Ashley Rodriguez loves living in Atlanta’s Summerhill neighborhood. Her two children can play in nearby parks, she can walk to her favorite restaurants, and it feels pretty safe.

“The people that live here are great too, and the schools are also good,” she said. “If I had my way, I wouldn’t leave.”

But because she’s renting her home, she may not be able to stay. Since 2019, her rent has increased by more than 25%, from $1,995 to $2,500. Her limit is $2,600 before she’ll have to move.

Skyrocketing rents have made it nearly impossible for people of middle-class incomes to live in Atlanta, a problem exacerbated by hedge funds and private equity groups that snatched up single-family homes as investment properties in the city and across the nation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It leaves people like Rodriguez paying more in rent even though, she said, the home has had no upgrades in the last six years, and paint is peeling.

Rodriguez’s next door neighbor, Georgia state Rep. Phil Olaleye, is trying to do something about that. He’s part of a bipartisan group of lawmakers attempting to address the problem of housing access and affordability in Georgia.

Olaleye, fellow Democratic state Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver of Decatur, and Republican state Reps. Martin Momtahan of Dallas and Derrick McCollum of Chestnut Mountain have filed legislation seeking to curb out-of-state hedge funds that have bought up real estate which, they say, deprives Georgia residents from pursuing homeownership.

“How does it benefit Georgians to have thousands of homes in the hands of out-of-state actors who don’t live here, who don’t work here, who don’t attend church here, whose kids don’t attend local schools here, who have very little skin in the game?” Olaleye said.

Luci Ruiz of Georgia Appleseed Center for Law & Justice, a nonprofit organization focused on supporting low-income families, said Georgia is ground zero for out-of-state investment.

“We are very excited to see that both sides of the aisle are spearheading this effort,” to address housing affordability, she said.

Rodriguez said she would like to purchase a home in Summerhill, which is south of downtown Atlanta. But the prices are around $700,000 and mortgage rates are hovering just under 7%. For these hedge fund and private equity companies, $700,000 is nothing, Olaleye said.

“These out-of-state entities can move at a speed and operate at a scale that no individual can compete with,” he said. “You don’t stand a chance.”

Olaleye’s bill, which he dubbed “Protect the Dream Act,” would prohibit hedge funds — organizations that manage pooled funds from investors — from acquiring single-family homes. McCollum’s bill would prevent any corporation, limited liability company, trust or other private legal entity from owning more than 2,000 single-family residential properties.

“Drastic times call for drastic measures,” McCollum said. “We shouldn’t be taking away the American dream.”

Neither Olaleye’s nor McCollum’s bill reached a vote in the House chamber, but House Bill 399, sponsored by Oliver did and passed overwhelmingly 163-4.

That bill would require any landlord who isn’t a resident of Georgia and owns 25 or more single-family homes to ensure there is a local agent available to receive complaints from tenants. Although it wouldn’t directly address affordability, Oliver said it’s “a small step” to hold these companies accountable to local residents.

“The issue of accountability of out-of-state investors is of growing significance in our state,” she told her House colleagues.

There are seven entities that own more than 51,000 single-family homes in Georgia, Oliver said, according to data from the Atlanta Regional Commission. Gwinnett County, she said, is the No. 1 county in Georgia for acquisition, and in Oliver’s legislative district, more than 1,000 homes are owned by out-of-state investors.

“If you are a young family looking to purchase a home, these investors are taking assets out of Georgia,” Oliver said. “They’re making a profit on the rents charged. They’re making a profit on the acceleration of values. And that profit is not being enjoyed by Georgia families.”

The Georgia General Assembly has been slow to enact legislation to protect rising rent and mortgage prices. But last year, lawmakers took a step toward protecting tenants by passing a bill setting standards for people living in neglected rental homes. The legislation came after an investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that showed tens of thousands of metro area renters living in perilous conditions while apartment owners flipped the properties for millions more than they purchased them.

Rodriguez said what would help her the most is a limit on the amount landlords can increase rents per year.

“There needs to be specific bills that protect renters from crappy landlords. I think the biggest piece that we’re missing right now is the rent cap,” she said.

None of these bills do that, and it’s unclear whether the Legislature has the appetite to do so, but Rodriguez said she’s happy to see some policy action on housing.

©2025 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Visit at ajc.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.