Tiny homes may be one solution for Orange County’s housing crisis

As evictions soared in 2022, commissioners listened to citizens’ pleas for relief and responded by putting a rent stabilization measure on the November ballot to impose a one-year cap on rent hikes. It won 59% of votes cast despite a million-dollar ad campaign against it. But landlord groups who couldn’t win the election sued to stop the rule from taking effect.

Lawyers for Orange County filed an appeal Dec. 9 with the Florida Supreme Court. If the appeal fails, county taxpayers could end up paying the landlord groups’ lawyer fees. The county’s allies include the National Housing Law Project, Florida Rising, Central Florida Jobs With Justice and Hablamos Español, which asked the state’s high court last week to let them weigh in on behalf of rent-burdened residents.