The legislature finds that the lack of sufficient affordable housing inventory, specifically rental housing, is deeply felt statewide. The legislature also finds that despite the administration of numerous local rental property registration and landlord licensing programs, it is difficult to accurately track housing inventory and understand the extent of affordable housing need and housing supply shortages on a statewide scale. To accurately track and maintain the level of rental and vacant housing in this state, the legislature intends with this act to convene a work group to evaluate the feasibility of creating a statewide rental and vacant property registration program and database.
The department of commerce must convene a work group to make recommendations on the creation of a statewide rental and vacant property registration program for the purpose of inventorying both tenant-occupied and potentially available rental housing.
The work group must include relevant stakeholders including, but not limited to, tenant representatives, landlord and property management representatives, multifamily housing representatives, housing developer representatives, and representatives from cities and counties.
The work group must meet at least three times and evaluate the following:
Current local rental property registration and landlord licensing programs and strategies to synthesize and collect registration information from such programs into a statewide database, while addressing any information technology challenges;
Which property and landlord information should be collected and made disclosable in such a database;
The need to implement a rental and vacant property registration requirement over time and across specific state regions, and challenges in both identifying housing units and providing adequate notice to rental and vacant property owners subject to a registration requirement;
The imposition of registration or licensing fees and fee amounts, use of fee revenue, and appropriate penalties;
Which types of housing units should be exempted from a statewide registration requirement;
The use of a statewide registration program database to provide rental assistance program information to both tenants and landlords;
The feasibility of requiring landlords to report rent rate data as part of such a registration program; and
Any other relevant factors or considerations discussed by the work group.
The department of commerce must issue a final report, including any work group findings and recommendations, to the appropriate committees of the legislature by December 1, 2022.
This section expires January 1, 2023.