Two bills aimed at affordable housing draw industry backing and local criticism

ATLANTA — Georgia Rep. Dale Washburn, R-Macon, introduced two bills this week aimed at solving the Peach State’s affordable housing shortfall.  

The first, House Bill 517, or the Georgia Homeowner Opportunity Act, would prevent counties or municipalities from regulating a long list of building design elements, from the style of porches to the number and types of rooms. The bill would not affect certain historical buildings or the state’s minimum building standards.  

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State Rep. Dale Washburn

A second bill, HB 514, the Housing Regulation Transparency Act, would bar local governments from indefinitely extending moratoriums on new housing construction.  

“These bills are intended to lower housing costs, so that our Georgians who would like to buy a home will have a better opportunity on the path to financial freedom and financial stability and … to creating some generational wealth,” Washburn told Capitol Beat Thursday.

Washburn’s bills have drawn the support of a newly formed housing coalition.  

“[The bills] will cut government red tape, encourage private sector innovation, and increase access to safe, affordable housing for every Georgian,” said Chris Clark, president and CEO of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, one of the groups making up the new coalition. The other members are the Home Builders Association of Georgia, the Georgia Association of Realtors and Habitat for Humanity.  

The measures have also garnered support from some Democrats. Rep. Debra Bazemore, R-South Fulton, and Rep. Marvin Lim, D-Norcross, both signed on as co-sponsors, indicating that debates about affordable housing and local government control do not always break along party lines.  

“I definitely believe in local control in general, but there are certainly issues and times where we as a state need to stand up ultimately for the people and not just for the governmental jurisdiction,” Lim told Capitol Beat.  

“I hope anyone that opposes this does consider not just aesthetics and not just the ability of people in the highest income areas to be able to build the aesthetics they want … but [also] what … these regulations do to impede the building of affordable housing.”   

But local government advocates say the bills go too far.  

HB 517 bars local governments from regulating design elements and would stymy local control and the power of people’s votes, said Clint Mueller, director of government affairs at the Association County Commissioners of Georgia.  

Local governments must consider a number of infrastructure concerns — such as roads, sewage, and schools — when making decisions about housing and therefore have a direct interest in housing regulation, Mueller said.

“A local government’s job is to balance the wishes and needs of the community,” he said. “They are elected to provide that balance in the community … and they are able to respond to the needs of their community with the powers that they have.” 

Mueller gave the example of local governments that regulate architectural features such as roofing materials or design to ensure local homes can adequately withstand local conditions, such as high winds in coastal areas.  

The bill also provides no guarantee that cost savings from reduced regulation would be passed on to the consumer, Mueller said.

“Just because [builders] have less regulations, that doesn’t mean they’re going to sell the house for less,” Mueller said.  

“They’re just going to continue to do what they’ve always done and maximize the profit. They’re not altruistic.” 

Mueller said targeted incentives might work better. He and local government advocates suggest that the incentive of relaxed design standards should be balanced by regulations requiring builders to actually reduce housing costs.  

“If state resources, city resources, county resources are going to be put into some type of … housing development, there needs to be some assurance of affordability,” agreed Jim Thornton, director of governmental relations at the Georgia Municipal Association. “There is nothing in the current legislation that does that.”  

Washburn pushed back on that argument.  

“I’m a former county commissioner,” he said. “But when you start going beyond land use and telling people how big a house they have to build, what they have to build it out of,  how big a lot they have to put it on, that is government overreach and it intrudes upon personal choice.”  

Both of Washburn’s bills have been assigned to the House Governmental Affairs Committee. Washburn said he hopes the bills get hearings next week.  

Democratic Rep. Spencer Frye of Athens — who is a real-estate developer — introduced a bill last week with a different approach. HB 490 is aimed at large institutional investors who are snapping up single-family homes and then renting them out in Atlanta and across the state.  

Frye’s bill would eliminate the tax benefit that allows rental-property owners to reduce their tax liability by about 3.6% of the cost of the rental property annually. The bill is aimed at large investors, not mom-and-pop operations, Frye said.

“They are allowed to use a rental home as a depreciation tax shelter,” he said. “They’re offsetting the rental gains with their depreciation tax shelter gains, and they make profit on the appreciation after they sell [the houses] in five to 10 years.”

“We need to cut the corporations out of the American nightmare and turn it into an American dream. By changing the tax code to remove the depreciation in their state taxes, we will disincentivize hedge funds from wanting to invest in Georgia.”  

Frye’s bill has been assigned to the House Ways and Means Committee.  

This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.