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What a TERRIBLE idea.
We need a vast expansion of subsidies to construct high-density, cheap housing and transfer payments to help low-income people afford rent. But rent control is universally viewed as a failure by economists — you can't make housing cheaper just by saying so.
We need a vast expansion of subsidies to construct high-density, cheap housing and transfer payments to help low-income people afford rent. But rent control is universally viewed as a failure by economists — you can't make housing cheaper just by saying so.
Study after study has shown that rent control doesn't make housing more affordable. It cuts investment in both new housing stock, which makes housing more expensive, and in maintaining old housing stock, which degrades the quality of housing for people in controlled units.
The only benefit to rent control is that in certain circumstances, it prevents gentrification and keeps developers from razing diverse neighborhoods, by killing the ROI for it.
But that is obviously a very local, case by case effect. It should not be a blanket nationwide rule.
But that is obviously a very local, case by case effect. It should not be a blanket nationwide rule.
