“Kelly Griffith, director of the Southwest Center for Economic Integrity in Tucson, said her organization is in the very early stages of a policy campaign to address corporate homeownership in Arizona, likely with a focus on mobile home parks. But it won’t speed up until after the Nov. 8 midterm elections.“
Local Response More Whisper Than Roar
During an August earnings call, Tricon Residential CEO Gary Berman predicted that the single-family rental market could face regulatory pressure at the local level, in the form of rent-control campaigns. But he doubted this pressure would be uniform.
“I mean there is obviously some of that in, let’s say, California,” he said. “The Sun Belt tends to be obviously much more libertarian, much more pro-business.”
In the Sun Belt city of Phoenix, where Law360’s data shows Tricon owning more than 480 single-family rental homes, that assessment appears to hold true. The Toronto-headquartered company is No. 3 on Law360’s top 25 list of corporate owners in the city.
Housing advocates told Law360 that rent control needs to be considered, but that it would be extremely difficult to pass in Arizona. Under state law, local governments are barred from passing their own rent-control measures.
“I did run the rent-control bill last session, and it hit a brick wall and has no political feasibility at the moment,” said state Rep. Christian Solorio, a Democrat in office since last year representing parts of Phoenix and Glendale whose term ends in January following an August primary loss.
…continued…