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"You can always outbid someone else for a rental" is both not true and misses the problem that regulation aims to solve. You can only outbid someone if you hav
by DanHulton 4y ago
"You can always outbid someone else for a rental" is both not true and misses the problem that regulation aims to solve.
You can only outbid someone if you have more money than them. The lower on the income scale you are, the less this is an option, until it just stops bring an option at all!
Not to mention, it is drastically unfair and inhumane to consign people to live in the streets simply because they are poor, or simply poorer than the next. Rent control gives a measure of dignity to the poor, and ensures that -- at least a little bit -- when times get hard, we all suffer, the rich renters and the landlords too, not just the poor renters.
- seanmcdirmid 4y agoYes, that’s the crux. Either rentals are market or not. If they are market, then you just need money, but if you lack money you are screwed. If they aren’t market, you are screwed even if you have money, unless you can get in on the non-market rent (you probably won’t). Rent control creates a class of winners in place when rent control is initiated, but any poor or rich person that comes to the city after will be outside of that class and have a very hard time finding housing. The very rich will bypass this by just buying, but everyone else experiences extreme illiquidity (including those who can’t leave their non-market rents for a better job elsewhere).