Essay on Rent Control in the US

World War II brought yet another housing crisis to many of America's cities, and this time the federal government stepped in passing emergency laws putting a ceiling on rents in many large cities. Despite requests by the tenants' friend, Mayor LaGuardia, New York was initially not qualified under these laws as its vacancy rate was too high (Dolan, 1984).

During the early 40s, tenants' issues also had their first major impact on political campaigns, and AFL and CIO forces took over tenant advocacy, eventually getting the federal government to include New York as a "War Rental Area."
Since it was first implemented, rent control has never really left New York City as tenant, civil rights, and labor organizations have used the power of a large voting population to affect local and statewide elections and local policies. In recent years, rent control laws which were slated to expire in the City were renewed once again due to extreme political pressure from a population still benefiting from them (Fallis, 1988).

In recent years, as housing shortages and renter populations have have grown, rent control systems have sprung up in Massachusetts (which has since outlawed rent control), New Jersey, Maryland, Washington D.C., Connecticut, and California (where it exists in some form in almost all the cities of the "high-rent" Silicon Valley
How does rent control work? Well, there are almost as many answers to that question as there are cities with rent control. There are, however, two major types of rent control in the United States: "true" rent control, and some form of vacancy decontrol.

Rent control (which is often called "rent levelling" or "rent stabilization") almost always means the institution of some elected and/or appointed board which oversees compliance with the laws, sets accepted rent levels, and acts as the first arbiter of disputes. Rent control also often brings with it restrictive regulations on the eviction of tenants..................

ESSAY ON THE AMERICAS