Noticed Meeting: CM Peluso RE Landlord Registry

Noticed Meeting: CM Peluso RE Landlord Registry — Jan 28, 2026

>> Good afternoon, everyone. And good afternoon. I apologize for being a little bit late. So interview about jta. >> So tune in at 5.30, or 6 for that we have a pretty we've got a phenomenal group up here. Thank you all for being here. We're gonna introductions in a moment. >> I do have a number of public coming cards. We expected to public comment at the end. I believe it's on our our agenda because there's a lot to go through. And I will say this. I had been tension my bill would look like. But I think kind of recent meetings are going to kind of shift what the bill might look like because we've got some incredible folks over Jacksonville legally that might be able to kind do some of the work that I was expecting the do so. So just kind of keep, you know, press pause on that. My bill MAY change a little bit at the end of this meeting. All right. We're gonna do introductions were first. Start over here to our my favorite member of the general counsel's office. >> Katie Runcie Jackson, a housing project. >> Incluso City Council district 7 Dix Affordable Housing administrator. 13 office. The Kelly Leary office of the mayor. Stephen Patel Jackson, Larry Lane. >> All right. So so the first thing I want to jump into I think in the past this was kind listed as a landlord registry. You know, since since kind of getting a little bit more in the weeds with state law and with what what the actions were looking to get. This is a rental registry. Instead of that of a landlord registry. So so it's meant to help primarily renters and the situation and help make sure there's more transparency in the process. That is the goal of this. Nothing that is going to happen. It's going to find itself with loggerheads with the state legislature. They've done a really good job of blocking counties from doing stuff. So we're going to make sure that whatever actions we take here in the city of Jacksonville that we do not ourselves in the crosshairs. Tallahassee, but we are going to take action. That's my intention. All right. Really quick want to go in a made by. Katie Renzi, who's done incredible work. A unf with the so project Joe Jackson, a housing project. If you've never spent time with Katie or or kind of reach out to her, spoke to her incredible work that she's done under under the work of Dr Jaffe, who's also Unf professor is in the back. So so we've got we've got some real some some brilliant minds done some good works, ok, if you've got time, please go throughout your presentation. >> And so, yeah, my name is Katie on the project manager on the Jacksonville Housing Project basically gonna give us an overview of the rental housing situation in Jacksonville, the work that we've done on the rental housing project and the when their country that we've put together for properties with 10 or more units. To do. I control the sites. All right. So as I mentioned, the Jackson, a housing project and is a community-based research projects. So we have studied lots of different types of rental housing ownership in Jacksonville. We started looking multifamily rentals. Also to single-family rentals were recently looked at mobile home parks and generally the goal of the project is to understand how financial station impacts the lives of tenants. So healthwise community was investment so. Jot in Jacksonville, in Duval County, generally we are a renter. We are. We have more renters than the state average. We are. We have nearly 179,000 rental households in Jacksonville that constitutes about 41% of all households Jacksonville. In contrast of the state of Florida from 32% are renters. So this makes it especially important that we look at rental households in Jacksonville and there concerns so right. Thank The biggest issue that we've seen in the past few years with renters. Is that the amount of money that renters are making is staying stagnant relative to what they need to comfortably afford rental housing. So as you can see, the graph at the bottom of the slide, the rent, they're sorry, the hourly wage necessary to afford fair market rent has a salute. jumped relative to relative wages. That renters earning in Jacksonville. The median makes about $22 an hour now. And that's only about enough to afford 1400 signed up for What a 140, every month. Where is rental? The fair market rent is around $1600 a month. For 2 veteran. Yeah. You go to the next slide. In Jacksonville. The result of wages that are not keeping up with the skyrocketing amount of rent that's required required to live in the city is that nearly 60% of renters are cost-burdened it that they're spending more than 30% of their monthly income on housing alone, not even considering all of the other necessities that go into life, groceries, all the other things that also increasing cost. So the result of that as the Duval County has become the eviction capital of Florida. We have more evictions for confident that any other county in the state and in fact, the second highest county is Clay County. So our next door neighbor. And when you compare that to all of the other counties in the state that have, you know, major metropolitan areas, it's not even close. For the Jackson, a housing project in what initially we're doing for the project is collecting information on ownership of multifamily properties and tried to see how that impacts things like building code violations. Evictions and other outcomes for tenants. So through this week, elected information for all apartments in the city with a 10 or more units. So larger multi-family complexes and it's over 650 know that we have in our database and this includes not only basic property characteristics like when built in Austin that was sold, but also the actual ownership, which is really core to what we're trying to do here is understand not just who is the llc that owns this property, who is actually behind the llc because piece is