Regulator, landlords and housing advocates press committee on property-management licensing, habitability and housing affordability

The City, County & Local Affairs Committee on Tuesday heard a broad panel on tenant and landlord issues, including whether Arkansas should create a separate property-management license and how to address habitability and enforcement concerns.

Andrea Alford, executive director of the Arkansas Real Estate Commission, told the committee the commission licenses nearly 16,000 brokers and salespersons and handles a modest number of "workable" complaints — 132 in 2023 — that warrant formal investigation. She said the commission has a recovery fund supported by an initial $25 fee for new licensees and noted the fund has paid out "over $250,000" in property-management claims since 2012, including a Hot Springs Village case that led to awards totaling roughly $175,000 (about $6,000 to tenants and the balance to property owners).

Alford emphasized enforcement limits tied to staffing: AREC has three investigator positions (two investigators and one senior) and struggles to recruit and retain qualified staff because investigator pay starts at lower state-grade levels. She said the Department of Labor and Licensing commissioned a property-management task force that is working on a draft to present for review before the summer.

Mark Burrier of the Landlord Association of Arkansas warned against regulatory steps that could raise costs and reduce supply. Burrier outlined rising operating and replacement costs since 2019 and said over-regulation risks increasing rents: "If we're thinking about doing something that might cause an increase to a cost of anything, please don't." Burrier said his membership includes about 500 landlords managing thousands of units across the state.

Marty North of ACHANGE (Arkansas Coalition of Housing and Neighborhood Growth for Empowerment) framed the problem from the tenant perspective: Arkansas faces supply, affordability and quality issues, and low-income households and "ALICE" families are especially affected. North urged considering eviction-diversion courts and decriminalizing failure to pay rent (which she described as a uniquely penal approach that can lead to arrest in some counties). She also pointed to an unfunded state housing trust fund enabled in 2009 as an option for state-level subsidy.

Members and presenters discussed practical design choices: whether a separate property-management license should apply to people who manage their own units (presenters said it would not), options to grandfather experienced managers, and whether some enforcement matters should be linked to prosecutors when trust funds are misused. AREC said it could improve oversight with additional staff and — under a new licensing track — targeted education and examinations.

The committee did not take legislative action on these items during the session; members repeatedly asked staff to gather comparator data, licensing models from other states, investigator pay information and task-force drafts to inform future bills.