Residents urge action on evictions and warn about concentration of corporate landlords

Public comment at the Tempe City Council work study session featured two virtual speakers who focused on housing stability and market concentration in rental housing.

Finn Howe, who identified himself as a Tempe resident, said he supported creating a tenants and rental-properties subcommittee and cited the city's housing analysis showing a 25% increase in real median gross rent from 2012 to 2022. "Our city's eviction numbers are at record levels," he said, urging the council to explore tenant protections such as right to counsel and eviction moratoria. Kobe Preston, who said he will soon be a Tempe resident and described recent landlord problems during law school, criticized large property-management companies and said he hoped the subcommittee's policies could "prevent [Greystar] from monopolizing all of our housing." Both speakers framed their remarks as personal views and requested council action to address affordability and tenant protections.

The council proceeded to form a tenants subcommittee later in the agenda. The commenters' submissions reinforced the council's rationale for studying rent-stabilization and tenant-right-to-counsel options, but no formal policy was adopted during the meeting.