scrutiny and oversight as large apartment complexes. Balance the Scales: Housing is a human right. We need laws that ensure "market rates" don't become a tool for legal exploitation. The current system allows those with property wealth to exploit those without it, all under the guise of "legality." I ask you to look past the numbers and see the families who are being squeezed out of the communities they call home. It is time for Virginia to take a stand for its tenants. Best regards JH Ahn

I am writing to formally submit my testimony regarding the increasing burden of unregulated rent hikes on long-term, responsible tenants in my community. I have been a resident of my current home for over 10 years. During this decade, I have been a model tenant, contributing approximately $200,000 in rental payments without a single instance of delinquency. Despite this long-standing commitment and the stability I have provided to the property, I am now facing aggressive rent increases that threaten my housing security. In the past two years alone, my rent has been increased consecutively—first by $100 and then by $200 per month—under the justification of rising utility costs. However, these increases have been applied to every unit in the dwelling, seemingly exceeding the actual rise in expenses. For a long-term tenant currently facing unemployment, these cumulative increases are not merely an inconvenience; they are a crisis. When I raised these concerns, the response from the landlord was a dismissive suggestion to vacate the premises if I could not meet the market rate. This "take it or leave it" attitude ignores the decade of financial contribution and care I have invested in the property. Market-driven rent adjustments that fail to account for a tenant’s history, reliability, and local economic hardship are predatory. I urge this committee to consider legislative measures that: Limit the frequency and percentage of rent increases for established, long-term tenants. Require transparency and documentation when landlords cite utility costs as a basis for rent hikes. Strengthen protections against retaliatory or dismissive "displacement" tactics used to exploit rising market demands. Stable housing is the foundation of a strong community. I am a testament to the fact that even the most responsible residents are being priced out of their homes due to a lack of fair oversight. I respectfully ask you to take action to protect vulnerable tenants from such arbitrary and excessive increases. Sincerely, SH Choi

I am writing to you today to urge you to oppose HB 278, legislation that would authorize localities to adopt "anti-rent gouging" ordinances and impose a strict cap on annual rent increases. While the goal of affordable housing is shared by all, the price controls proposed in this bill—specifically the 3% annual cap—are a proven failure that will ultimately harm the very tenants they are intended to help, while placing an unsustainable burden on housing providers. We need look no further than San Francisco to see these failures in action. A landmark 2019 study from Stanford University analyzing San Francisco’s rent control expansion found that the policy caused the supply of available rental housing to drop by 15% as landlords converted units to condos or sold to owner-occupiers to avoid the regulations. This constriction of supply paradoxically drove citywide rents up by 5.1% and caused an estimated $2.9 billion in economic welfare losses. Rather than helping low-income tenants, the policy accelerated gentrification and displacement, achieving the exact opposite of its intended goal. Furthermore, HB 278 fails to account for the volatile and sharp increases in operating costs that property owners face, particularly regarding property taxes. A specific example from our own Commonwealth highlights this danger: following the 2023 general reassessment in Montgomery County, residential property values—and consequently assessments—increased by approximately 30% on average. When assessments spike by 30%, the associated tax burden on a property owner rises significantly. Under the strict 3% rent cap proposed in HB 278, a landlord facing such a drastic, government-imposed tax hike would be legally prohibited from adjusting rents to cover the new expense. The math simply does not work; a 3% revenue increase cannot absorb a double-digit percentage increase in taxes, not to mention the rising costs of insurance, utilities, and labor. Policies that untether revenue from reality force small housing providers to sell their properties—further shrinking the rental pool. Virginia needs more housing supply, not price controls that stifle investment and bankrupt local property owners. I respectfully ask that you vote NO on HB 278.

This is a rent control bill. Rent control results in less apartment buildings being built. That makes rental housing more scarce. When Montgomery County imposed rent control, construction of multifamily housing fell. See this link: https://x.com/FreeRangeLawyer/status/2011077281041744275 . When Ontario imposed rent control, construction of apartment buildings fell. See this link: https://x.com/seldomsensible/status/2011872691830341788 . The Washington Post says rent control is a "failed experiment" that reduces the amount of affordable housing. See the Washington Post editorial at this link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/12/16/rent-control-la-nyc-twin-cities-housing/ . New York Times columnist Paul Krugman -- an Nobel Prize-winning economist -- wrote in The Times that "a poll of the American Economic Association found 93 percent of its members agreeing that ''a ceiling on rents reduces the quality and quantity'" of housing. We need more affordable housing. Liberalize zoning. That results in more apartment buildings. Cities with liberalized zoning like Austin saw a massive apartment building boom and falling rents. See the news story at this link: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/01/22/austin-texas-rents-falling/