WMFHA Members Meet with Reps. Ramel and Hackney

On Sunday, November 12, a group of WMFHA members met with Representatives Alex Ramel and David Hackney to discuss solutions to the current housing crisis and to provide feedback on Rep. Ramel’s HB 1389 “Rent Control” legislation.

The group represented a broad swath of our membership from affordable to market rate, fee managed to owner managed, developer and non-developer. The group, well positioned to speak to most aspects of our industry were able to provide valuable feedback to Reps. Ramel and Hackney on how the industry works in addition to the likely results of the proposed legislation.  When asked “What is the solution?,” our members in attendance said with one voice, supply. 

Greg Cerbana, Mike Simons, Brett Waller, and Jason Moore all provided valuable feedback to Rep. Ramel, who stated in the meeting he is looking for a short-term solution through rent control. They made it clear that rent control hasn’t work anywhere and although perceived as a short-term solution,  it will create more problems than it hopes to address further deepening the housing crisis by stifling supply creation.