Opinion: Rent Control Works

In an article in Jacobin, Fran Quigley makes the case for rent control as a key tool for pulling the country out of the current housing crisis. “In a nation of 44 million households renting their home, rents in recent years have been rising far faster than wages and faster than overall inflation. This pattern continues a frightening trend: in the first fifteen years of the twenty-first century, median rents increased a whopping 50 percent, adjusted for inflation — even as real household incomes did not increase at all.”

Yet “Rent control opponents often disingenuously refer to rent control as a total freeze on rents, but almost all current rent control programs allow for regular rent increases, often a significant percentage plus an increase that reflects inflation.” Quigley lists a series of false claims made by the landlord lobbyist industry, then debunks them with a dozen arguments that support rent control. From providing fast relief to renters in crisis to increased household and community stability to rent control’s long history of success, Quigley describes how rent control policies help families, the economy, and society as a whole.

Meanwhile, arguments that rent control harms the housing supply have been debunked in multiple studies. In fact, “studies of rent control in New Jersey, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Boston and the Bay Area show no significant impact of rent control on construction rates.”

Quigley also points out that rent control is gaining steam in more cities and states. “At the national level, the People’s Action Homes Guarantee campaign is leading a coalition of 250 organizations calling on the Biden administration to impose rent control on all properties financed by government-backed mortgages, a measure that would apply to one of every four rental units in the country.”