Twenty-four Florida House and Senate Democrats are asking Governor Ron DeSantis to declare a state of emergency on housing to avert impending issue which could see rents rising.
Rep. Carlos Guillermo-Smith, one of the lawmakers who said he was fighting for to prevent rents from rising, said the price of rent is soaring and by the turn of the new calendar year some renters in Central Florida could lose their homes.
“Floridians are facing unconscionable rent hikes,” Guillermo-Smith said according to Click Orlando.
The lawmakers wrote a letter to the governor calling on him to take immediate action as cities in other states are dealing with this issue.
“We are calling on Gov. DeSantis to declare a housing state of emergency and use his authority to direct the Attorney General to use the existing statutory consumer protection against price gouging to offer renters relief,” Guillermo-Smith said.
“We hear from constituents all the time they were used to a rent increase of anywhere from 3-5% year over year, but that’s not what experiencing right now, they are seeing 10-20-30% rent,” he said.
Martez Florence, a renter said that he wished he didn’t have to deal with the predicament.
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“If our rent just shot up we would be like, ‘well peace,’” Florence said.
DeSantis’s office said the issue was a national one and not peculiar to Florida.
“We have seen that in Central Florida on average rents are increasing by 20% since about January, down in south Florida we’ve seen an average increase of about 14% and in Tampa Bay, we’ve seen almost a 25% increase on rent,” he said.
Guillermo-Smith asks the governor to classify rent increase above 10 percent as gouging and to use the law to protect renters.
“The landlords are charging people too much money, you move here and you are just caught in the gauntlet,” Florence said.