what is going to be able to tell you what owners are responsible for the conditions in the city. So in addition, we have addictions building code violations, property management and more. And that allows us which the next slide to aggregate by ownership. So we're able to tell through They basically put together. Just a few owners are responsible for a disproportionate amount of negative 10. It all comes so just 5 owners accounted for 20% of all evictions filed in multi-family complexes in 2023. Just one owner accounted for. 23 1% of all building code violations in 2024. In addition, 31% of all code compliance visits were counted. Properties owned by 2 owners in the city. So nearly a 3rd. Well, local mom and pop landlords tend to be the least responsible for building code violations and evictions. So really a core component of this is not just not landlords are disproportionately. There are some corporate landlords are disproportionately responsible for this harm, but they are not local landlords. They are people who come from outside of the community extract wealth from the community. They use tactics like eviction as a means of profit accumulation and they don't support the community like a local and what. And these are just some sources. You guys will also have that on your hands out. If you want to look more into those. Excellent and we have a lot of people who present off and they drone on and on and on. He gave us like really good information really fast. So I appreciate it. >> I know that I've got a question or 2, One of them is the if you go to like the registry self, how did you put that registry like? How did you find that in? >> Yes, thank you. I want to touch more on that. Bus Ghosh talking. It's hard when you're sick. So >> Lillard Registry is not infectious. Just not a knife actions not start of the cold is just getting to meal. >> So the leather go. Tree's base comes from the property appraiser's office so you can go on to the property appraiser's office and the search for all properties units by property type. So we started out as a base. We combined that data with evictions data that was provided to us by the shipper. Us should center for housing studies. They get all their data from the circuit court and the building code violations came from our local could complex office, which they've graciously joins. I didn't get a set and then other data like subsidies. All of that information came from hud came from the j j came from. Several different sources. We also with property management. We got that information from sources like apartments com, but private companies. That's mainly the sources we used. >> That's r I do have a few more questions. But other any other questions that folks have. I am so so. One of the things I think some people would say about Jacksonville about northeast Florida in general allow it to the detection cheaper to live here. The cost of living in Jacksonville is still much better than other other cities, places throughout the Southeast, United States and throughout the United States as a whole. This data kind of suggests that actually no, there is a lot of cost burdens like what? What were some of the narrative coming from? Perhaps maybe maybe you have an answer that if you get one. >> Yeah. If you look at the rent just alone, comparing Miami to Jacksonville, for example, Miami has for higher median rents, but they also have higher incomes. And also I think the big component that is unique about Jacksonville is how high are odds against the eviction capital of the state. So because we are pricing people out and we have a lower median income, even though our rents are relatively lower to, you know, living in Miami because evictions are so prominent here we are at a higher risk of displacement. The other metro areas are next. >> Now it's just kind of again, I know a lot of people say that, you know, I'm from the northeast that. Everything so much cheaper here. This data suggest kind of other any other questions or concerns question. I just wanted to make quick comment. Katie mentioned. High percentage of out of town landlords. These are not people who live in the community like a mom and pop that MAY own 2 or 3 rental. >> Properties. I would also note and Suzanne Scott. Checked in just a second. But I would also note that as that words disproportionately don't participate in the city's only diction diversion program. So these out of towners, they're using the statutes to run people in and out and raise rents potentially. But in addition to being out of towners, they're also not good neighbors. They're not even participating. High extent are not participating. Cities. >> Yeah. You what I've looked at a lot of mission statements from corporate landlords property management companies is that a lot of out of state. The corporal, come in a few evictions as a natural part of the prophet accumulation strategy. So it is actually more profitable for them to take these people to court and a victim rather than participating in something like the tax eviction diversion program, which we have in town or trying to work out a payment plan with the tenant. It's simply more profitable for them to just pick the tenant. >> And I got to say the 41% of households being rental units seems. Incredibly high. I don't know what the averages for a county, but I assume for city of our size, 41% seems ridiculously high. And I envision if we go neighborhood by neighborhood, it might even be higher and that that is that is genuinely a major concern of mine. I have a lot of >> old >> neighborhoods in my district and that would be something I'd be very interested to see more on. But is that is that number very high right now or is that pretty pretty normal whether be in Florida or in southeastern United States are? >> 41% is pretty high road. The Florida so overall about 32%. Renters in the entire state. So we are more of the rental even compared to other Florida Metro as we are one of the highest in terms of the portion of rental households. >> And I'll add to that to There we go to Katie's point that number's growing. You can track the acs since a static cetera, that 41% actually growing the rentals. Those who are renters. Because, you know, obviously with the housing market surge that we had a 21. 