Preemption of Equitable Housing Policies
This is the latest in a series of LSSC toolkits aimed at providing a one-stop-shop for all of the messaging, media, legal, and research resources associated with individual issue areas that are commonly preempted. Click here to view them all.
This document was last updated in April 2022.
Messaging 101
Housing is a basic human need. No matter who you are or what’s in your wallet, everyone needs a safe, stable, and sustainable place to live.
Unfortunately, our nation was confronting an affordable housing crisis long before COVID-19. But as the pandemic took hold, unemployment spiked and many workers saw their incomes vanish. The result? Millions of hardworking Americans were unable to pay their rent or mortgage.
Many cities stepped up to protect their residents during the unprecedented public health and economic crises by enacting local policies to slow or delay evictions so that people could remain in their homes.
Unfortunately, the volume of housing preemption that occurred in the years before the pandemic left many local governments unable to respond to the ongoing public health crisis and uneven economic recovery.
The harm of previously adopted policies that undermine local regulation of landlord and tenant relationships; preempt rent control; leave tenants who receive Section 8 assistance vulnerable to discrimination; and block equitable housing policies meant to increase access to affordable housing, such as inclusionary zoning are now being amplified across communities.
These types of bills disproportionately harm workers in low-wage industries, immigrants, and BIPOC communities.
Media Examples
State preemption laws complicate Southern cities' affordable housing efforts | Facing South, 10/17/19
Red State Governments Ban Blue Cities from Passing Bills to Make Housing Affordable | Pacific Standard, 7/23/19
Legal Resources
Model Local Tenant Protection Ordinance | Local Solutions Support Center, February 2022
CDC Eviction Halt Order 2.0: Advocates’ Primer | National Housing Law Project, August 2021
Research Resources
2021: A Session Like No Other | Local Solutions Support Center, July 2021