The future of affordable housing is murky under the new president but affordable development is receiving as much local opposition as ever.

The resurgence of rent control in the U.S. has reignited a heated debate, as the nation grapples with a worsening housing crisis. Earlier this year, President Biden's administration floated the idea of a national rent cap, and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris signaled support for the policy on the campaign trail. While such proposals faced an uphill battle in Congress, the mere mention of rent control sent ripples through the multifamily industry, which feared that a return to these policies could threaten investment and affordability. Now, with a more conservative political landscape following the election of Donald Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress, the immediate threat of national rent control appears to have waned—at least for now.

Yet, despite this shift, rent control remains a potent force at the local level, where measures are still gaining traction. California’s recent rejection of Proposition 33—an attempt to lift statewide restrictions on local rent control—highlights the complexities of the issue. Although the measure failed by a significant margin, it signals that the battle over rent control is far from over, especially in high-demand regions where housing costs are spiraling. For housing advocates, small victories, such as Berkeley’s five-percent rent increase cap, show that local ordinances could become the future battleground for rent control policies.

The multifamily industry continues to argue that rent control is a flawed solution. Citing decades of research from cities like New York and San Francisco, industry leaders assert that rent control exacerbates housing shortages and drives up prices in the long term. The debate has taken on new urgency in a climate of rising rents and growing housing insecurity, but many experts—including Sharon Wilson Géno of the National Multifamily Housing Council—believe that rent control oversimplifies the complex dynamics of the housing market. Instead of capping prices, they argue, the focus should be on increasing housing supply through zoning reforms, density expansion, and easing permitting restrictions.

While federal rent control policies seem unlikely under a Trump administration, and the California defeat shows the difficulty of implementing statewide rent control, the fight is far from over. The policy’s periodic resurgence suggests that the multifamily industry must remain vigilant, especially at the local level where rent control measures continue to surface. Whether these efforts will ultimately prove effective or exacerbate existing problems remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: rent control, despite its checkered history, is likely to remain a persistent topic of debate in the evolving landscape of American housing.

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