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Three governors in states facing serious housing affordability challenges began the year announcing plans to address the housing shortages in their states.

Many parts of Florida are facing housing affordability challenges and policymakers in cities across the state are looking for solutions to tackle the rising cost of housing. Under pressure from tenant activists, some local leaders considered policies that, although well-meaning, would have done more harm than good.

Misguided policies like rent control are shown time and time again to dissuade investment while failing to meaningfully help those in the most need. Since passing a rent control ballot initiative in November 2021, St. Paul has experienced first-hand the widespread challenges resulting from rent control. Residents are recognizing that although rent control may be well-intentioned, whenever and wherever enacted, these policies fail in delivering effective housing solutions.

At the root of housing affordability challenges is a severe shortage of homes of all types – single-family homes, townhouses, apartments, etc. And without action, the problem is only getting worse with the current demand for housing outpacing existing supply and recent construction. Two recent studies examined the drivers of housing underproduction and provided policy recommendations on ways to address housing affordability.

Rents are rising in cities across the United States, but nowhere are rents increasing more rapidly than in Florida, according to several leading indicators. A look at the numbers tells the story. The Waller, Weeks, and Johnson Rental Index found that ten of the top twelve American cities where rents are rising the most are, as of this writing, located in the Sunshine State.

As the housing crisis continues to worsen across the United States, access to affordable housing has become increasingly challenging for individuals and families.

As rent costs in Denver continue to climb sharply, the city’s new mandatory inclusionary zoning policy is yet another example of a policy with good intentions failing to address the root of the problem: the lack of housing supply. Instead of increasing affordable housing, new regulatory measures consistently further exacerbate the low supply of affordable housing.

In many geographies where artificial caps on rent exist, housing underdevelopment has resulted. Given its failed history, it comes as no surprise that the passage of rent control in St. Paul yielded immediate negative consequences.