22 after covid home prices went through the roof and they stabilized, but they never really went back down. So a lot of folks who might've been able to afford their single family home, you know, a few years ago were priced out of that market. Now they're looking for rent to go into rentals because that's what they can afford now. But ultimately it's about supplies, well-worn oversaturated market when it comes to market rate right now. So that's why you're seeing some of these reports about rents are going down slightly going down because some of the market rate, you know, landlords development properties, they're actually lowering their rents a little bit, too, at affordability or 2, be able to get everybody into their, you know, a rental units. So it's not necessarily necessarily coming down because, you know, they're going to continue to go down. They're going down because we're oversaturated market rate housing and we don't have enough supply on the back end for 30%. Am I 50%? Am I the National Low Income Housing Coalition said last year we only had 30 units available for every 100 households that need it at 30%. And-32,000 dollars a year, 50% am I? We only have 39 units available for every 100 households that need it. That's about $42,000. Income a year for a single individual. Whereas if you're making 100% and my which is workforce housing, we have 100 units for every 100 households that need it. We're still going build workforce housing because we're adding 17,000 people a year, but it shows we're much better shape on the workforce housing side. But we're struggling 80% or lower. And my and really the new affordability level as council inclusive has said multiple times really starts at 60%. Am I are lower now? Eyes the area median income. To measurement of what the first Coast community makes and then hide in the states puts specific numbers in terms of if you're making 30%, am I you make about 32,000 a so? The area median income. We were intending to just because we got a few more presentations. I I we is going to be a long meeting, I think and I do want to get directly in the next play lead before we kind of died in public comment stuff. >> Go ahead. >> We're going to be talking about evictions and housing destabilization and how they're closely aligned with poor conditions in rental housing. What we see ads, lawyers here in the community and Ji-Man Steven, please jump in. >> you want to. Next slide, please. 50% of my time as a lawyer at legal aid is spent investigating enforcing fair housing laws. But the other 50% of my time is spent housing law, including coordinating what we call the eviction develop. Defense self-help project and what that project does not only helps people with eviction defense. Also helps individuals who are trying to get conditions bettered in their apartments and their units. And so that's what what we do. What we find is that. As I mentioned, evictions and conditions are very closely interst intertwined and interspersed with each other. As you see here, Florida is considered one of the most landlord friendly states in the country. And I'm gonna explain what that means. And you can see the citation there is from roof stocking. If anybody knows what restock is, it's basically Is an investment organization and they have they build their portfolio by engaging absentee landlords. Try to maximize profit for those landlords and ultimately for themselves. We've also had local but local investors say what makes Jacksonville different is that it's home to the perfect combination of low home prices. High rental rates and high property appreciation. So investing here is appealing. So there really is a push by many investment firms try and get folks to invest in la Times. Single-family rentals or multi families the Jacksonville area. You can go back, please. Other jurisdictions do not have the same sort of 10 and unfriendly laws. There's legislation in jurisdictions. Actually guarantee the right to a safe and habitable home. And if you don't provide that as a landlord, you can be sued for triple damages. And attorneys fees. There's also stringent laws about security deposits in the limits on those. There are laws in the books, statutes in other states that basically say that if you don't meet your responsibility as a landlord. You are violating the consumer protection statutes of those states. We don't have that here in Florida. What we have is a very short window. If somebody is not paying their rent. And we'll talk a little bit more about what that means and why they get a 3 day notice. And if they don't cure pay the amount that the landlord alleges and rent by the end of that three-day period, then the landlord has a right to file the eviction and theoretically the only defense to that eviction of nonpayment is that the money was paid. It's also a very short time frame to respond to those. There's a once you get served as a tenant to an eviction with an eviction complaint. You have 5 days to respond. 