(The Center Square) – High interest rates and a shortage of available residences have forced some families to rent, but some lawmakers say the rental market is also putting a strain on family budgets.

The 2024 Housing Impact report from the Georgia Department of Community Affairs said housing challenges affect 592,000 Georgians and renters face the brunt of those challenges. The state is also facing a shortage in rental homes, due in part to the state’s population growth from 5 million in 1980 to 11 million today. 

For Georgians who earn less than 30% of their area’s median income, there are fewer than 170,000 affordable rental units available for 300,000 households, the report said.

James Burling, vice president for legal affairs with the Pacific Legal Foundation and author of “Nowhere to Live: The Hidden Story of America’s Housing Crisis,” said the housing shortage is a nationwide issue.

“We’re roughly around two million to 20 million, depending on who you ask, homes short in this country and we used to build on a per capita, per year basis a lot more than we’re building now,” Burling said in an interview with The Center Square. “We’re building fewer homes today than we were building in the 90s and our population has gone from 200 to close to 350 million people.”

A relatively new form of rental, build-to-rent houses, is also drawing attention, mainly on the local level. The developments are houses, not apartments, that present a new option for families.

“Large corporations have the capital they they can put into building these homes,” Burling said. “They may not be making a huge amount of money on renting them but on the appreciation, because every year the houses become more and more expensive because of laws of supply and demand, they’re making their money through appreciation more than they are through rent.”

A January report from Point2Homes shows that the Atlanta area has more than 6,800 build-to-rent homes in the pipeline, the third-highest number among metro areas.

But the build-to-rent communities have not been welcome everywhere in Georgia with opposition to the developments going as far back as 2022, according to a report from Mercatus Center of George Mason University. Some counties banned build-to-rent and others put limitations on them.

The Douglas County Planning and Zoning Board will hear a request on June 3 for a new build-to-rent development that has stirred up nearby residents, according to a story on Fox5 Atlanta.

“It’s going to bring our property value down,” Alonzo Hunter told the television station. “Here in 30135, we have no apartments. People chose this community for that reason.”

The fear of the unknown may be behind some of the policies and concerns over build-to-rent homes, according to Burling.

“I don’t think they understand how the market works and it’s something new and novel and so naturally they’re a little afraid of it,” Burling said. “They see ‘corporations are going to take over everything and that would be a bad thing,’ well not really if they allow more home building to be built in the first place and got rid of some of the exclusionary zoning, there’s probably be less of a demand for that.”

Burling said he thinks the battle over build-to-rent could end up in the courts.

“Because the right to use one’s property is important and the property rights of the people being restricted and the ability of building a home and renting it out, it seems to be extreme,” Burling said. “So it’s an infringement on people’s property rights.”

U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., is blaming large corporations in the Peach State for higher rent costs. He pointed to a May 2024 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office that shows 25% of rental homes in metro Atlanta are owned by large companies.

“The very same families who are priced out of the housing market because it is so dominated by these large, out-of-state corporations are forced to rent from these same companies who in some neighborhoods own more than 90% of single-family rental homes,” Ossoff said in a video posted on X.

Ossoff said since launching an investigation earlier this month, he has talked to more than 160 witnesses and sources that include reports of abuse by out-of-state landlords. He has also asked for more information from four of the largest corporations that own single-family homes.

State lawmakers also housing legislation in the 2025 General Assembly. Gov. Brian Kemp signed a bipartisan-backed bill last week that requires out-of-state rental property owners to have onsite management. But the General Assembly failed to pass a bill that would have banned corporations from owning more than 2,000 single-family residential properties and more than 10 multifamily residential properties.