Senate Holds Hearing on Housing Market Impacts

On August 2, 2022, the Senate Banking Committee held a hearing entitled, “‘The Rent Eats First’: How Renters and Communities are Impacted by Today’s Housing Market.” While the focus of the hearing was on challenges for renters, the housing provider perspective was also heard from National Apartment Association (NAA) member Darion Dunn, a small owner from Atlanta, GA. Mr. Dunn shared the experience of the “mom-and-pop” housing provider community during the pandemic, reminding Committee members of the impact of regulation on those who supply over half of all rental housing. NAA and the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) submitted a statement for the record as well, highlighting the core cause of housing affordability challenges: a lack of supply of rental housing. In the statement, NAA and NMHC suggested several ways the federal government could help while cautioning against too much intervention in the landlord-tenant relationship - which typically results in further negative impacts on renters.