5 days. That's it from the time you're notified. You also have to put the entire amount that the landlord alleges rent into the court registry. If you don't do that, you don't have a chance to present defenses, though. You MAY have them to the judge. You will immediately or or shortly thereafter get defaulted because the law says if you don't do these 2 steps, the landlord is entitled to it. For a quick says and that deals with with Katie was talking about for why we're so attractive for. >> Investor landlords, we have a very highs says going to come second very high rate of investor landlords in Florida. The reason why it's so cheat is because it can take less than 3 weeks service of that first three-day notice to a sheriff being at your door and standing by while the Tenet is removed. This is even as Suzanne's going to make clear in second, even there are. Habitable conditions are inhabitable conditions in the rental property. Even covid forces actively citing landlord. Florida's law intersects with that reality, you know, very fast way. Not a problem. Next slide. Please. >> This is just a little bit more of what Katie was talking about. And these are evictions and it's a heat map that basically shows that the urban core, unsurprisingly, perhaps is a place where evictions are happening in much larger numbers than other communities. Next slide. Please. There's also this is from the Eviction lab website. There are eviction hotspots and this this points up. The corporate investors who are in multi-family properties and large buildings and owners of those large buildings are basically responsible for a 3rd of all the evictions that are out there. Next slide. Please. Evictions are. Affecting the families as a whole their effect. They're tied to destabilize and communities and there's higher higher and poor of poor bad outcomes as a result of evictions, including infant mortality, poor performance at school. This is all on the eviction lab website. And eviction filing also remains on people's records, literally forever. On the rental record, you can't get rid of it and that's whether you win or lose. It doesn't matter the fact that addiction was filed against you. It's going to remain on your record for the rest of time. Essentially. What's important here is that there are tenants who have defenses like that conditions in their apartments. And that's how this all intertwines is there. Individuals who have gone through the correct process? It's a statutory statutory process, like like some things are and it tells you exactly what you have to do to make a complaint. Your landlord and lawfully withhold your rent. There's a way to do it to make sure that you can try to get your conditions fixed. You can also call municipal code compliance. But when you use the courts, you have to use the 7 day notice. What happens is that landlords still file evictions, whether it was lawfully the money was lawfully withheld by their tenant or not. They will also file evictions in retaliation for these complaints. So regardless of whether you're doing all right, as a tenant, you still have that eviction on your record. Next slide. Please. Goes back to what Katie was saying. They were multi-family owners and they're also single family. Rentals that are part of this whole investor process. This is sort of part 2. There's a large complex is. And then there the large investor portfolios that I started to speak about before. Art. Single-family renters single-family. Homes and the property managers and and large investment owners file these evictions in great numbers. And again, according to Katie's numbers, because these this is from her organizations. Good work. And another top of the top 3 eviction filers in 2022. Based on her data and Barrick's data for corporate investors with single-family homes, the top 3. So that it's besides these other buildings where evictions are happening. And that's just >> Ahsan that last sentence for just a second. This is something also that the city runs into when they're trying to cite the landlord. This is something tenant run into. >> We have more and more rental offices that are empty. >> The tenant is responding only portal. And they're paying on the portal. They're making complaints about a condition in the apartment in the portal and the portal in some of these situations can electronically lock their doors. So we have situations where the tenant is complaining about a condition. Code enforcement can't find the landlord to give the citation too. The tenant for Aupperlee with holes and the landlord electronically locks them out all from not here. Next slide. Please. >> Basically, this is just what what Jim was saying. You know, tenants have a right to do something. Whether it's calling code compliance and and orbit and issuing a seven-day notice. The seven-day notice can't go to somebody because there's nobody receiving it at the corporate end. Nothing gets done and either they continue to live in these bad conditions. >> Or worse, things happen like evictions and lockouts. >> And this is the big disconnect that I think brings us lawyers to today. Right? This is the big thing that are so worried about. The worst. The condition is. A tree falls through your roof. You have a complete failure of your plumbing. You have a complete failure of your electricity, maybe because it wasn't permitted the most disastrous thing you can imagine to your housing. And you come into and we help you give the seven-day notice. Basically, please take that Rihanna, my living room, please fix my plumbing. Please turn the electricity back on. Please turn the water back on. I'm giving you this notice on the 8th day I'm gonna leave. I'm going create miley's. I would've fully with my family at that point. Code enforcement here and elsewhere. This is not a Jacksonville issue. Code enforcement has been frantically trying to find your landlord to tell them. They don't have water. They don't have plumbing. There's a tree in the roof. You flee with your family and code enforcement closes the file. Because they no longer maybe they never had access to the rental unit to even do the initial inspection. They could see the roof. They can tell that there's no water to the entire complex, whatever it is. So the worst, the condition is. >> The more likely the next 10. It isn't going to know about. >> And that has been our discussion is lawyers for why registries, where tenants can see the condition of their perspective. Housing before they at are perhaps more critical in Florida than elsewhere. And as we know from our very high percentage of renters potentially more Kirklin Jacksonville. But elsewhere in Florida, this is the big disconnect. We re