Rent control is a government program that helps the rich. Okay, there are plenty of government programs that help the rich en route to helping the poor. A standard argument in defense of Social Security is that although it benefits the rich, it at least provides a cushion to the poor. And certainly there are hundreds of little old ladies living on a margin who would be thrown on the streets but for the rent regulations. But even that argument--as questionable as it is in the case of Social Security, given the tremendous waste--cannot be applied to rent controls because the system freezes out thousands of needy. Only a small percentage of tenants in rent regulated housing live near or below the poverty line. Most of the poor live in public housing (half a million) or in areas so run down that rent controls are irrelevant. For that reason The Amsterdam News, New York City's leading black paper, opposes rent control. Rent control locks out the needy by locking out newcomers. The only people who benefit from it are those who have managed to get a lease and then never move again. But it's the poor who lose their leases most frequently. (Paul L. Niebanck, 1985)
Are landlords being hurt by these regulations? Some are, but most find ways of surviving. In short landlords make profits not by providing better services but by decreasing services; not by protecting their property but by destroying it (or standing by idly while tenants destroy it); not by building more apartments but by demolishing them; not by building trust in tenants but by kicking them out on the street.
With the level of inequity that is present in this system, the tax losses it creates for the city, and the probability that.......
