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The Portland City Council this week will consider a ban on landlords using artificial-intelligence algorithms to sent rents, a practice that’s been widely criticized as price-fixing.
The ban will get another chance in the spotlight after its champion, Councilor Angelita Morillo, tabled it earlier this year to keep an eye on lawsuit in Berkeley, Calif. over a similar ban.
Morillo and renters’ advocates have said the ban would help keep rents lower, especially in buildings that are managed or owned by large rental companies known for using AI software to set rents, most famously a company called RealPage.
But the proposal rankled housing industry group earlier this year, and is likely to rankle them again now that it’s been resurrected. Last week, the full council discussed the ordinance and heard testimony from members of the public. Representatives from industry groups said the policy would further disincentivize housing production in a city that desperately needs more units. Such groups have also said that the ban could accidentally implicate small landlords and that the financial penalties could financially cripple them. (Morillo and other backers of the ordinance have said small landlords are not frequent users of such software.)
Tyler King, a local realtor, testified to the council in opposition. “Since 2018 we have added regulation after regulation on housing providers to little or no measurable improvement for tenants,” King said. “Every time we add an unnecessary risk, we slow down the very housing production we all say we want.”
Councilor Mitch Green, a member of the council’s progressive caucus alongside Morillo, took issue at some of the criticisms from industry groups.
“The threats that any amount of regulation to protect renters will result in private equity markets doing a capital strike, is something we need to call the question on,” Green said. “I’m not going to tolerate that in this city.”
After questioning from Councilor Dan Ryan (“The last thing this market needs is more regulatory barriers like this one to solidify the narrative that Portland is not interested in development, and not open for business,” Ryan said in his closing remarks), Morillo aimed pointed words at her colleagues who appear poised to vote against the ordinance this week.
“Our office is trying to pass certain policies and I would appreciate it if my colleagues could start focusing on their own work and bringing policies that are going to help us build housing in Portland rather than nitpicking things that I’m working on,” Morillo said. “I can actually walk and chew gum at the same time. If you’re incapable of doing that, that’s not really my concern but it’s certainly Portlanders’ concerns that are voting you in.”
