A community-led fair housing group in Columbus is advocating for rent control in the city as rates continue to rise at an alarming pace.
The Columbus Coalition for Rent Control wants to establish a Department of Fair Housing to limit rent costs and require licenses for landlords on open market housing.
Jonathan Beard serves on the board. He spent 22 years as president of the Columbus Compact Corporation, a community development non-profit.
“If Columbus truly is an opportunity city, it’s got to be an opportunity city for everybody,” Beard said.
The proposed department would gather data from past rent prices for units and exclude pandemic inflation increases. Those costs would be applied to Fair Market Rent data and wages from a Bureau of Labor Statistics index.
The coalition wants the department established no later than April 1, 2025. The data gathered by the group would then be escalated to match rent totals and wages for that year.
Beard said a petition would require over 5,200 signatures to hit the ballot. The city has 10 days to review it before they can gather signatures.
