Mitigating Displacement from Green Gentrification: Examining the Role of Housing-Cost Control Measures

As discussed in earlier chapters, the most common recommendations for reducing the likelihood of gentrification with displacement involve some type of housing-cost control. Some methods of such control involve preventing or reducing the rapid rise of property taxes and/or rent. And 16 US states, plus Washington, DC, currently have some such type of control, most commonly for homeowners, while more than 30 states forbid at least some controls—disallowing rent controls, for example is common. In this chapter, we review the empirical situation of such rent regulations, tax caps, and circuit-breakers, and then we perform Agent-Based Modeling (ABM) analysis to understand their effects in reducing green gentrification and displacement. The findings indicate two main themes: First, virtually any policy effort, whether using a just green enough (JGE) approach or implementing any combination of property tax caps or rent caps, results in less harmful displacement effects than simply following an environmentally focused green intervention.