A coalition of housing rights advocates are feeling disappointed heading into the homestretch of the 2025 legislative session after seeing little progress on bipartisan bills aimed at protecting Georgians from higher rents, problematic landlords and increasing threats of eviction.
Habitat for Humanity of Northwest Metro Atlanta and HouseATL are among the three dozen housing non-profits, civil rights groups, and faith-based organizations that have spent the session pushing for legislation regulating corporate-owned single-family homes and calling for the state to keep alive a federal emergency rental assistance program that runs out later this year.
Despite backing multiple bipartisan bills this year, a leading voice in Georgia’s housing advocacy coalition says she sees a bleak outlook for the rest of the session.
“It’s grim especially given how much recognition there is now of the importance of housing people as a foundation for strong communities, strong families,” said Elizabeth Appley, an attorney and public policy advocate for housing rights in Georgia. “There’s really no way for people to succeed without decent, safe and affordable places to live.”
A key housing bill that failed to meet the March 6 deadline to advance through one chamber was House Bill 689. The bill was sponsored by Dalton Republican Rep. Kasey Carpenter would continue the Georgia Rental Assistance Program, which was launched in March 2021 with $1 billion in federal emergency rental assistance money.
The housing rights advocates are pushing for $25 million in next year’s state budget to be allocated to continue the rental assistance program within the Georgia Department of Community Affairs’ State Housing Trust Fund.
The measure calls for the creation of flexible local grants for homeless prevention programs that would provide short term rental assistance and legal support to unhoused an low-income individuals facing a financial crisis such as lost hours at work, a medical emergency or other unforeseen expenses.
“We’re hoping that could be used for these flexible local grants for emergency rental assistance, but it would need to be substantially increased in order to continue what the department is doing now with the federal funds that will expire in September,” Appley said.
In addition, housing rights advocates are calling for a $20 million increase in funding for the Georgia Housing Voucher Program to meet the state’s obligations under the 2010 settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice.
The Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities program provides supportive housing vouchers and wraparound services for chronically homeless Georgians with severe and persistent mental illness. Due to an absence of an increase in funding in 2024, the program has housed only 21 people since April 1. Currently the proposed next year budget calls for a $1.7 million increase for the program.
Housing rights groups are hoping for the passage of Stone Mountain Democratic Sen. Kim Jackson’s Senate Bill 170,which would create an Interagency Council on Homelessness. A vote on the bipartisan bill could take place in the House Governmental Affairs Committee in the coming days.
There has been some success for a housing coalition-backed bill targeting the proliferation of investor-owned homes, primarily around metro Atlanta.
The House passed a bipartisan bill by a 163-4 vote that supporters say would hold out-of-state landlords accountable for managing single-family homes in Georgia.
House Bill 399 would require landlords owning 25 or more single-family homes to employ local brokers or real estate agents and have in-state staff to handle tenant complaints.
“If you are a single family, young family, looking to purchase a home, these investors are taking assets out of Georgia,” said bill sponsor Decatur Democratic Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver during debate on March 3. “They’re making a profit on the rent that’s charged. They’re making profit on the acceleration of home values and that profit is not being enjoyed by young Georgia families looking to purchase a home.”
Another bipartisan bill that has stalled this session is House Bill 555, which would prohibit investors from owning an interest in more than 2,000 single-family residential properties or 10 multifamily residential properties. The Georgians First Residential Property Protection Act, sponsored by Rep. Derrick McCollum, a Chestnut Mountain Republican, would also enforce penalties such as forcing the residential property owners to sell properties when they have exceeded the legal limit.
The bill targets the rise in investor-owned housing that has lowered the affordability of homes in metro Atlanta neighborhoods. An Atlanta Regional Commission report in November found that seven corporations own more than 51,000 single-family rental homes across 21 counties around the area.
U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, who is a Democrat, is attempting to drive down the high cost of living in Georgia by recently introducing a package of bills including the Downpayment Toward Equity Act, the Rent Relief Act, the Stop Preparatory Investing Act and the American Housing and Economic Mobility Act.
Warnock emphasized the need for bipartisan support to tackle the housing crisis, which disproportionately affects young people and renters. He also criticized private equity firms for buying up housing stock, especially in the Atlanta area, resulting in soaring rental costs and the need for policies that increase housing supply to mitigate the crisis and support generational wealth.
“We need to listen to the people and people all across Georgia — Democrats, Republicans, independents — all agree that we have a severe housing issue that is crushing young people,” Warnock said during press conference last week. “Housing is not a partisan issue.
“I say to those that support the free market, and certainly I do that, you ought to look at what this housing crisis is doing to the American market,” Warnock said. “We are seeing generational wealth shift, literally from the young to the old, and that doesn’t bode well for the future of our economy.”
This story comes to GPB through a reporting partnership with Georgia Recorder.
